The question cropped up after the arrest last week of ranking Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, even as the stalled peace negotiation between the two parties remained hazy and uncertain.
The Moro National Liberation Front–Executive Council of 15 (MNLF-EC15) said that the peace agreement signed today between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (GRP-MILF) is “problematic” and accused the Malacanang of abrogating the 1996 First Peace Agreement (FPA) with the MNLF,
More than 300 Moro residents here and elsewhere in the region spill into the streets and a public park here and hang green streamers and buntings in a festive mood to celebrate what they say is “historic” day for the Bangsamoro communities here, as Malacanang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace pact today.
A village chieftain here lambasted the military for forcing residents to sign a document that would portray them as “NPA (New People’s Army) surrenderees.”
Balong can now join his batchmates after his family and child’s rights groups rescued him from state forces who presented him to the media as a “child soldier, informer and collector” for the New People’s Army.
Marbel Bishop Dinualdo D. Gutierrez told DavaoToday that “the prelates of Mindanao are hoping that President Aquino will now heed our calls to stop the Tampakan project, discerning on the protection and preservation of the environment and the life of the Lumad inhabitants in South Cotabato.”
The Department of Education plans to provide a subsidy called the expanded voucher program to finance students enrolling at senior high school (Grades 11 and 12).
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and a former head of the government’s peace panel said that if senior communist leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria who were arrested Saturday showed genuine immunity papers, they “should be released” because the government should “honor what we have committed to the people and to the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines).”
Davao’s Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla demanded justice for the country’s extra-judicial killings that included his brother, former political detainee and fair trade advocate Romeo, who was gunned down in Oton, Iloilo last week.
