(January16-22)

Actually, this is the second editorial of the Luwaran dealing practically on the same subject. The first of this sort “2012 crucial year in peace talks” appeared in its January 1-7 posting.

Why is this subject virtually repeated now?

The answer is that the timeline for signing the negotiated political settlement of the Moro Question and the armed conflict in Mindanao is too short and abbreviated; it simply is not beatable. The signing will not happen, unless the government would adopt substantively the MILF proposed comprehensive compact agreement. Then there would be signing, we are sure.

(January 7-15, 2012)

As we repeatedly say, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is not against development, per se, but if such is used to defeat a nobler and higher undertaking, such as the current peace negotiation with the Government of the Philippines (GPH), then it becomes destructive. At the surface, the government’s PAMANA or Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Peaceful and Resilient Communities) program is harmless; it is smiling everywhere, but the underlying motive is suspect. PAMANA is not only a complementary track to peace negotiations but it can assume the only pathway to solve the conflict in Mindanao, because, as applied to the Moros, it is plain and simple counter-insurgency measure.

(January 1-7, 2012)

The Aquino administration through its peace panel headed by Lawyer and former Dean Maria Victor Leonen has set the first quarter of 2012 for the signing of the comprehensive compact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in order to settle once and for the decades-old Moro’s struggle for right to self-determination (RSD) and the raging bloody armed conflict in Mindanao.  This, indeed, is a bold step towards closing the final chapter of what otherwise is a long peace-making process in Mindanao. Imagine, the peace negotiation has been in an off-and-on fashion since 1997 and it is now in its 15th year, spawning four Filipino presidents and nine chief peace negotiators. It is time to arrest the long journey to peace and conclude it right away.

(December 23-31)

President Benigno Aquino III had once described the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a “failed experiment”. This deleterious comment was echoed strongly by Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and added another bad adjective by calling it as a “failed substate”. Indeed, both spoke of the naked truth. After 21 years in existence, the ARMM makes no difference in the lives of the people therein. Poverty is still prevalent everywhere and graft and corruption is already systemic.