President Arroyo appointed yesterday new members of the government peace panel (GRP) and sought greater international involvement in the latest effort to forge peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. announced the four appointees to the GRP during a meeting of the Cabinet security cluster yesterday.
The members of the GRP panel include Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, who will represent Muslims in the panel and provide continuity to the peace talks. Pangandaman was a member of the previous panel before it was dissolved last September.
Former congressman and General Santos City Mayor Adelberto Antonino will represent the local governments and the Christian community.
Former sectoral representative Ronald Adamat will represent the lumads or indigenous people. Adamat was among the main authors of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act.
The announcement, however, lacked one name to complete the five-member panel but Esperon explained this was “one of the pieces that would make the peace talks restart again.”
Explaining why the Arroyo administration was announcing the composition of the panel in piecemeal fashion, Esperon said the government just wanted to be careful in its appointments and make sure that the members are respected and accepted by stakeholders in the Mindanao peace process.
“The President has instructed the panel to conduct dialogues in tandem with ongoing dialogues on the ground and prepare for negotiations with the MILF,” Esperon said.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, representing the security cluster in the Cabinet briefing, said the latest appointments to the GRP should encourage or challenge the MILF to return to the negotiating table.
President Arroyo had sought advice from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), particularly on the states that have representatives in the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the newly created International Economic Monitoring Team (IEMT) on how to revive the peace talks with the MILF.
“We have to consult with other countries involved. They will join us in a security monitoring team that will be composed of countries that have projects and investments in Mindanao,” Esperon said.
He said the last body the government is trying to form is the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration advisory group that would advise the peace panel and also act as sounding board of concerned communities and stakeholders. The DDR advisory group would include lawmakers, religious leaders, legal luminaries and local executives.
“We are going to wait for the MILF as to whether they will take up the challenge to go back to the peace process which is the start of a more developed and prosperous Mindanao,” Puno said.
“We are hoping the MILF will reciprocate, accept the invitation and challenge to go back to the peace process,” he said.
The peace talks were suspended after the Supreme Court ordered both parties to set aside the signing of a preliminary peace deal in August that could have given the MILF self rule and control over an expanded autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao.
Hostilities later erupted after an MILF faction launched attacks in Central Mindanao in apparent protest over the aborted signing of the agreement.
The SC later declared the territorial deal as unconstitutional, which eventually led to the trashing of the agreement.