No US role in MOA with MILF Kenney

MANILA, Philippines – The US government had no involvement in the drafting of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), US Ambassador Kristie Kenney clarified yesterday.

Kenney made the clarification amid criticism that Washington was meddling in the peace process in Mindanao to set up a permanent military presence in the southern Philippines.

Kenney also clarified that the think tank United States Institute for Peace (USIP), which prepared a study on the peace process in Mindanao, worked independently of the US Embassy.

The USIP used to get some of its funding from the US Congress, but when Kenney assumed her post three years ago, she recommended the cancellation of its contract. Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, approved her recommendation.

“We have no permanent presence in Mindanao. We have no plans to have a permanent presence – not military, not anything – not now, not in the future, not in our hopes, not in our dreams,” Kenney told The STAR last night. “We have only one embassy, and that is in Manila.”

She said she was never given a copy of the MOA before she joined a group of diplomats to witness the signing of the MOA in Malaysia on the invitation of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. Among the others who went to Malaysia were the ambassadors of Australia and Japan as well as the country director of the World Bank.

It was up to the Philippine government to decide what to do with the MOA, Kenney said.

She emphasized that despite the controversy over the MOA, “we’re not gonna back away from the peace process.”

This developed as Sen. Joker Arroyo assailed yesterday President Arroyo’s policy of allowing Western countries to directly get involved in the government’s quest for peace in Mindanao, saying some of her ideas were actually misplaced.

Arroyo also noted that American forces in Mindanao had been “overstaying” and the United States appeared bent on establishing “permanent” presence in the south.

“First the Americans, then the British? The President would be better off avoiding Western participation in indigenously Asiatic affairs,” Senator Arroyo said.

The senator said the President’s idea of asking former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Swedish government to help in forging a settlement of the Muslim problem “is injudicious as it is misguided, a frying pan to the fire approach.”

“Whoever gave the President that bum steer should be canned,” Senator Arroyo said.

“The Mindanao conflict is not between Protestant and Catholics, both Christians as in Northern Ireland. It is a geographical dispute between the five percent Filipino Muslims and the 95 percent predominantly Filipino Christians,” the senator said.

According to the senator, data from the National Statistics Office show that Muslims constitute only five percent of the country’s predominantly Christian population and are concentrated mostly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In short, 95 percent of the Filipinos are non-Muslims, he said.

Over the past 30 years, Senator Arroyo said the government had agreements with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the MILF brokered separately by Libya, Indonesia and the last one by Malaysia.

He said the presence of Kenney in Malaysia to witness the signing of the MOA between the government and the MILF had raised eyebrows “in light of the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement which has been dubbed as the Overstaying Forces Agreement because of the continued stay of US forces in ARMM border provinces.”

Arroyo earlier questioned the US interest in Mindanao as it even commissioned a group to promote the establishment of ancestral domain for the Bangsamoro people.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, for his part, said he could not understand why the US and Malaysia would support a MOA that would dismember the country.

Crucial meet

Meanwhile, a meeting between the government and the MILF is being set to discuss the extension of or formulate an entirely new terms of reference (TOR) for the stay of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) in Mindanao.

Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said yesterday in a briefing for the diplomatic community that it is “very critical” for the government and the MILF to meet before the TOR expires on Aug. 31.

He said that the GRP-MILF meeting in the presence of Malaysia as facilitator of the peace agreement will take place in Manila or Kuala Lumpur.

“By Aug. 31 the TOR on IMT will lapse. If we do not have it renewed we face the prospect of losing a major pillar in the peace process. We feel it will be very difficult. It is very critical we do something before Aug. 31,” Esperon said.

But he said the government will make an announcement on Saturday whether both panels will agree on an extension or an entirely new TOR for the peace monitors’ tour of duty in Southern Philippines.

Change of heart

Esperon also said the government has not formally informed the MILF about the government’s decision not to sign the MOA because its position has changed as a result of the attacks of its three base commanders on villages and civilians in North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, and Sarangani.

“Not formally. We will. We decided not to sign the MOA because of the incidents that changed the view of the government regarding the MOA,” Esperon said

However, he stressed that the government has not abandoned the peace process.

Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera said the government asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition declaring the agreement unconstitutional because it was not signed and implemented.

“There is nothing to be prevented so the petition must be dismissed,” Devanadera said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said Malaysia assured the Philippines on Tuesday that their 12 peace monitors will remain in Mindanao even if the two governments fail to adopt a new TOR for the peace monitors.

Romulo said Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim gave the assurance during a meeting in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Aside from Malaysia, the IMT is also composed of peace monitors from Japan, Libya and Brunei.

Under the TOR, the IMT can stay beyond Aug. 31 if the parties make the request for extension.

Observers warned that the fighting between government troops and the separatist MILF rebels would further escalate if the IMT withdraws completely from Mindanao. – With Aurea Calica, Pia Lee-Brago