JONG CADION
Chief of reporters
MARAWI CITY—Muslim and Christian peace advocates held a two-day rally in Iligan, Marawi and Pagadian cities while mass actions were also held in the cities of General Santos, and Cotabato appealing in the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resume their peace talks..
In Iligan City, the Mindanao People’s Coalition for Peace and Development (MPCPD) and the Civil Society Forum for Peace (CSO-FP) staged their peace rally and meet the press.
In a press conference, Dr. Safrullah Dipatuan, vice chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front- Bangsamoro Development Agency (MILF-BDA) read the present status of the GRP-MILF peace process.
In his briefing, he reckons “it has been 49 days since May 10, 2008 when Malaysia started with the phased withdrawal of its International Monitoring Team (IMT) contingents deployed in designated conflict affected areas in Mindanao.
The move was said to be a result of GRP’s reneging of the consensus points jointly crafted, agreed upon and signed between the GRP and MILF panels, Dipatuan reads.
He said that only 64 days is left before the end of the tour of duty of the IMT team but no progress in the talks is in sight and when the term expires in August 31, 2008, it is still uncertain whether the peace talk could extend.
He added that series of clashes between the two warring forces is causing a lot of consternation among the various sectors of society in Mindanao.
“War is brewing in many places, apprehension is increasing everywhere, and once the IMT contingents pack up, the peace process will then collapse leading to the return of grim scenario of war in Mindanao,” he said.
It is no secret that the two parties are preparing for a worst scenario, Dipatuan added, and that failure to do so in time would mean blood in their hands.
Meanwhile, Pastor Tenorio Jr., MPCP secretary-general also read the manifesto stating an appeal to both the GRP and MILF “to resume the peace talks in soonest possible time.”
Tenerio added that once the negotiations fail, “Mindanao would again be thrown into the whirlwind of political violence and war.”
MPCPD requested in its manifesto that the GRP-MILF “to refrain from making acts inimical to the peace process, acts that would provoke either party to go into an armed confrontation, no matter how isolated that confrontation is, and instead focus on a negotiated political settlement of issues.”
Lawyer Blo Adiong, legal adviser of the MILF vice chairman for military affairs, lauded the MPCPD and the CSO-FP for initiating the activities, saying: “This is one best move that happened here in Mindanao.”
The two groups said the problem will only be solved thgrough these: immediate resumption of the GRP-MILF peace talks and signing of MOA of the ancestral domain, request the extension of the term of the Malaysian-led IMT and the postponement of the ARMM election this August 11.
Meanwhile, in Pagadian City, the peace rally was held at Plaza Luz and lead by the Mindanao Alliance for Peace (MAP)-Pagadian Chapter and the Bansang Moro Civil Society (BMCS) and participated by some 2,000 cause-oriented groups coming from all over Zamboanga Peninsula.
The group scored the ARMM election issue and its continuation as useless “because we did not felt the development inside ARMM and the conduct of another election is not guarantee to solve the present problem which is the food crises and the peace and order condition.”
“There is a possibility that war will happen again because MILF has the capability of doing so,” an unnamed representative of the BMCS told this paper. WITH REPORTS FROM RIC CLET