Envoys from EU visit Central Mindanao

COTABATO CITY – Diplomats from 10 member-states of the European Union toured Central Mindanao yesterday to assess the Southern peace process and evaluate the impact to the local communities of various EU-funded socio-economic projects in the region.

Led by French Ambassador Gerard Chesnel, the dignitaries also met with Cota­bato City Mayor Musli­min Sema, who belong to the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace pact with the Philippine government on Sept. 2, 1996.

Sema told Chesnel’s companions – Ambassadors Herbert Jager of Austria; Gregoire Vardakis of Belgium; Ritta Resch of Finland; Robert Brinks of The Netherlands; Valeriu Gheorghe of Romania; Luis Arias Romero of Spain; Inger Ultvedt of Sweden; Peter Beckingham of the United Kingdom and EU Special Envoy Alistair McDonald – that both the MNLF and the MILF are committed to the Mindanao peace process and are always for the peaceful resolution of the socio-economic and political issues besetting the region’s Muslim communities.