Consultations on Mindanao peace to start next month

DAVAO CITY – The Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) has finally approved the conduct of community consultations on peace in Mindanao starting next month.

“We have approved the consultation mechanism and the peace dialogues shall start next month,” BUC convenor and United Church of Christ in the Philippines Bishop Hilario Gomez told The STAR.

Gomez said the BUC approved the consultation design dubbed as “Konsult Mindanaw!” and its corresponding funding requirements during the recent BUC general assembly here.

“We have already approved it, including the budget. And we have tapped the academe to do it and they are now in the preparatory process,” Gomez said.

President Arroyo has asked the BUC to conduct the community peace consultations, particularly after the botched signing last year of a proposed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain that stalled anew the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Gomez said the results of the peace dialogues, which shall hopefully be finalized by early next year, shall serve as guide on how the peace process shall proceed in the south.

Gomez said the peace consultations will be conducted in various regions in Mindanao as well as in Palawan, Cebu and places considered to be Muslim areas in Metro Manila and Baguio City.

Fr. Albert Alejo, director of Konsult Mindanaw!, said Gomez, Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla and Dr. Hamid Barra of the Ulama League of the Philippines will comprise the advisory body of Konsult Mindanaw!