Regional forum on the comprehensive peace process in Zamboanga City. OPAPP Sec. Jesus Dureza (standing), Mayor Celso Lobregat and Bishop Efraim Tendero, Consultative Commision member.Zamboanga rejects inclusion in ‘Bangsamoro State’
text & photo HADER GLANG
text & photo HADER GLANG
Zamboanguenos have strongly rejected the campaign of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for inclusion of Zamboanga City in the coverage of the proposed “Bangsamoro Homeland” and its juridical entity.
This was evident during the consultation Monday, dubbed as the Regional Forum on the Comprehensive Peace Process, conducted by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) with various stakeholders in key cities in Mindanao.
Maintaining that Bangsamoro juridical entity should not have any jurisdiction over the city, Mayor Celso Lobregat said, “We are here to ask once more, leave Zamboanga City alone in peace. The ancestral domain issue is only being used to expand ARMM.”
“We are all Filipinos. We are all Zamboanguenos. We should be united. There should be no move to dismember any part of the city,” he said, and voiced out that the Bangsamoro Homeland will not solve the peace problem in Mindanao but divide further its people.
At the forum, members of the City Council of Zamboanga as well as some political leaders from Isabela City, Basilan and so with Pagadian City and Sibugay Province also voiced their opposition and presented their resolutions to OPAPP Secretary Jesus Dureza.
Vice Mayor Maria Isabelle “Beng” Climaco opened her salvo with a categorical question pointed at Dureza where she asked the peace process presidential adviser if Zamboanga City will be under the MILF.
The business sector of the city also submitted a strong opposition against the inclusion of the city in Bangsamoro juridical entity. The Association of Barangay chairmen of the city led by its president Councilor Abdurahman Nuño also presented a resolution signed by all its members expressing a similar objection.
Congressman Erbie Fabian said that not only Zamboanga City should not be included but also the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Pagadian, Dapitan, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Isabela City.
Dureza accepted all the resolutions and promised that it will be considered when the panel meets again. “The government will consolidate all points from the forums and will be considered by the panel while negotiating peace with the MILF.”
He assured the locals that the government peace talks in Mindanao are open. He tried to ally fears that secret talks are going on between Manila and the MILF, saying: "The government is transparent in the peace talks with the MILF and there is nothing to hide to the people about the peace process.”
Responding to Zamboanga’s opposition, Jun Mantawil, chief of the MILF Peace Panel Secretariat, lambasted Lobregat for being too arrogant by deliberately paying no heed to what is already established by facts of history.
“One cannot undo what history has done already,” he said at the MILF's official website.“The world will not yield to the caprices of those who are ungrateful to the past.”
He said in creating the Moro Province in 1903, Zamboanga which included the present-day Zamboanga City, was not only made a component district but the latter was even made at one time or another its capital.The other districts were Cotabato, Lanao, Sulu, and Davao.
Security was tight at the Zamboanga City Coliseum where the three-hour forum was held.
Mantawil also clarified that the MILF Peace Panel has so far did not come out with any details of the recently-held 11th GRP-MILF Exploratory Talks, saying the two Parties have not finished discussing the finer points of the Ancestral Domain Aspect of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001.
“We only came out with general statement and no details, because the two Parties have ended their talks inconclusively and any statement to this effect is speculative.We have to meet very soon to conclude and come out with a joint statement.”
However, no fixed date for resumption is given, as this would depend largely on the Government of Malaysia being the facilitator of the talks, he clarified.
Over 2,000 participants including representatives from LGUs, civil society organizations, religious sector, IPs organizations and academe in Western Mindanao attended the forum. (ZS)
This was evident during the consultation Monday, dubbed as the Regional Forum on the Comprehensive Peace Process, conducted by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) with various stakeholders in key cities in Mindanao.
Maintaining that Bangsamoro juridical entity should not have any jurisdiction over the city, Mayor Celso Lobregat said, “We are here to ask once more, leave Zamboanga City alone in peace. The ancestral domain issue is only being used to expand ARMM.”
“We are all Filipinos. We are all Zamboanguenos. We should be united. There should be no move to dismember any part of the city,” he said, and voiced out that the Bangsamoro Homeland will not solve the peace problem in Mindanao but divide further its people.
At the forum, members of the City Council of Zamboanga as well as some political leaders from Isabela City, Basilan and so with Pagadian City and Sibugay Province also voiced their opposition and presented their resolutions to OPAPP Secretary Jesus Dureza.
Vice Mayor Maria Isabelle “Beng” Climaco opened her salvo with a categorical question pointed at Dureza where she asked the peace process presidential adviser if Zamboanga City will be under the MILF.
The business sector of the city also submitted a strong opposition against the inclusion of the city in Bangsamoro juridical entity. The Association of Barangay chairmen of the city led by its president Councilor Abdurahman Nuño also presented a resolution signed by all its members expressing a similar objection.
Congressman Erbie Fabian said that not only Zamboanga City should not be included but also the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Pagadian, Dapitan, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Isabela City.
Dureza accepted all the resolutions and promised that it will be considered when the panel meets again. “The government will consolidate all points from the forums and will be considered by the panel while negotiating peace with the MILF.”
He assured the locals that the government peace talks in Mindanao are open. He tried to ally fears that secret talks are going on between Manila and the MILF, saying: "The government is transparent in the peace talks with the MILF and there is nothing to hide to the people about the peace process.”
Responding to Zamboanga’s opposition, Jun Mantawil, chief of the MILF Peace Panel Secretariat, lambasted Lobregat for being too arrogant by deliberately paying no heed to what is already established by facts of history.
“One cannot undo what history has done already,” he said at the MILF's official website.“The world will not yield to the caprices of those who are ungrateful to the past.”
He said in creating the Moro Province in 1903, Zamboanga which included the present-day Zamboanga City, was not only made a component district but the latter was even made at one time or another its capital.The other districts were Cotabato, Lanao, Sulu, and Davao.
Security was tight at the Zamboanga City Coliseum where the three-hour forum was held.
Mantawil also clarified that the MILF Peace Panel has so far did not come out with any details of the recently-held 11th GRP-MILF Exploratory Talks, saying the two Parties have not finished discussing the finer points of the Ancestral Domain Aspect of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001.
“We only came out with general statement and no details, because the two Parties have ended their talks inconclusively and any statement to this effect is speculative.We have to meet very soon to conclude and come out with a joint statement.”
However, no fixed date for resumption is given, as this would depend largely on the Government of Malaysia being the facilitator of the talks, he clarified.
Over 2,000 participants including representatives from LGUs, civil society organizations, religious sector, IPs organizations and academe in Western Mindanao attended the forum. (ZS)
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