OPAPP presents GRP peace and development agenda in LVGP confab

OZAMIZ CITY--PRESIDENTIAL Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Deles stressed on Friday, October 8, here that peace in Mindanao has always been in the consciousness of the Aquino administration.

Speaking before some 300 participants to the League of Vice-Governors of the Philippines’ (LVGP) Mindanao 1st Island Conferece being held in Bethany Gardens, Ozamiz City, Deles said the matter was included in President Benigno Simeon Aquino III published Social Contract with the Filipino people during his campaign sortie.

“Please take note that out of the 16 provisions of the contract, the number 14 provision focused on the issue of peace in Mindanao,” she said.

Deles said the current government has come up with a four-point policy on national security that includes the elements of governance, delivery of basic services, economic reconstruction and sustainability, and security sector reforms.

“The four elements constitutes the pillars of the government’s security policy for the entire country, but, very conscious that major areas of the country are still rocked with armed conflict, the President has committed to revive the peace process on the basis of a comprehensive understanding on the root causes of the conflict under clear policies and driven by a genuine desire to attain a just and lasting peace,” Deles stressed.

Deles said as earlier announced by the President, his administration is ready to resume talks with the breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“We have even informed the Malaysian government of our request for Malaysia to resume the role of a third party facilitator of the talks,” she added.

She reiterated the government’s pledge to bring a just and peaceful closure to the peace track on mutually-agreed upon terms, with due diligence and utmost sincerity.

Spearheaded by the Office of the Presidential Assistant of the Peace Process (OPAPP), the government will participate fully towards completing the tripartite process started by the previous administration.
“Such includes the completing the legal form to address the limitations of the peace agreement. In pursuing these peace tracks, it is the welfare of the families and communities on the ground we wish to ensure and uphold,” she said.

To avoid the mistakes of the past government and restore confidence in the peace process, Deles said the President has approved the establishment of an advisory body to the different peace panels which will be drawn from representatives of the legislature, members of the 1987 Constitutional Commission, former Supreme Court justices and chairs of the government negotiating panel and representatives of local government.

On the issue of the government’s recovery plan for conflict zones in the country, which includes those in Mindanao, she said, the program has a time frame of only three years.

“Given the multi-faceted challenges of communities recovering from conflict, interventions of less than three years will not be enough but more that this would not be sustainable,” Deles explained.
During the period, she said, communities would be asked to draw up a plan within a three-year prospect and detailed one-year physical and financial plan that would become the basis for pushing forward convergent peace and development efforts on the ground.

“By January next year, we hope that the program would be in full blast. As we make peace on the table, the government is determined to build peace on the ground. We will not be able to do it without the cooperation of all stakeholders,” Deles told the participants.

Deles believes that at the end of P-Noys term, peace in Mindanao will be achieved.(NEPTALIE BATOLENIO)