Majority of Filipinos hopeful of peace between gov’t, MILF

FOUR OUT OF FIVE Filipinos are hopeful of peace between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a new report, even as public satisfaction with the administration’s handling of reconciliation with the Muslim rebels is judged “moderate.”

A June 3-6 poll — staged before President Benigno S. C. Aquino III met with Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ibrahim in Tokyo earlier this month — found 83% of the respondents optimistic that a peace agreement would be reached, with 38% are “very hopeful” (talagang umaasa) and 45% are “somewhat hopeful” (medyo umaasa).

Of the remaining 17%, 8% said they were “somewhat not hopeful” (medyo hindi umaasa) and 9% claimed they were “not hopeful at all” (talagang hindi umaasa).

In a report last month on public satisfaction with the Aquino administration, the SWS said that on the issue of reconciliation with Muslim rebels, the Aquino government had a net score of +25 down seven points from March.

Government officials claimed the survey showed that Filipinos were cognizant of the state’s resolve to find peace in Mindanao.

Government peace panel chairman Mario Victor F. Leonen said he hoped the results would spur “critical discourses on specific positions and competing frameworks … by both parties.”

The SWS said those “very hopeful” on the attainment of peace were the most numerous in Mindanao (59%), followed by the Visayas (38%), Balance Luzon (30%), and Metro Manila (25%). The “somewhat hopeful”, meanwhile, comprised 53% in Metro Manila, 52% in Balance Luzon, 42% in the Visayas and 31% in Mindanao.

The pessimists — either “somewhat not hopeful” or “not hopeful at all” — constituted minorities in Metro Manila (22%), the Visayas (19%), Balance Luzon (17%), and Mindanao (10%).

Those not optimistic that a deal would be reached said the biggest obstacle was that the peace process “has taken too long to resolve.” Among the other obstacles stated were “ideological differences” (12%) and “religious differences” (10%).

For the latest report, the SWS utilized data from face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide. The survey used sampling error margins of ±3% for national and ±6% for area percentages. — Johanna Paola D. Poblete, BUsinessworld