By Bulatlat.com
August 18, 2008 – 12:39 p.m.
An ecumenical group of peace advocates slammed the ‘political machinations of the Arroyo regime’ in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
In its statement, the Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace) said Arroyo has demonstrated a lack of sincerity in the talks and in the implementation of any peace agreement with the MILF.
The group deemed that Malacañang has consciously kept the contents of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) from public view in order not to expose early on its hidden charter change agenda.
The InPeace said, “It has therefore deliberately omitted a process of genuine consultation in order to spring this surprise and mask its ill will before the MILF. Arroyo foists the MOA-AD on the Filipino people as an instrument of political self-perpetuation rather than as an agreement that will genuinely promote Bangsamoro self-autonomy.”
The group also criticized the ‘predominance of war hawks in the GRP peace panel’, citing the appointment of Gen. Hermogenes Esperon as peace adviser.
The group further said, “The unfolding events in Mindanao are consciously being steered by the Arroyo government. She is mobilizing the country’s political and economic elite at the national and provincial levels to foment their deep-seated anti-Moro chauvinism to justify the current military offensives and enforced displacement of over 150,000 Moro and non-Moro people.”
The InPeace warned against interest groups and clans who are fanning “Muslim-Christian enmity” to preserve their monopoly of landholdings and political clout in Mindanao.
The group also condemned the United States government intervention in the peace talks through the US Institute of Peace. “The US has been forthright in admitting that it is involved in the peace process with the MILF to rid Mindanao of its self-defined ‘terrorists.’ Its strategic motive is to establish US foothold in oil, natural gas, mineral ore, and agribusiness interests in the region,” it said.
The InPeace reminded the people of Mindanao of the ‘historical wrongs inflicted by the United States Empire, which continue today with its bogus ‘war on terror’, US military deployment, and economic plunder of natural resources that abound in Moro territories.’
The Filipino and Bangsamoro people should make the US-backed Arroyo government accountable for scurrying the peace process. A ‘people’s review’ of the MOA-AD should be undertaken if only to salvage the document as an authentic instrument for Bangsamoro self-determination. We demand for a grassroots-oriented and solidarity-based process that is complementary and parallel to genuine peace negotiations where the Moro people and their leaders can be given the opportunity to share their vision of self-autonomy and right to self-determination, far from the need for political survival of the Arroyo regime, and the interventionism of the United States. (Posted by Bulatlat.com)
