MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 4, 2008) – Philippine Muslim rebels on Thursday blamed Manila for the failed peace negotiations and accused President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on the territorial deal.
Mohagher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said Arroyo is to blame if fighting resumes in Mindanao. “We have nothing to blame but the Philippine government if war breaks out in Mindanao,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.
Arroyo on Wednesday dissolved the government panel negotiating peace with the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group. She earlier scrapped the ancestral domain deal that peace negotiators initially signed in July 27 in Malaysia, which was brokering the talks.
The Supreme Court stopped the formal signing of the accord on August 5 after government spokesmen said Arroyo was not informed and unaware about the territorial deal.
The ancestral domain deal would have granted some four million Muslims their own homeland in more than 700 villages across Mindanao, whose 21 million populations are mostly Christians and indigenous tribes.
But Iqbal said the President knew about the ancestral domain deal long before it was initially signed in Kuala Lumpur because the issue had been tackled many times since last year by the Cluster E.
“The President knew everything about the ancestral domain agreement and other important developments as far as the peace talks were concerned. President Arroyo had been informed about anything that has something to do with the peace process,” Iqbal said.
“They also wanted us to sign the peace agreement, but we declined because there are more important things to talk about as far as the Mindanao problems are concerned.”
“The memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain had been tackled many times since last year with the Cluster E and as a matter of fact they rushed the signing of the ancestral domain deal because President Arroyo wanted it included in her state of the nation address in July 28,” Iqbal said.
Cluster E refers to the cabinet Cluster for Political and Security Affairs that routinely advised Arroyo on national security matters. Its members included the National Security Council, National Defense, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Finance secretaries.
Arroyo, in her state of the nation address, said: “A comprehensive peace has eluded us for half a century. But last night, differences on the tough issue of ancestral domain were resolved. Yes, there are political dynamics among the people of Mindanao. Let us sort them out with the utmost sobriety, patience and restraint. I ask Congress to act on the legislative and political reforms that will lead to a just and lasting peace during our term of office.”
Iqbal said the ancestral domain deal is considered final. “It has been initialed already and the memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain deal, as what we have repeatedly said in the past, is a done deal. We will not negotiate anymore what has been already agreed by the peace panels,” he said.
Iqbal said the peace talks are now in "purgatory".
The Malaysian news agency Bernama also quoted Michael Mastura, a member of the MILF peace panel, as saying that the scrapping of the government peace panel has little bearing on the Muslim homeland lead.
“Our position on this is very clear that it's a done deal. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, there's a provision which states that status of initialing is as good as signature. But whether they comply with it or not is a different story,” he said.
Mastura said they were still awaiting official notice from the peace talks secretariat in Kuala Lumpur about the scrapping of the government peace panel. “We have expected this and we have our contingency plan. We will deliberate on it,” he said.
The MILF on Wednesday said it would continue with its armed struggle in Mindanao should the peace talks totally collapse.
The government's announcement came two weeks after MILF commanders Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar led hundreds of rebels in separate attacks on the provinces in Mindanao. Dozens of people were brutally killed in the raid.
Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001, but since then nothing significant had been signed except for the ancestral domain agreement. But the homeland deal sparked a series of protests from politicians and residents who were opposed to the inclusion of their areas to the agreement that will make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
Arroyo has shifted in the basic premise of the government's peace effort after hundreds of rebels under Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar led a series of attacks in the provinces in Mindanao that killed dozens of civilians.
Manila also demanded the rebels to lay down their weapons before peace talks can resume. This was rejected by the MILF.
Last year, peace talks were also stalled after Manila reneged on the ancestral domain deal. Malaysia, which is brokering the peace talks, has pulled out its truce observers deployed in Mindanao after blaming the Arroyo government of stalling the seven-year old negotiations.
Manila said previously that it would pursue a proposal by Senator Aquilino Pimentel to put up a federal government and divide the Philippines into eleven states.
Pimentel proposed four federal states in Luzon, three in the Visayas and three more in Mindanao.
Arroyo's allies in Congress have earlier proposed to amend the Constitution to change the system of government from presidential to parliamentary or federalism.
But militant groups and political activists have repeatedly accused Arroyo of using the peace talks with the MILF to amend the Constitution and eventually prolong her to stay into power.
Under the presidential form of government, Arroyo is allowed only one six-year term. In the charter change proposal suggested by her political allies who dominate Congress, she can be elected as prime minister should Congress dissolve the Senate and change the system of government to parliamentary and eventually prolong her into power beyond 2010.
Arroyo deposed President Joseph Estrada in a people power revolution in 2001, but corruption scandals in her government and allegations of poll fraud in 2004 has made her extremely unpopular. (Mindanao Examiner)
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