Hasten FAB’s Annexes, Mindanao Advocates Urge WORRIED peace advocates of Mindanao have once again urged Pres. Aquino to expedite the completion of the still unfinished annexes that are central to the earlier-signed but preliminary Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB). In an Independence Day statement issued this week, the Mindanao Peaceweavers coalition, a network of a dozen peace-oriented civil society organizations, said that “We remain cognizant of efforts of spoilers and other negative elements hard at work at crashing the peace process as the talks approach the end stages. MPW sees these stages as the crucial period for all of us to guard and protect the gains of the peace process.’ They said that in view of the unresolved annexes still being threshed out in negotiations in Malaysia, “it remains paramount for the key parties involved to ensure that such a politically-negotiated settlement (i.e., the FAB) is made legally binding and mutually-sealed in the form of a comprehensive agreement. Only then can we comfortably say that we are now headed towards an actual resolution of the Bangsamoro question.” Governmen peace panel Chief Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer recently admitted that discussions with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the crucial annexes have taken a difficult turn. Without the annexes, government cannot enact the creation of an enhanced autonomous regional setup in the manner that the MILF has demanded. The MPW statement said: “We respectfully invoke Pres. Aquino’s avowed social contract with the Filipino people, and we fully resonate and support that this be fulfilled with a final comprehensive agreement consensually signed the soonest; “We humbly urge both the GPH and MILF peace panels to make public an interim update that will concretely clarify the status of the talks specifically on the Annexes of the FAB. Invoking the principle of subsidiarity, we politely remind the peace actors of their accountability to disabuse the public on the status and the substantive consensus already reached vis‐a‐vis the overall peace plan. Such measures will address counterproductive conjectures and speculations due to prolonged silence and lack of real‐time information at this critical juncture of the talks; “We appeal to the newly elected officials in the Senate and Congress to set as one of their urgent public agenda the legislation process of the Bangsamoro Basic Law as they convene themselves as the 16th Congress; “Lastly, we are hopeful that President Aquino will mark his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 2013 with another historic milestone akin to a “coming of age” process of his own people in the Muslim region – the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement for the Bangsamoro.” (Peace Advocates Zamboanga)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 02:13:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015