Opening Statement of GPH Chief Negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer on the 41st GPH-MILF Formal Exploratory Talks 8 October 2013 Thank you very much, Tengku. Assalamu alaikum. On behalf of the Government delegation, members of our panel, Former Secretary Senen Bacani, Undersecretary Yasmin Busran-Lao, Undersecretary Chito Gascon, members of our legal team, and our secretariat. Allow me to extend our salutations to our Malaysian Facilitator Tengku Datu Abdul Ghafar bin Tengku Mohamed, whose barber I must commend for his very young and fresh look. And of course the secretariat headed by Madame Che Kasnah. Our MILF counterparts in the panel led by Chairman Mohagher Iqbal, Datu Abdulla Camlian, Datu Antonio Kinoc, Atty. Raissa Jajurie, we are missing Professor Abhoud Linga who is on hajj, and Brother Bobby Alonto who we hope will get well very soon from his back problems; the other members of the MILF panel; the Head of Secretariat, Brother Jun Matawil; lawyers; and other members of the technical working groups and Transition Commission. The state members of the International Contact Group (ICG): Mr. Ahmet Doğan, from Turkey and not Egypt; Mr. Tom Phipps from the United Kingdom; and who will be joined by Mr. Hirotaka Ono-san I believe, from Japan; and somebody from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia here. The ICG NGOs: Ali Saleem of Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD); Dr. Sudibyo Markus of Muhammadiyah; our warm welcome to Signor Alberto Quattrucci, Secretary-General of the Community, as Tengku said we will call the organization because of the very hard way to pronounce the rest of the name (Community of Sant’Egidio); and certainly the only rose among the ICG thorn, Emma Leslie of Conciliation Resources. We are very happy to have with us today Congressman Rodolfo Biazon from Muntinlupa. Congressman Biazon joined the Government Negotiating Team in our tour of Spain last year to learn more about autonomous arrangements in Navarra and examine intergovernmental relations between Madrid and Spain’s various regions. If we were a class in that educational tour, we can say that Congressman Biazon was the A-student, the one who eagerly raised questions and seriously engaged the discussants from the different government offices in Navarra and Madrid. Expect therefore that because Congressman Biazon will sit quietly for now as observer, he will have many questions for all of us outside of the formal sessions. We trust also that given his wide range of experience in the Marines, as defender of President Aquino against the coup plotters in 1989, and later served as her AFP Chief of Staff, and many years as legislator thereafter, he will be an articulate and passionate advocate of this process and the future Bangsamoro Basic Law. Congressman Biazon, we will count on you to be our voice in Congress. Later this week, we will be joined by one more member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Teddy Broner Baguilat Jr., as well as Presidential Adviser Teresita Quintos Deles and perhaps one or more Cabinet secretaries and another Congress official to witness, In Sha Allah, the closure of at least one of the two remaining Annexes. We regret that the ex-officio member of the GPH Panel, Secretary Mehol Sadain, Chair of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos is unable to join us in this round because of his paramount duty as Amerul Haj of this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca. And so it has come to pass that we are now on the 41st round of Formal Exploratory Talks between the Government and the MILF. Going by the June 2013 survey results of the Social Weather Stations (SWS), a good 70 percent of Filipinos still believe a peace agreement between the GPH and the MILF is possible. However, only one-half of those people who continue to believe actually expect it to happen soon by or before 2016. It is evident from these survey results that the key question to many people following up this negotiation is not so much IF we will have a peace agreement, but WHEN. After the WHEN question, there are the even more difficult WHAT IF questions. Just to give you a survey of the “what if” questions we have received during our various consultations: WHAT IF for some intent, malicious or otherwise, a case is filed in the Supreme Court against the agreements and actually prospers? WHAT IF the Transition Commission is unable to finish a draft law by early-2014? Will Congress have enough time to work on it, when budget deliberations start once again next year, and who knows what other pork or other corruption controversies arise in Congress? WHAT IF the President fails to muster enough support in Congress for this urgent bill? WHAT IF Congress mangles the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law submitted by the Transition Commission? WHAT IF some of the ARMM provinces do not join the Bangsamoro political entity? WHAT IF traditional politicians end up capturing the Bangsamoro in 2016 and thereafter? Will the MILF accept the election results? Those who have asked the WHEN and WHAT IF questions do so, not just out of impatience, but of genuine