Posted to the Mindanao Examiner blog site (Sep 10): Opening Statement of Chief Peace Negotiator Miriam Ferrer on 40th GPH-MILF Formal Exploratory Talks
http://mindanaoexaminer.blogspot.com/2013/09/opening-statement-of-chief-peace.html
Good morning to our good facilitator Tengku Datu Abdul Ghafar bin Tengku Mohamed, the members of the Malaysian Secretariat led by Madame Che Kasnah, our counterparts led by Chair Mohagher Iqbal, Brother Bobby Alonto, Brother Abdullah, Datu Tony Kinoc; the members of the rest of the delegation, the secretariat led by Brother Jun; experts, consultants and lawyers; and of course, our guests today for this session for the first time, the members of the ICP led by the Chair Randall Beck accompanied by Canadian Embassy in Manila Political Counselor Mr. James Christoff; the MILF nominees and representatives for ICP are Brother Von Al Haq and Ret.
Police Gen. Amerodin Hamdag. Welcome, Sir. GPH Ret. Police Director Ricardo de Leon, who was also President of Mindanao State University and now Vice President of Centro Escolar University. And our government representative, Atty. Jesus Doque, who was the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Our apologies for arriving late. Of course our apologies as well to the ICG. We have Mr. Ahmad fromTurkey UK
The GPH Panel are here today. Like our counterparts, we have one member, who is still not yet here with us, Sec. Mehol Sadain who will be joining us later. He actually had to have an appendectomy after our meeting last time, still recovering but basically catching up with work at his office so he will be joining us late this week. Of course, we have here former Secretary Senen Bacani, Undersecretary Yasmin Busran-Lao, and Undersecretary Chito Gascon, the other members of our delegation, alternate member Undersecretary Zenonida Brosas, our consultants, Senior Military Adviser Gen. Leo Cresente Ferrer, Major Jun Sol who heads the secretariat of our ceasefire committee.
The head of our legal office, the head of secretariat, you know them very well, and the rest of our staff.
We open our 40th Formal Exploratory round of talks today with firm resolve that as we seek to hurdle the difficulties we are facing in the negotiations, we will also overcome the security challenges confronting us in various parts ofMindanao
Zamboanga City
In Maguindanao, AFP soldiers lay their lives on the line confronting the BIFF and known foreign terrorist elements that have found sanctuary in their lairs. Only last week, three soldiers were wounded by an IED planted by the BIFF along the source of drinking water of the community in Brgy. Dabalawag, Midsayap, Cotabato. Last Saturday, another soldier responding to the report of a civilian of the citing of an IED in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao was wounded.
We know that the fire fights are exposing the GPH-MILF talks to criticism. But our response is simple. Will aborting this negotiation make other groups happy and stop their violent acts? Will preventing ourselves from finishing our work enable peace to prevail?
Not at all. The opposite in fact may be truer.
There are groups and leaders who are waiting for this process to fail. Waiting in the wings to be able to say: See, nothing has come out of that process. We told you so. Come and join us.
Their leaders’ goal is to lead people back to the path of violence, using misinformation to justify the use of arms and attacks on civilians.
Precisely for this reason, we cannot allow this process to fail. We have to show to one and all that through reason and compassion, through dialogue and cooperation, we can create the process and the institutions that will enable one and all, exercising their free will but refraining from the use of all forms of violence, to rebuild their societies and polities.
By succeeding, we are able to take away the fodder that feeds the fire. We can then focus on the issues, not on the personalities; on the collective grievances, not on the personal vendettas; on the people and the future, over and above tribal and organizational interests and the convoluted past.
Because the issues are conjoined. Complicated, yes, given the political, ethnic, historical cleavages that brought them about. Complicated but conjoined.
The Tripartite Review Process is scheduled to convene inYogyakarta , Indonesia
Among the outcomes of the review process are common understandings on the matter of “strategic minerals” and 42 consensus points that, as agreed, shall be pursued. Some of these of items require legislative reform to the current ARMM law – that is, Republic Act 9054. Some do not really need amendments, only further legislative action on the part of the ARMM Regional Assembly, or executive action on the part of ARMM Governor.
