Regional forum on framework deal set

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – All is set for the Jan. 9-10 grand regional forum on the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) in Buluan town in the second district of the province in support of Malacañang’s peace overture with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu convened Monday morning the members of the newly organized Maguindanao Framework Agreement Task Force (MFA-TF) which will oversee all preparations and activities during the two-day forum, to be preceded with a ceremonial “peace caravan” around Maguindanao.

Organizers expect dozens of vehicles to participate in the convoy, traveling from Buluan to Cotabato City via North Cotabato, and through the towns in the second district of Maguindanao before the ceremonial kick off of the two-day peace dialogue.

“This activity aims to disseminate to the public the contents and the importance to us, people in Mindanao of the FAB,” Mangudadatu said in an emailed statement.

Lea Sagan, provincial in-charge for all projects in the province of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, said the governor has invited Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman to the event.

All of the four provincial governors of ARMM, Jum Akbar of Basilan, Mamintal Adiong, Jr. of Lanao del Sur, Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-Tawi and Sakur Tan of Sulu, have all also been invited to the gathering.

Sagan said representatives of OPAPP, the government and MILF’s peace panels and Christian religious leaders, among them Archbishop Orlando Quevedo and Msgr. Jose Colin Bagaforo, the archbishop and auxiliary bishops of Cotabato, respectively, were also expected to participate in forum.

Mangudadatu earlier said the forum is also meant to generate public support to the newly created Transition Commission, to be comprised of 15 commissioners, eight of them from the MILF, to oversee the implementation of the FAB.

The FAB aims to establish, as a bilateral effort of the government and the MILF, a Bangsamoro region that will eventually replace the ARMM.

Hataman and Mangudadatu earlier committed support to the commission, which President Benigno Aquino II created last month through Executive Order 120.

Sagan said members of the Islamic religious communities will also grace the Jan. 9-10 FAB forum in Buluan.

Major Gen. Ceasar Ronnie Ordoyo, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said they are also sending a delegation to the forum, to be comprised of officers from the 6th ID and all of its component-brigades in Maguindanao.

Ordoyo said combatants of Army units in the province have been fielded in strategic spots around Buluan and the route of the peace caravan to ensure the safety of the activities.