MANILA, March 15 (PNA) — While noting that global terrorism waged by groups like the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant and Al Qaeda require intensive study, the Government (GPH) Panel for talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), however, took exception to lumping all Moro organizations as terrorist organizations.
“By forging the peace agreement with the government, the MILF has committed to renounce violence and terrorism as an ideology and way of life,” said GPH Peace panel chair Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer at a forum organized by the Rotary Club of Manila Bay.
“The full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) will ensure that the leaders and followers of the MILF will desist from going the way of the ISIS,” she said.
On statements made by certain senators on alleged terrorist links of the MILF, the GPH panel chief asked: “If the MILF were considered a terrorist organization, why does the international community, including the United Nations and the ASEAN, support the peace process on the Bangsamoro?”
In her speech before young Rotarians last Saturday, the government chief negotiator recounted the official statements of support issued by several countries and multilateral bodies when the CAB was signed on March 27 last year. These foreign states and institutions include Singapore, Cambodia, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Japan, Brunei, Norway, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Nations, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, among others.
“The UN Country Team commends the GPH for providing a global model for best practice on supporting a peace process,” Coronel-Ferrer recalled the UN’s Philippine offices’ statement on the signing of the CAB. “The UN stands ready to support the implementation of the peace agreement through robust engagement.”
After the Mamasapano incident, several countries further reiterated their support, said the government negotiator.
On Jan. 27, the Embassy of Canada wrote that “Canada continues to engage efforts to achieve peace and we remain committed to supporting the Bangsamoro peace process. We support the diligent efforts of both sides to bring about an era of opportunities for the people of Mindanao.”
The US Embassy followed suit, stating that “the United States reiterates its support for the Philippine government’s efforts to combat international terrorism while promoting a just and lasting peaceful resolution to the conflict in Mindanao.”
The US has a price-tag on the heads of several persons with links to global radical networks like JI, Al Qaeda and ISIS, Marwan among them.
On March 5, according to Coronel-Ferrer, the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines highlighted the importance of the peace process at a high-level forum attended by members of the diplomatic community.
“The peace process provides the opportunity for development, for investment and for prosperity, in Mindanao and the Philippines as a whole. Australia is therefore a staunch supporter of the process towards lasting peace,” Ambassador Bill Twedell said. “The alternative to peace does not bear thinking about.”
The chief government negotiator also enumerated the national organizations who have pushed for the continuity of the peace process on the Bangsamoro, among these, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, the Professors for Peace, and various business groups like the Makati Business Club, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Mindanao Business Council.
“You would not get this kind of national and international support for the peace process if we were dealing with a terrorist organization,” said Coronel-Ferrer.
Meanwhile, government panel members Senen Bacani and Yasmin Busran Lao asked the two senators who have withdrawn their support to Senate Bill 2408 why they sponsored the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law if they did not deem it important.
Lao and Bacani also asked if the basis for the alleged terrorist tag on the MILF have been validated or cross-checked with credible domestic and international sources who have been following up the rise of groups like the Jemaah Islamiyah, ISIS and Al Qaeda.
“All throughout the negotiations and now the implementation of the CAB, we have always worked hand in hand with the security cluster of the Philippine government that is charged with collecting and processing all intelligence information relating to national security,” said the panel members.
“The peace agreement was based on a solid grounding on the social, political and security conditions obtained in Mindanao,” they added. (PNA)