Many of these items are similar to what we are discussing now under the Power-sharing Annex. As example, there is that matter on the expansion of the Shari’ah courts as part of the administration of justice system in the Bangsamoro; greater participation of the regional government in the management of mineral resources; and a host of other items on education and economic reforms.
This is what we mean when we said the issues are conjoined. The tables may be separate, and the processes multiple, layered and parallel, but the issues are conjoined. The subject matters and the territorial application overlap. The constituency – the Bangsamoro – are the same.
They will have to meet where they are best addressed – notably, in Congress, for those aspects that will require legislative reform; in the forthcoming plebiscite, where the people themselves will give their imprimatur to the law and to their inclusion in the new political entity that will be instituted; and in the 2016 election, where Bangsamoro political parties of all shapes and hues may contest the election and govern, if so voted into power by their own people.
We fully agree therefore with the MILF, when it posted on its website, in an editorial in Luwaran, that the two processes (one with the MNLF, the other with the MILF) are complementary. The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes will build on the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with MNLF. Details may differ – there may be peculiarities here and there that are more in tune with contemporary realities as when they were negotiated in the 1990s.
But the sum total effectively builds on what the MNLF achieved, or did not achieve, for one reason or another, and indeed there are many reasons.
We regret that what some leaders cannot get through reason, they twist through misinformation. What they cannot achieve with circumspect and consistency, they attempt to wrestle through force and endless demands.
Positions that they cannot win in elections, they coerce on the table, or on the streets, taking with them hostages.
This administration has painstakingly worked to address all commitments made by the Philippine Government under previous administrations through the Tripartite Review Process. Several of us here – Undersecretary Chito Gascon, Undersecretary Yasmin Busran Lao, Undersecretary Zenonida Brosas, former ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo, now in the MILF delegation, will attest to this as we were all part of the government delegation led by the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles that met with the MNLF delegations (and I say delegations, plural, because they come from the different factions of the MNLF) in Solo and Bandung in 2011 and 2012, respectively, among several other meetings.
The Government will continue to painstakingly abide by its past commitments, and enjoin our brothers and sisters in the MNLF to take this path with us.
This is the only way that this process can find continuity –– continuity through this other, complementary, parallel but also converging process so that the gaps are addressed, the issues and their resolutions become conjoined, and the Bangsamoro can live more happily than ever before after having been inflicted with decades of man-made disasters known as war or armed conflict.
Now to the more immediate tasks before us here in the next few days.
We welcome for this opportunity for the ICP to be partly constituted. We know, of course, that you have a six-month work plan and the results of your work will have to be fed in the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, so to that extent there is a real urgency in the nature of the task that have been given to you by the two panels.
Last night, the members of the panel, the head of our legal team, and head of secretariat almost missed our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We met with the President and Cabinet on the two remaining Annexes up to about 7:15 PM, and arrived at the nick of time to catch our 8:50 PM flight via Cebu Pacific. But with the prayers and good vibrations of all those in and out of government who ardently support this process, we made it. Otherwise, we will not be here with you today this morning.
With the same good tidings, we convey to you the key messages that the President expressed during this meeting:
· Have a clearer accounting of what are aspirational and realistic at this point in time;
· Come up with a set of Annexes that he can confidently carry through Congress;
· Remember that power comes with responsibility: for example, ARMM arrears in the GSIS premiums of its teachers amounting to PhP2 Billion had to be paid by the national government for from its coffers in order to allow the teachers to be able to enjoy their benefits in the social security system for government employees;
· Lastly, he said that we might be negotiating now with people whom we can trust to try their best to govern well, but how do we know if in the future this will not be the case? Therefore, we must have a legal framework that will provide for accountability and check-and-balance that will govern future leaders.
