Useless peace talks
| FRONTLINE |
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| Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
Reports are out that the Philippine government wants the Malaysian mediator Datuk Othman Bin Abdul Razak out of the peace talks with the Islamic secessionist group for his “obvious display of bias” toward the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The MILF is apparently not budging, as it insists on retaining the same Malaysian mediator, claiming that Razak has not shown any bias in favor of the MILF — and this demand of the government is being seen as yet another delay in resuming peace talks.
Quite frankly, in these talks with the MILF, it is this separatist group that has been enjoying great advantage, instead of the other way around.
All that time during the Gloria Arroyo regime, the MILF was formally granted certain territories under their armed control, which is a virtual ceding of parts of the Republic to this armed Islamic group.
It had even come to a point where a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain ceding big portions of Mindanao and even Palawan, most of which are dominated by the Christian settlers, was forged between the Arroyo peace panel and the MILF peace panel. And this would have pushed through, had the contents of the MoA-AD not been publicized. Because the accord was, there was great opposition to it from the Filipinos and the case was brought before the high court, which ruled this MoA-AD as unconstitutional..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101117com2.html
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