Tough issues facing Aquino government in peace negotiations

Governance, ancestral domain, constitutional reform, to name a few — Abaya

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The incoming Aquino administration will face tough issues as it pursues peace talks with Muslim separatist and communist rebel groups, outgoing presidential peace adviser Annabelle T. Abaya said, as the process centers on contentious issues.

“The peace process will enter a difficult stage since the negotiations will now deal on the integral part of the talks,” she told BusinessWorld.

With preliminary issues completed, Ms. Abaya noted that talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will involve governance and ancestral domain.

The Supreme Court’s rejection of the territorial deal sparked an armed conflict between the military and disgruntled rebel leaders who attacked civilian communities following the botched deal.

The four-decade-old talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, meanwhile, will center on socioeconomic reform, constitutional and political reforms, and ending of hostilities, Ms. Abaya said.

Such issues, she added, are the most challenging that the Arroyo administration had tried to solve.

On Monday, Fidel Agcaoili, head of NDF’s human rights committee and spokesman for the rebels’ peace panel, said in a statement that “the NDF has already announced its readiness to resume the peace negotiations with the new government.

“The ‘Noynoy’ Aquino administration can follow or not the advice of the outgoing officials of the Arroyo regime. Whatever it does, the revolutionary movement is ready to respond appropriately,” he said.

The Aquino group has no immediate response to the peace overture, although president-elect Senator Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III has said earlier that he is ready to resume talks with rebel groups.

Ms. Abaya was here yesterday with members of the government peace panel negotiating with the MILF to attend a forum on the Mindanao peace process with interested parties in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Talks with the MILF, which has been fighting for larger self-rule in Mindanao, have been ongoing with the recent signing of a six-point declaration that outlines key issues for the incoming administration to pursue.

Ms. Abaya said the administration has laid down mechanisms to move the peace process forward.

“We have gone to many processes. The mechanisms are all there and we have tested it. The right people are already there in [the negotiating table]. Just follow it up; perhaps it will make things easy,” she said.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, she noted, has submitted a transition report to the incoming president, including all peace talks held under the Arroyo administration and the peace process road map.

“We hope that the new administration will continue the dialogue scheme, information-giving, the very strong communication program, and the shaping up of consensus — a common vision of how we wanted things in the negotiations in the future — that we have initiated,” she said.

Ms. Abaya advised the next administration to strengthen transparency in the negotiations.

“They have to resolve it without creating instability in the country. There should be a massive information drive regarding the peace process and create more opportunities for the people to talk about it so we can have a consensus, without those mechanisms it is unlikely for us to achieve an agreement,” she said.

Congress proclaimed on Wednesday Mr. Aquino and Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay as vice president-elect in the May 10 elections after a three-week canvassing record. — Darwin T. Wee, Businessworld