Needless to say, he remains fully supportive of this process. The President is particularly pleased on the potential of greater cooperation between the Philippine government and the MILF, especially with regard to building peace on the ground. The joint visit to Cararao, Maguindanao and in Watu, Balindong in Lanao Sur last week shows how, together, we can quell threats to human security in the region. For these reasons, the President has given this process the utmost attention it deserves, despite the other pressing issues of State.
God-willing we will all have in the next ten days, the physical strength, the wisdom, understanding and camaraderie to jointly, collaboratively complete our task.
Thank you very much.
Police Gen. Amerodin Hamdag. Welcome, Sir. GPH Ret. Police Director Ricardo de Leon, who was also President of Mindanao State University and now Vice President of Centro Escolar University. And our government representative, Atty. Jesus Doque, who was the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Our apologies for arriving late. Of course our apologies as well to the ICG. We have Mr. Ahmad from
The GPH Panel are here today. Like our counterparts, we have one member, who is still not yet here with us, Sec. Mehol Sadain who will be joining us later. He actually had to have an appendectomy after our meeting last time, still recovering but basically catching up with work at his office so he will be joining us late this week. Of course, we have here former Secretary Senen Bacani, Undersecretary Yasmin Busran-Lao, and Undersecretary Chito Gascon, the other members of our delegation, alternate member Undersecretary Zenonida Brosas, our consultants, Senior Military Adviser Gen. Leo Cresente Ferrer, Major Jun Sol who heads the secretariat of our ceasefire committee.
The head of our legal office, the head of secretariat, you know them very well, and the rest of our staff.
We open our 40th Formal Exploratory round of talks today with firm resolve that as we seek to hurdle the difficulties we are facing in the negotiations, we will also overcome the security challenges confronting us in various parts of
In Maguindanao, AFP soldiers lay their lives on the line confronting the BIFF and known foreign terrorist elements that have found sanctuary in their lairs. Only last week, three soldiers were wounded by an IED planted by the BIFF along the source of drinking water of the community in Brgy. Dabalawag, Midsayap, Cotabato. Last Saturday, another soldier responding to the report of a civilian of the citing of an IED in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao was wounded.
We know that the fire fights are exposing the GPH-MILF talks to criticism. But our response is simple. Will aborting this negotiation make other groups happy and stop their violent acts? Will preventing ourselves from finishing our work enable peace to prevail?
Not at all. The opposite in fact may be truer.
There are groups and leaders who are waiting for this process to fail. Waiting in the wings to be able to say: See, nothing has come out of that process. We told you so. Come and join us.
Their leaders’ goal is to lead people back to the path of violence, using misinformation to justify the use of arms and attacks on civilians.
Precisely for this reason, we cannot allow this process to fail. We have to show to one and all that through reason and compassion, through dialogue and cooperation, we can create the process and the institutions that will enable one and all, exercising their free will but refraining from the use of all forms of violence, to rebuild their societies and polities.
By succeeding, we are able to take away the fodder that feeds the fire. We can then focus on the issues, not on the personalities; on the collective grievances, not on the personal vendettas; on the people and the future, over and above tribal and organizational interests and the convoluted past.
Because the issues are conjoined. Complicated, yes, given the political, ethnic, historical cleavages that brought them about. Complicated but conjoined.
The Tripartite Review Process is scheduled to convene in
Among the outcomes of the review process are common understandings on the matter of “strategic minerals” and 42 consensus points that, as agreed, shall be pursued. Some of these of items require legislative reform to the current ARMM law – that is, Republic Act 9054. Some do not really need amendments, only further legislative action on the part of the ARMM Regional Assembly, or executive action on the part of ARMM Governor.
Many of these items are similar to what we are discussing now under the Power-sharing Annex. As example, there is that matter on the expansion of the Shari’ah courts as part of the administration of justice system in the Bangsamoro; greater participation of the regional government in the management of mineral resources; and a host of other items on education and economic reforms.
This is what we mean when we said the issues are conjoined. The tables may be separate, and the processes multiple, layered and parallel, but the issues are conjoined. The subject matters and the territorial application overlap. The constituency – the Bangsamoro – are the same.