concern for the success of the process. This impatience and the concern are also driven by the rise in violence perpetrated by those who want this process to fail. From July to September, the GPH Panel Secretariat documented more than 50 cases of attacks initiated by the BIFF on civilian installations, communities, and military outposts. The Abu Sayyaf and other criminal groups collaborated in some of these attacks, and instigated their own as well, such as the bombing in Cagayan de Oro City. However, these did not match the scale of armamentation that we saw in the September siege of Zamboanga City by a faction of the MNLF. In contrast, the ceasefire between the Government and the MILF remains steadfast with zero hostilities and increased cooperation in preventing untoward incidents and containing criminal activities. This alone is good reason for all those concerned about peace in Mindanao, WHY, why it is important to pursue this process between the GPH and the MILF: so that this temporary ceasefire becomes permanent, and in becoming permanent, the other, better things become possible; and so that those who continue to take the path of violence will be isolated, and the rest who commit to peace will coalesce to bring about a broad consensus on the way forward. We, the negotiating partners present here and the friends of this process in the room, will need to steadfastly work together to foil the many WHAT IFs. We carry a great burden borne out of equally great expectations. We know that it will require a lot of hard work, the appropriate strategies, the effective mechanisms and collaborative approaches, at the soonest possible time. Allow me to borrow words of wisdom from a higher source to help us in our task. As my husband knows very well, I am not a very prayerful person. But the First Reading in last Sunday’s mass awed me as a message so fitting for this, our journey With your indulgence, allow me to lift excerpts from the reading. It starts aptly with a lament over the man-made suffering around us. How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. And this is the Lord’s answer: For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of faith, shall live. (Holy Bible, 1:2-3; 2:2-4) “The rash one has no integrity, but the just one, because of faith, shall live.” Indeed, if it has taken us a long while to put down in words and phrases in the Annexes, it is because we want to guarantee the integrity of the outcome. We need to ensure the justness of the solutions we are adopting for one and all, so that with the faith of our fellow Filipinos, this agreement will live and let live the hopes for less strife, good governance, harmony, cooperation and a better life among the Bangsamoro and the whole country. Padayon! Mabuhay! Thank you. ------------------------------ OPENING STATEMENT OF MOHAGHER IQBAL, CHAIR OF THE MILF PEACE PANEL, DURING THE 41ST GPH-MILF EXPLORATORY Tuesday, Oct 08 2013 Written by Mohagher Iqbal I have been asked many times by people especially media about my expectation of this round of talks. In my usual way, I told them the road ahead is unpredictable. Negotiation is one human endeavor that is difficult to predict. I have been in this process for the last 14 years or so, but I hardly make any prediction of the outcome. Whether the comment is positive or negative, it hardly helps; on the contrary, it either raises undue expectations or fears which are sometimes difficult to handle. Today, we are once again back to this bustling metropolis of Kuala Lumpur to try to settle the remaining two annexes of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) before the parties can sign the comprehensive peace agreement. While we admit the issues before us are tough, substantive, and sensitive or irritating, at times, but if we can mutually improve, as I said previously, on our respective internal working process, I am sure we can move forward quite faster. One way to do is for the parties not to engage in too much legalism because the process is not a legal process but a political process. Much of what we intend to do to address the Bangsamoro Question is to think “out of the box”, because the current Constitution of the Philippines is too narrow and restrictive to argue or entrench any real solution to this problem. A half-baked solution is no better than no solution at all; worse, the conflict will stay or worsen with all its ugly faces. This we must start arresting now and not to leave it for the next leaders or generations to handle. That might be too late. It is on this frame that I caution ourselves that whether there is a need to amend the Constitution or not is not a settled issue. Let us wait for the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) to make a stand on this. Therefore, the Constitution should not be used as an argument to limit our creativity to solve the Bangsamoro Question. The GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996 is a case in point. This agreement, although flawed in both substance and implementation, had better served our people if in its totality was made part of the Constitution or used to amend it. But that affirmative action was never