GRP peace panel dissolution draws mixed reactions
Various leaders voiced mixed reactions Wednesday to the dissolution of the government’s peace panel. While the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it is normal, others said the era of peace talks is over.
MindaNews website reported quoting Guiamel Alim, executive director of the Consortium for Bangsamoro Civil Society, saying that they made the panel pay for government’s weaknesses and insincerity.
“It also means the government is ready to run after the MILF. It also means the International Monitoring Team (IMT) should go home. Mechanism on the ground is dead. What a loss,” Alim said.
MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said that the dissolution of the peace panel is “normal” in any negotiating process and that it is the government’s privilege to do so.
“Well, that is normal in any negotiation, you can change your panel as you wish and it is internal to the government and that is their privilege, they can do that anytime they want,” Iqbal said.
Amina Rasul, executive director of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, expressed disappointment and alarm at the dissolution of the GRP peace panel, saying that it is a move that destabilizes an already unstable situation in Mindanao.
“I fear that the MILF will take this as the final evidence of the Arroyo administration’s insincerity in the peace process. The hawks seem to have won and a military option will be this government’s strategic response. Peace is lost. I pray that I am wrong,” she said.
Abhoud Syed Lingga, executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, said government is “undoing what has been achieved in the 11 years of peace negotiations.”
Lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, secretary-general of the Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus, said “the issue here is not the composition of the peace panel. Whoever sits, they will surely fail if government itself has no clear position on how to resolve the Mindanao armed conflict.”
She said “the situation clearly demands a political settlement and the question is how ready are we to give way to viable political options and formula. change is inevitable — these politicians can only prolong the changes to protect their own interests — but they could never stop it.
Zamboanga City 1st District Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco, in a report by ABS-CBN, said the dissolution of the government’s peace panel for the MILF is a welcome development.
Climaco said this kind of announcement would signal the start of a true peace process and negotiations with the people who are really affected in the areas, to really go down to the stakeholders.
“This would give us an opportunity to really get down to listening and consulting the people,” she said.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita formally announced Wednesday that the government would be forming a new government peace panel with the MILF.
He said the decision to dissolve the peace panel was arrived at during a national security cluster Cabinet meeting in Nueva Ecija on Tuesday.
The dissolution of the peace panel, headed by Ret. Gen. Rodolfo Rodolfo Garcia, was “effective immediately,” he said. “All mechanisms within the peace process are in place, the ceasefire agreement will be maintained.”
The new peace panel will pursue talks consistent with President Arroyo’s new peace policy where disarming, disbandment, and reintegration of armed rebel forces will be “front loaded” in the negotiations.
The new approach to the peace talks will be followed not just by the peace panel with the MILF but also the other government peace panels talking peace with Communist rebels and other armed groups.
President Arroyo has also ordered Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to review all existing peace initiatives of the government, including the stalled talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The decision to scrap the peace panel and to adopt a new peace strategy was made in response to the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor General and the issues raised by Supreme Court justices in the hearings on the MOA-AD.
Various leaders voiced mixed reactions Wednesday to the dissolution of the government’s peace panel. While the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it is normal, others said the era of peace talks is over.
MindaNews website reported quoting Guiamel Alim, executive director of the Consortium for Bangsamoro Civil Society, saying that they made the panel pay for government’s weaknesses and insincerity.
“It also means the government is ready to run after the MILF. It also means the International Monitoring Team (IMT) should go home. Mechanism on the ground is dead. What a loss,” Alim said.
MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said that the dissolution of the peace panel is “normal” in any negotiating process and that it is the government’s privilege to do so.
“Well, that is normal in any negotiation, you can change your panel as you wish and it is internal to the government and that is their privilege, they can do that anytime they want,” Iqbal said.
Amina Rasul, executive director of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, expressed disappointment and alarm at the dissolution of the GRP peace panel, saying that it is a move that destabilizes an already unstable situation in Mindanao.
“I fear that the MILF will take this as the final evidence of the Arroyo administration’s insincerity in the peace process. The hawks seem to have won and a military option will be this government’s strategic response. Peace is lost. I pray that I am wrong,” she said.
Abhoud Syed Lingga, executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, said government is “undoing what has been achieved in the 11 years of peace negotiations.”
Lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, secretary-general of the Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus, said “the issue here is not the composition of the peace panel. Whoever sits, they will surely fail if government itself has no clear position on how to resolve the Mindanao armed conflict.”
She said “the situation clearly demands a political settlement and the question is how ready are we to give way to viable political options and formula. change is inevitable — these politicians can only prolong the changes to protect their own interests — but they could never stop it.
Zamboanga City 1st District Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco, in a report by ABS-CBN, said the dissolution of the government’s peace panel for the MILF is a welcome development.
Climaco said this kind of announcement would signal the start of a true peace process and negotiations with the people who are really affected in the areas, to really go down to the stakeholders.
“This would give us an opportunity to really get down to listening and consulting the people,” she said.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita formally announced Wednesday that the government would be forming a new government peace panel with the MILF.
He said the decision to dissolve the peace panel was arrived at during a national security cluster Cabinet meeting in Nueva Ecija on Tuesday.
The dissolution of the peace panel, headed by Ret. Gen. Rodolfo Rodolfo Garcia, was “effective immediately,” he said. “All mechanisms within the peace process are in place, the ceasefire agreement will be maintained.”
The new peace panel will pursue talks consistent with President Arroyo’s new peace policy where disarming, disbandment, and reintegration of armed rebel forces will be “front loaded” in the negotiations.
The new approach to the peace talks will be followed not just by the peace panel with the MILF but also the other government peace panels talking peace with Communist rebels and other armed groups.
President Arroyo has also ordered Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to review all existing peace initiatives of the government, including the stalled talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The decision to scrap the peace panel and to adopt a new peace strategy was made in response to the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor General and the issues raised by Supreme Court justices in the hearings on the MOA-AD.
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