By GRACE S. UDDIN | Davao Today
Davao City Government wants the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to disarm before it can resume peace negotiations with the rebel group.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno during the Mindanao Peace Summit on Friday that gathered Mindanao mayors, governors and congressmen, said that the MILF central committee cannot control their members anymore, particularly MILF Commander Ameril Ombra Kato and Abdulla Macapaar known as Commander Bravo.
Ombra Kato and Bravo staged separate attacks in Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Maguindanao that burned houses and killed civilians after the failed signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain on August 5.
If people do not disarm how can you prevent your rogue elements? If you cannot control your people from using arms, you should disarm them. How can you talk peace if your group is attacking innocent municipalities? Puno asked.
He said that government has introduced new conditions before it can embark in another round of negotiations with the Moro rebel group again: disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation (DDR).
It is now impossible to discuss territory, plebiscite if their elements in the fields suddenly attack municipalities, Puno said. So we have to begin from scratch.
National Police Chief Avelino Razon Jr. and DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno during the Mindanao Peace Summit last Friday at the Waterfront Insular Hotel. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
Philipine National Police Avelino Razon, a guest in the same event, said the MILF leadership had been having difficulty controlling and communicating with its renegade commanders.
The government has dissolved the peace panel and introduced the DDR as a precondition for the holding of new round of talks with the MILF.
The President has ordered a new paradigm in the peace process, Puno said. Peace negotiations shall be focused from one that is centered on dialogue with the rebels to one of authentic dialogues with the communities and stakeholders who will formulate the roadmap for the peace process, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in an earlier statement.
The new policy covered other peace negotiations, including the GRP-MILF peace talks, the stalled peace negotiations with CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Democratic Front), the implementation of the GRP-MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) peace agreement of 1996, the status of past GRP-MILF interim agreements, the implementation of the GRP-RPA-ABB (Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade) agreement and the GRP-CPLA (Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army) agreement of 1986 and applicable provisions of RA 9054.
But the MILF said the group will not dissolve their peace panel and the members will continue to do their functions.
Amirah Lidasan, national president of the partylist group Suara Bangsamoro, criticized the DDR as a framework for the peace negotiations.
Puno said that police operations will continue if the MILF will not disarm.
The government already placed a cash reward of 10 million pesos each on Commanders Bravo and Ombra Katos heads. The AFP and PNP in Central Mindanao also vowed to use all necessary force if the two commanders resist arrests. Officials, however, clarified that the manhunt and pursuit operations only targeted Ombra Kato and Bravo and not the whole MILF organization.
But Razon said soldiers are also pursuing another MILF commander, Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian, who reportedly participated in Lanao del Norte attacks. Government put a cash bounty of five million pesos on his head.
But in its official website luwaran.com http://www.luwaran.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=883, the MILF dared the government to also file arson charges against the Civilian Volunteers Organizations (CVOs) and the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units (Cagfus) who burned 132 houses in North Cotabato, half of which belonged to the Moros.
The MILF said culprits of civilian abuses identified with the government were spared.
The group dared the government to use the 10 million cash bounty intended for its commanders to buy food for the evacuees. Kato and Bravos cases, the MILF said, could have been handled with the mechanism of the GRP- MILF ceasefire agreement.
Earlier, the MILF sought the intervention of the United Nations in resolving the conflict. But Puno said the problem is an internal one, which the government is equipped to handle.
The war between government soldiers and the MILF already displaced 47,000 evacuees, according to Razon. Some evacuees sought the help of relatives and did not go to the evacuation centers, hence, were not counted.
Puno said government will augment police forces for deployment to different regions in Mindanao considered critical. The government already deployed 1,000 forces and placed 2,500 more as reserved forces.
Aside from the additional police forces, police auxiliaries consisting of volunteers, will also help in maintaining peace and order, Puno said. But he said these auxiliaries will not be allowed to carry firearms, dismissing criticisms of government arming civilians. (Grace S. Uddin/ www.davaotoday.com)
