DOH exec named chief government negotiator for NDF peace talks

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino named yesterday Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla to head the five-member government panel that would discuss peace with communist rebels, according to the presidential adviser on the peace process.

Speaking to reporters, Secretary Teresita Deles said Mr. Aquino has directed Padilla and his team to pursue time-bound and agenda-bound peace negotiations with the communist rebels anchored on the principles of peace, justice and human rights.

“With this marching order, the panel has already started to review past agreements, draw lessons learned from the peace process, enlist the inputs of peace stakeholders especially the affected communities, and chart its roadmap for a just and peaceful conclusion of the armed conflict,” she said.

Padilla said “informal talks” have been held between the government and communist rebels.

“Hopefully, before the end of this year we can resume the talks,” he said.

Deles said the government would initiate talks on the long-delayed negotiations, the last of which was held in 2004.

“There were backroom negotiations and there were agreements, but we will review them,” she said.

“We are looking at how we can accelerate the talks, it has been too prolonged.”

Padilla’s four other colleagues in the peace panel are lawyer Pablito Sanidad, Edna Gempasaw Dayanghirang (indigenous people’s advocate), gender and labor advocate Jurgette Honculada and Ma. Lourdes Tison, an environmental advocate based in Negros.

Deles said Norway will again be the third party facilitator.

“We are grateful to the Royal Norwegian Government for accepting our request for Norway to resume its role as third party facilitator in the talks,” she said.

“The journey to peace will not be easy. As fellow peace travelers, we appeal for your support, participation and understanding. With the formal reconstitution of the peace panel, we hope that the CPP/NPA/NDF will respond positively.

“The reconstitution of the government peace negotiating panel manifests the President’s commitment to a peaceful and just settlement of conflicts with different rebel groups, as articulated during his inaugural address on June 30.”

Meanwhile, Malaysia will remain the third party facilitator in the government’s peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to Malacañang.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said it will be status quo as far as the third party negotiator is concerned, as it is still very difficult to replace the facilitator at this point.

“What we have been informed is Malaysia is still the third party negotiator,” he said.

“Without disclosing any security details, they’ve been there as third party negotiator since before so it’s difficult to change them, so it’s better that Malaysia would remain the third party negotiator,” he said.

The five-man government panel to talk peace with the MILF headed by UP law dean Marvic Leonen has already been formed, according to Presidential Communications Office Secretary for Development and Strategic Planning Ricky Carandang.

Deles: Only Aquino can remove me

Deles said yesterday that only President Aquino can remove her.

“The President’s response is clear,” she told reporters yesterday. “For me, the President is the one who appoints so he should be followed.”

Deles refuted insinuations she was rude to Lanao del Norte Rep. Aliah Dimaporo during her agency’s budget hearing in the House of Representatives.

“ I had been sitting there for 13 hours waiting for the opening. They said can you just talk on the side,” she said.

Deles said she received a “grateful text message” from Dimaporo less than an hour after they had talked.

“A text to me, a text to my undersecretary, a text to my chief of staff,” she said.

“Basically her message to me was: ‘Secretary Deles this Rep. Aliah,’” she said.

“‘Thank you very much for the time. I hope I can call up Rose she’s my staff so that I can visit her in the office. Have a blessed day.’ That was on Sept. 22,” Deles recalled.

Deles refused to describe the incident between her and Dimaporo as a misunderstanding.

“I don’t know. There are other ways of describing what happened than a simple misunderstanding.” 

Palace: Deles will stay

Malacañang said Deles will stay in the Aquino Cabinet despite a House resolution calling for her resignation.

Lacierda told reporters Mr. Aquino is standing by Deles.

“He has full confidence in Secretary Ging Deles,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that a resolution was passed, but the President continues to repose his confidence on Secretary Deles. There is no change (in that trust),” he said.

“The text of (Lanao del Norte) Rep. Dimaporo somehow is inconsistent with the statements that (Davao) Rep. (Marc) Cagas made on the floor.”

Lawmakers have approved a House resolution calling on Deles to resign after she allegedly insulted Dimaporo at the sidelines of the budget deliberations on Friday.

Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong said Deles insulted and demeaned Dimaporo, who was merely seeking clarification during a break on the deliberations of the OPAPP budget.

Muslims back Deles

Muslim civic, religious and political leaders from Mindanao have expressed support for the embattled Deles.

“We appeal to our local leaders like the Dimaporos to end this word war and give peace a chance because our highly troubled place, which is now known as Mindanao’s kidnapping capital, stands to benefit from the peace initiative of President Aquino and Ms. Deles,” said Sultan Masideng Salic, whose Sultanate covers Dimaporo’s congressional district of Lanao del Norte.

Salic’s call was echoed by former Muslim Mindanao Ulama Council Grand Mufti Aleem Samanolin Ampaso, former lawmaker Abdullah Mangotara, former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Regional Assembly speaker Faysalin Tago; Mayor Ibrahim Ibay of Parang, Maguindanao; Mayor Jess Burahan of Sulu; and former vice mayor Yusoph Pangadapun of Marawi City.?Mangotara expressed apprehension the rift between Deles and Dimaporo will affect the prospects of peace in the ARMM, which remains threatened by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and other terrorist and rebel groups.

“Lanao del Norte alone has been in long standing dispute as we continuously experience battles between the government forces and the MILF; killings of the innocent civilians and pillage in the municipalities of Kauswagan and Kulambugan; skirmishes before the holding of the Palarong Pambansa; and the burning of public transport,’’ Mangotara said, adding that all these resulted in the area being branded as the “haven for kidnappers and rebels” in Mindanao.

Mangotara said the House resolution calling for Deles’ resignation is “unfair and unjust” as it “disregarded her chance to explain her side regarding the unfounded and politically motivated allusions of Rep. Dimaporo.”

“The Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process under the able leadership of Secretary Deles must not yield to the personal interest of her detractors. The primacy of the general welfare must be given credence over and above the altar of personal whims and caprices of Ging’s oppositions,” he said.

Salic, who heads the national secretariat of the Muslim Alliance for Ninoy Aquino (MANA), said he firmly believes in the capability of Deles as a “competent peace negotiator being equipped with a rich experience on the programs and advocacies on peace, development and nation-building in Mindanao.”

 “People are dying in our troubled land. We cannot afford to waste time on this political dispute which only delays the cause of bringing peace to Mindanao,” Tago said. - With Paolo Romero, AP