MANILA: Signaling a change in approach, President Macapagal-Arroyo now appears convinced that giving peace advocates outside government a pivotal role in the peace process with the separatist Moro rebels could be key to achieving lasting peace in the troubled south.
During the state banquet she hosted on Friday for the visiting Kuwaiti prime minister, President Arroyo said she wanted nongovernment organizations to spearhead peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. “Yes, there are political dynamics. We are working to sort them out,” Arroyo told Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and select Kuwaiti ministers who arrived in Manila for a daylong official visit.
“The government will assume a supporting role and let non-government organizations... spearhead the discussions for the problematic concerns. We want to end the conflict that clearly claimed more than 120,000 lives,” said the president.
Arroyo said the Kuwaiti leader’s presence was a “boost to bring about long-lasting peace in Mindanao, just as our brothers in the Middle East look forward to a long-lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Arroyo’s mention in her speech of the new role of the NGOs in ending the rebellion of the Moros raised several questions, to wit: the extent of powers to be given to the NGOs and whether it would mean that the government panel was now amenable to a renegotiation of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
The high court stopped the signing of the MOA set for Aug. 5 in Malaysia after local officials in Mindanao claimed that they had not bee consulted by the peace panel during the crafting of the MOA-AD.
In separate phone interviews with the Inquirer, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio denied that the president had already abandoned the MOA-AD amid the furor over the inclusion of several provinces and cities without ample consultations with affected residents.
“It’s nothing more than saying that NGOs should participate. Don’t leave everything to government,” said Ermita, pointing out that some Mindanao leaders have been criticizing government for lack of adequate consultation.
Asked which NGOs in Mindanao were being eyed, Ermita mentioned at least two — the Christian-Muslim for Peace and the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy of Amina Rasul-Bernardo.
Ermita said rumors about renegotiating the MOA-AD could have not have emanated from the Palace. “We can’t make a move unless the Supreme Court makes a decision on the temporary restraining order (TRO). We have to await the final action of the SC,” he said, noting that Solicitor General Agnes Devandera was scheduled to argue the government’s position on August 22.
“Will the Supreme Court lift the TRO? What will be its order?” he said.
Ermita explained that that government was expected to think of different scenarios. “But this (back-up plan) is hardly being considered right now,” lest the Supreme Court think “it is the thinking of government planners.”
Meanwhile, Two Philippine marines were killed in an ambush yesterday on a southern Philippine island, a military spokesman said.
The two men, who were intelligence operatives, were passing through a village outside Panamao town on Jolo island when their motorcycle broke down, navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said. They were attacked by Abu Sayyaf gunmen after they stopped to fix the motorcycle, he said.
Arevalo said the leader of the gunmen wanted to avenge the recent arrest by Philippine marines of his brother, who is also a member of the group.
A Palace official, who was not authorized to speak about the MOA, said the government was mulling the creation of a Council of Elders which will advise the panel in talks with the MILF.