fully considered or consummated. What was done by government was merely to scratch the surface. However, despite its infirmities, the MILF has considered the GRP-MNLF Final Agreement as an achievement not only of the MNLF but an added feather on the long and protracted struggle of the Moro people for their right to self-determination. The MILF has never been remiss in this recognition. This is the reason the MILF had made a stand that it wanted the GRP-MNLF peace pact fully implemented and what it is negotiating with government is what is lacking in this agreement, which is diverse and compelling. And more importantly, the fruits of this current endeavor will redound to the benefits of everybody including the MNLF. This is the reason that we appeal to our brothers in the MNLF to support the MILF, or at least not to stand on the way. They should give us all the chances to succeed as what we did to them by heartily allowing them for 16 long years to prove their thesis as correct. If they failed, they should also look at themselves for answers. The other way to improve our system of engagement and be productive is to conduct our meeting in a collaborative way as problem-solving exercise. Both parties must swing from positional modes to putting forward our minimum positions without losing sight of the larger picture. Each tree is important but the forest is more important. The forest must not be sacrificed for the sake of just one tree. Rigidity, which is almost equal to imposition, is anathema to good and successful negotiation. This approach can also be supplemented by resorting to exchange of notes or formulations covering as many points as possible. This is to save time and tense moments. Sometimes, the principle in negotiation of being “soft to people and hard to issues” is often forgotten by the parties, and at times, the process becomes more of a personal engagement. At this juncture, I would like to urge the parties to resolve and finish the remaining annexes especially power-sharing, because it seriously impedes the working timeline of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) in crafting the Bangsamoro Basic Law. If the three Honorable Congressmen, Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong, Rufus Rodriguez, and Jesus Sacdalan, who graced our meeting recently, were to be asked, which we did, they want the Basic Law finished by the BTC before January next year. Let us not forget that it was on October 15, 2012 that the parties signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), and it set December of that year for the parties to finish the four annexes. The next December is less than two months from now and we are still struggling to finish the job. Perhaps, at this point, it is interesting to ask ourselves why it takes too long for us to finish the remaining annexes. Most of the answers to this question are very clear to all of us. But what is not openly discussed or admitted is the characteristic nature of states to be over protective of its powers. I dare say here, almost without exceptions, that states are selfish in sharing their powers and resources to sub-entities even to the point of depriving other peoples to enjoy their inherent right to self-determination. On the part of MILF, I think it cannot be faulted for “asking too much” or like asking the moon to fall, because what we are only seeking in this negotiation is way below of what used to be enjoyed by our forefathers. Succinctly put, we are negotiating for what is above the ARMM up to a level short of an independent entity. Specifically, that arrangement must be better than what the MNLF had achieved, lest they will laugh and mock us no end. More importantly, that agreement will be acceptable to our people and will lead to solving the Bangsamoro Question. Short of this, our efforts will be in vain. Lastly, I want to inform the parties, especially the Malaysian facilitator and secretariat and members of the International Contact Group (ICG) that the BTC had passed a resolution last October 4 authorizing the BTC Chair to enter into an agreement with members of the civil society organizations (CSOs) and other entities for the conduct of public engagement. The various stakeholders, both rights-based and interests-based, and the people at large have to be engaged, informed, and their views sought in the writing of the Basic Law. I believe that some of the best ideas are down there among the people and these cannot be accessed until we engage them with sincerity and frankness. In this regard, we have scheduled the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the CSOs, as initial partners, at the Office of the BTC in Cotabato City on October 17. These CSOs will help the BTC in reaching out to the people, as a necessary component of the process in the crafting of the Basic Law, without prejudice to the BTC’s prerogative to engage other entities to undertake the same activities. More importantly, the BTC would still do the most crucial and overall public engagement especially those involving key players and agencies in government. Thank you and wassalam!
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 01:59:22 +0000