The Armed Forces (AFP) on Thursday expressed hopes that the latest snag on peace efforts with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not lead to possible outbreak of violence.
An AFP official said this, following reports that peace-talks between the government (GRP) and the MILF is in danger of collapsing anew after the latter rejected the GRP’s peace proposal.
Lt. Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr., AFP chief information officer, said that despite the MILF’s rejection of the government’s proposal, the peace and order situation in Mindanao still remains stable.
“We are assured by our commanders on the ground that the peace and order situation [in Mindanao] will not bog down because of these latest developments in the peace-talks,” Brawner said.
The AFP official added that so far, both sides are honoring the existing ceasefire agreement.
“The AFP policy is that we will respect the primacy of the peace-talks and we will of course follow that thrust and we will interpret in terms of the ceasefire agreement that we’re having with the MILF,” Brawner said.
But in any case, Brawner said the military is always ready to respond to any situation that may arise as a consequence of the MILF’s rejection of the government’s peace proposal.
“We are not expecting that but we are ready for any eventuality, that is why, if you will look at our troops on the ground, we are positioned in such a way that we will be able to address any peace and order situation,” Brawner said.
He said the military will continue to support government peace efforts with the MILF until a peace-agreement has been reached with the secessionist group.
“There could be disagreements, but this is normal whenever you have negotiations and that’s the process of negotiation, there are proposals and counter-proposals until an agreement is reached,” Brawner said.
Early this month, Presidential Peace Adviser, Secretary Annabelle Abaya said they remain optimistic that a peace agreement with the MILF will be signed before President Arroyo steps down from office on June 30 this year.
Abaya added that peace-negotiations with the MILF will formally resume anytime soon following two days of exploratory talks between the Philippine government and the MILF in Kuala Lumpur late last month.
Peace talks between the government and the MILF were stalled after the Supreme Court shot down the signing of a GRP-MILF memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MO-AD) in August 2008.
This was followed by a flare-up of hostilities between government forces and the MILF that resulted into the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in central Mindanao. Anthony Vargas
mindoropost.com 