They will have to meet where they are best addressed – notably, in Congress, for those aspects that will require legislative reform; in the forthcoming plebiscite, where the people themselves will give their imprimatur to the law and to their inclusion in the new political entity that will be instituted; and in the 2016 election, where Bangsamoro political parties of all shapes and hues may contest the election and govern, if so voted into power by their own people.
We fully agree therefore with the MILF, when it posted on its website, in an editorial in Luwaran, that the two processes (one with the MNLF, the other with the MILF) are complementary. The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes will build on the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with MNLF. Details may differ – there may be peculiarities here and there that are more in tune with contemporary realities as when they were negotiated in the 1990s.
But the sum total effectively builds on what the MNLF achieved, or did not achieve, for one reason or another, and indeed there are many reasons.
We regret that what some leaders cannot get through reason, they twist through misinformation. What they cannot achieve with circumspect and consistency, they attempt to wrestle through force and endless demands.
Positions that they cannot win in elections, they coerce on the table, or on the streets, taking with them hostages.
This administration has painstakingly worked to address all commitments made by the Philippine Government under previous administrations through the Tripartite Review Process. Several of us here – Undersecretary Chito Gascon, Undersecretary Yasmin Busran Lao, Undersecretary Zenonida Brosas, former ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo, now in the MILF delegation, will attest to this as we were all part of the government delegation led by the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles that met with the MNLF delegations (and I say delegations, plural, because they come from the different factions of the MNLF) in Solo and Bandung in 2011 and 2012, respectively, among several other meetings.
The Government will continue to painstakingly abide by its past commitments, and enjoin our brothers and sisters in the MNLF to take this path with us.
This is the only way that this process can find continuity –– continuity through this other, complementary, parallel but also converging process so that the gaps are addressed, the issues and their resolutions become conjoined, and the Bangsamoro can live more happily than ever before after having been inflicted with decades of man-made disasters known as war or armed conflict.
Now to the more immediate tasks before us here in the next few days.
We welcome for this opportunity for the ICP to be partly constituted. We know, of course, that you have a six-month work plan and the results of your work will have to be fed in the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, so to that extent there is a real urgency in the nature of the task that have been given to you by the two panels.
Last night, the members of the panel, the head of our legal team, and head of secretariat almost missed our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We met with the President and Cabinet on the two remaining Annexes up to about 7:15 PM, and arrived at the nick of time to catch our 8:50 PM flight via Cebu Pacific. But with the prayers and good vibrations of all those in and out of government who ardently support this process, we made it. Otherwise, we will not be here with you today this morning.
With the same good tidings, we convey to you the key messages that the President expressed during this meeting:
· Have a clearer accounting of what are aspirational and realistic at this point in time;
· Come up with a set of Annexes that he can confidently carry through Congress;
· Remember that power comes with responsibility: for example, ARMM arrears in the GSIS premiums of its teachers amounting to PhP2 Billion had to be paid by the national government for from its coffers in order to allow the teachers to be able to enjoy their benefits in the social security system for government employees;
· Lastly, he said that we might be negotiating now with people whom we can trust to try their best to govern well, but how do we know if in the future this will not be the case? Therefore, we must have a legal framework that will provide for accountability and check-and-balance that will govern future leaders.
Needless to say, he remains fully supportive of this process. The President is particularly pleased on the potential of greater cooperation between the Philippine government and the MILF, especially with regard to building peace on the ground. The joint visit to Cararao, Maguindanao and in Watu, Balindong in Lanao Sur last week shows how, together, we can quell threats to human security in the region. For these reasons, the President has given this process the utmost attention it deserves, despite the other pressing issues of State.
God-willing we will all have in the next ten days, the physical strength, the wisdom, understanding and camaraderie to jointly, collaboratively complete our task.
Thank you very much.
http://mindanaoexaminer.blogspot.com/2013/09/opening-statement-of-chief-peace.html