Puno Calls on Mindanao Local Execs to Actively Participate in GRP-MILF Talks

August 30, 2009

Secretary of Interior and Local Government Ronnie Puno has called on local officials in Mindanao to participate actively in talks aimed at defining the thrust, direction and agenda of the government’s peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that would resume soon to make sure that any peace agreement that could be agreed upon would be responsive to the actual realities of Mindanao.

“I call upon you to participate enthusiastically, energetically and honestly in the dialogues that will be conducted by the Philippine peace panel so that eventually we will come up with the best possible position,” said Puno during the recent Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) meeting in General Santos City.
 
Puno, who is chairman of the National Police Commission and chairman of the National Peace and Order Council, stressed that the position of the government peace panel should be based on the broadest consensus possible and a position firmed up only after an exhaustive process of consultation and dialogue at the grassroots level.
 
Puno stressed that the appointment of former General Santos City Mayor Adelbert Antonino as head of the Philippine peace panel that will resume talks with the MILF plus the decision to select all the members from Mindanao, are part of the broad agenda to make the upcoming peace talks truly sensitive and representative of Mindanao goals and aspirations.
 
Puno said that the Antonino-led panel has been given a free hand to draft the position of the Philippine panel in the peace talks and was given 45 days to conduct grass roots and sectoral consultations.
 
“Mindanaoans are in a position to shape their destiny and define their peace aspirations,” Puno said in stressing the danger of leaving Mindanaoans out of the peace process and placing the responsibility of defining the position of the Philippine peace panel in the upcoming talks to outsiders and Manila-based personalities.
 
“The DILG is committed to see a just and lasting peace reign in Mindanao, a kind of peace that will bring together Muslims, Christians, lumads and everybody under one peaceful and economically-vibrant community,” said Puno.
 
In that same RPOC meeting, Antonino said that the peace panel would make a stand “based on the thoughts of Mindanao.”
 
Antonino told Puno that consultations have been going on with business people, local officials, Christian bishops and Muslim ulamas in order to effectively build up the Mindanao consensus for the upcoming peace talks.
 
To further make sure that agreements in the peace talks represent the needs of Mindanao, the role of Malaysia in the peace talks has been downscaled from “broker to facilitator,” Antonino said.
 
Malaysia’s role is now limited to setting up the place of the meeting and facilitating the talks, unlike the major role it has had in previous peace talks where it can participate in the discussions, Antonino added.
 
Puno told local government officials that the success of the peace talks and the reign of a just peace in Mindanao would bring about a major economic boom in the South.
 
“Business, tourism and trade activities that had been constricted in the troubled areas of Mindanao will suddenly be energized by peace and order,” he said.
 
Puno said that Mindanao has beaches that can rival, if not top, the beaches of Boracay, and once peace is put in place, tourist will arrive by the droves to energize the tourism in the region.
 
He noted that Mindanao alone could fill up the role of the country’s “bread basket” plus surplus agricultural produce for the export market.