GRP talks with MILF fails despite P5-million ‘sweetener’

After pocketing P5 million in a government check handed out by the government’s chief peace negotiator Dean Marvic Leonen, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiating panel flatly rejected yesterday the government’s counter-proposal on how to resolve the conflict between the government and the MILF, ending the resumption of the peace talks a day ahead of the actual negotiation schedule.

Leonen made this admission in a video conference with the Malacañang media Tuesday despite the initial optimism expressed by President Aquino who went all the way to Tokyo to secretly meet with MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim purportedly to establish goodwill with the Moro secessionist group.

Leonen however refused to accept that this meant a failure of the Aquino government’s first formal negotiations with the MILF and insisted that the 22-page document containing the government position will still be submitted to the MILF Central Committee for further review despite the fact that everything in it was already rejected by the MILF peace panel headed Mohagher Iqbal.

“What did the MILF do in relation to our proposal? The GPH panel submitted the proposal to the MILF yesterday. Last night, the MILF accepted the proposal. Last night, the MILF studied the proposal and decided to advise the GPH this morning that it will be advising its central committee to reject the proposal. However, the MILF panel did not return the document but they (MILF) said they needed the document to still show thisl to their central committee for their decision,” Leonen said.

He insisted however that that this position of the MILF is “ not unusual in negotiations that one of the parties take a hardline position on the contents of the initial documents of another party.

“We are going to report to the President, await his instructions and his mandate. But, in the meantime, we will go around the country to explain the contents of our proposal and get further feedback on this particular approach,” he added.

The MILF’s wholesale rejection of the government’s counter-proposal ironically came after Leonen admitted out handing out to Iqbal’s panel P5 million in check which is supposedly for the group’s Bangsamoro Leadership Management Institute (BLMI).

“Today, we have formally concluded the 22nd exploratory talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front a day ahead of the official schedule. As part of the government’s commitment during the 14th exploratory talks held on Nov. 14 to 15 2007 and as mandated by His Excellency, the President, after the historic meeting with the MILF Chairman Al Hadj Murad Ebrahim, the GPH panel carried a check worth P5 million for the continuous establishment of the BangsaMoro Leadership Management Institute (BLMI),” Leonen said in a statement read during the video conference.

“The BLMI is envisioned to be a center of excellence and repository of knowledge in the discipline of human resources development that produces individuals of impeccable character equipped with exemplary leadership and managerial qualities for the transformation of the BangsaMoro people.

It is government’s commitment to help in the development of future BangsaMoro leaders and managers who will utilize their political and socioeconomic knowledge and skills to improve the situation in the BangsaMoro homeland,” he added.

According to Leonen, the government’s counter-proposal is a deviation from the MILF’s position for the creation of a Bangsamoro substate as it only proposed the creation of a new organic law that would lead the way for a creation an autonomous region similar to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which is a by-product of the government’s peace deal with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Despite the setback in the first round of the peace talks with the MILF under the Aquino administration, Leonen said peace negotiations will continue. He also noted that during the negotiations, the government peace panel raised the issue about MILF’s renegade commander Ameril Umbra Kato where the MILF reportedly “disclosed that the central committee prior to their coming over declared Kato as ‘bugat’ or one who defies or does not obey an order.”

“Government is considering Kato as not within the MILF and that, of course, because he is no longer covered by the ceasefire arrangements then, therefore, the usual legal mechanisms will apply in his steed. They are also informed that this is also the pulsation of some of the leaders of the MILF,” he noted.

Prior to the collapse of the Kuala Lumpur talks, Aquino was very optimistic that Leonen’s panel would be able to pull some sort of breakthrough especially because the negotiation was prefaced with his secret meeting with Murad two weeks ago. He even predicted that the peace talks might not even reach round-two.

Leonen revealed that the government peace panel presented the proposal called “three-for-one approach” which in gist recommends the following:

1. Massive social services and economic development whose objective is reportedly to break the cycle of poverty in the ARMM so that people are actually empowered to undertake economic activities that benefit themselves and their communities in order to achieve real progress

“We offered to the MILF to partner in conflict-affected areas to deliver, implement, and monitor social services and economic development in their areas. Their partnership will contribute immensely to the growth of the area as well as build confidence and trust between the parties,” he said.

2. Political settlement with the MILF which Leonen describes as” a partnership between government and the MILF to foster mutual trust on which debate and dialogue is channeled to find a convergence on the various programs and advocacies among the diverse communities in conflict-affected areas.

“It focuses more on the doables in the short-term rather than dwell on the contentious and divisive issues whose solutions may take a longer time to address. One core component is the creation or the proposed creation of the BangsaMoro Commission that will be established on the principles of inclusivity and will be composed of government, the MILF, and stakeholders in the Mindanao peace process,” Leonen said.

“The Commission is expected to supervise the implementation of the components of this peace agreement which will include or may include the lobby on Congress of a new organic act that will contain a strengthened autonomy on the part of that area,” he added.

3. Cultural, historical acknowledgment. “The third component, cultural, historical acknowledgment that corrects historical narratives and fosters appreciation of distant cultures borne out of the struggles of all Filipinos including those of BangsaMoro identity. However, even as it recognizes the BangsaMoro identity and its history, it takes care not to view it from an overly simplistic interpretation,” Leonen said. –Virgilio J. Bugaoisan and Mario J. Mallari, Daily Tribune