Money for peace

There is money in peace. And this emerges to be the come-on being used by the present dispensation to bring the rebels across the table to talk peace with the government. Such perceptions, rightly or wrongly, were unfortunately generated by the incompetence of certain administration officials of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to fully explain to the public the provision of these funds intended for groups of Muslim and communist rebels.

Thus, denials and clarifications from official spokespersons of Malacañang Palace could not win public sympathy for the reality we must all accept that taxpayers’ money was being used to buy peace with rebels.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) headed by Teresita “Ging” Deles was flushed out to admit the P31 million funds for Negros-based communist insurgent groups. This was after a party-list representative Antonio Tinio from Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) blew the whistle on these special allocations for the RPMP-RPA-ABB.

The latest controversy comes as Deles and President Aquino himself are currently under fire for the grant of P5 million to the Bangsamoro Leadership Institute (BMLI), an organization put up by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The P5 million was given by the government peace panel to the MILF after President Aquino’s meeting with the top MILF leaders in Japan last August.

Marvic Leonen, the government’s chief negotiator in the peace talks with the MILF, said President Aquino approved the appropriation for the BMLI during the consultation with the panel early this year. Leonen confirmed he personally handed the P5-million check to MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ibrahim as they jointly announced after their last round of formal exploratory talks on August 22-23 in Kuala Lumpur.

The grant of P5 million to the MILF came under severe criticisms following the latest MILF attack that killed 19 Army soldiers in Al-Barka, Basilan last October 18. The government troopers were mowed down in the MILF’s “area of temporary stay” in Al-Barka where they tried to serve the warrant of arrest against a fugitive MILF leader believed hiding there.

While the Aquino administration is still trying to get out of this tight fix, here comes another and much bigger amount of government funds being given to another rebel group.

Tinio questioned Deles’ decision to earmark P31 million of government funds for the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Pilipinas-Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPMP-RPA-ABB) in the budget of OPAPP. Deles confirmed that such amounts were allocated supposedly as “part of the closure” of the government’s peace process with these communist insurgent groups that entered into final peace pact during the administration of former President Joseph Estrada in December 2000.

The P31 million was allocated purportedly for community livelihood projects and housing for armed members of the RPMP-RPA-ABB in the peace and development communities in Negros island. Deles cited the OPAPP has been transparent about the allocations of these funds as reported in the website of the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program being pursued by the Aquino administration.

As explained by OPAPP, the PAMANA program aims to reduce poverty, improve governance and empower communities to address issues of conflict through community-driven initiatives that promote peace like road rehabilitation and livelihood projects. 

OPAPP Undersecretary Luisito Montalbo was quoted saying the P31 million for the RPMP-RPA-ABB was part of PAMANA’s funds for 2011 amounting to P568 million. Montalbo bared they are conducting a profiling that will guide the government in creating peace and development communities that will serve as resettlement sites for the returnees. He claimed this program is fully supported by the local government chief executives, civil society organizations (CSOs), and the local Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) commands in these areas.

The Palace initially denied the allocation of these funds despite admissions already made by Deles. Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte subsequently defended the provision of the P31 million for these Negros-based insurgents groups that included the ABB.

The ABB is the dreaded hit squad of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) behind the assassinations of police, military and government officials, even civilian targets all over the country.

Consequently, it struck a raw nerve of the national psyche still smarting over the continuing NPA depredations in the country. Faced with negative public reaction on the grant of public funds for these Negros-based communist insurgent groups, the Palace made a turnaround and is now pointing to the Estrada administration for allegedly making this commitment that tied the hands of the government to comply with their peace pact with these rebels.

The Palace took this tack as it earlier also insisted that the Aquino administration merely complied with the government’s commitment entered into during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on P5-million check given to the BMLI of the MILF. Deles pointed to former Arroyo OPAPP head Jesus Dureza as the chief proponent of this funding assistance to the BMLI.

I could not agree more to the reaction of former Estrada Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno when he took to task yesterday Aquino administration officials for finger-pointing instead of taking up responsibility for its own actions. As succinctly pointed out by Diokno, the Aquino administration has the discretion to discontinue or comply with any government deals entered into by previous administrations.

More than 15 months into office, officials of the administration of P-Noy have not learned up to now how to handle public issues. All they are capable of is waging word war with administration critics and political enemies of P-Noy.

Of course, we must all realize peace talks with armed rebel groups are not just about spending so much saliva across the negotiating table. The bottom line is government obviously needs to invest money, if need be, to buy peace that we all want for our country.