Noy to attend peace conference in Japan?

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino is scheduled to leave for Tokyo to attend the Japan International Cooperation Agency-sponsored Bangsamoro-Mindanao peace plan conference, a highly placed source said yesterday.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the conference will be held on June 24-25.

“He will later visit Hiroshima,” the source said.

But government peace panel chairman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said it is not true that Aquino will be going to the event.

Instead, Ferrer said she will be the one attending.

“Yes, I am going there, but the President is not coming,” Ferrer said in a text message to The STAR.

“I will be joined by the members of the government peace panel, presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles, some Cabinet secretaries and the people involved in the annex on normalization, including Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panel and Bangsamoro Transition Commission chairman Mohagher Iqbal.”

The annex on normalization was the last of the four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro which was signed in October 2012.

In August 2011, Aquino had a secret meeting in Japan with MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim where the President expressed his support for the creation of the Bangsamoro leadership and management institute.

The meeting was then expected to boost and fast-track peace talks being facilitated by Malaysia.

The MILF viewed the move as a great leap for both leaders and which showed their determination to put an end to the conflict in Mindanao.

Aquino and Murad agreed during the meeting that all substantive and outstanding issues will be taken up at the negotiating table.

Last March, the Philippine government and the MILF finally signed a historic peace agreement.