Editorial: MILF talks sense!.

This is an editorial from Malaya. Malaya loses no opportunity to attack Arroyo! However, it does seem as if the Arroyo administration was negotiating in bad faith given that the negotiators seem not to have the power they were supposed to have. Even so the Supreme Court claimed the agreement was unconstitutional. This surely must be frustrating to the MILF and it is not surprising that some of the commanders should rebel and renew conflict. At least during Ramada it seems as if there is relative peace again so far. It remains to be seen if MILF will be willing to wait for Arroyo to be out of power! There is no guarantee things would improve with her departure.


MILF talks sense
Editorial

'The challenge now is how to prevent the outbreak of all-out war.'
We might as well wait for the next president after the 2010 elections." No wiser words than these we have lately heard on the peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which appear headed for the rocks.
Mohagher Igbal, MILF chief negotiator, added:
"The peace process is now in purgatory. It was buried by government's decision not to sign the ancestral domain agreement. We're not only disappointed and frustrated over government's decision to turn its back on the ancestral domain deal, we've completely lost trust and confidence in them. The fate of the peace negotiation rests solely in the hands of the government."
We have suspicions about the MILF's ultimate aim, which is the setting up of an independent state. They have also proven to be hard bargainers. But we have to concede that that the proposed memorandum agreement on ancestral domain was a product of negotiations between two panels authorized by both principals. There was a meeting of minds. The agreement was initialed by representatives of both sides. In fact, had the Supreme Court not stopped the government from signing, the MOA-AD would have been a fait accompli on August 5.
Now Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera has claimed before the Supreme Court that Gloria Arroyo had not read the proposed agreement, much less authorized government chief negotiator Rodolfo Garci and peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon, who were already in Kuala Lumpur when the Supreme Court issued the TRO, to sign on behalf of the government.
Susan Roces was wrong in saying "ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw." They are the same person. The evidence of such identity has been piling up since the day Gloria took her oath as president when the elected one was still alive, in full control of his body and his mind, and had not been impeached by the Senate.
The MILF's mistake was in presuming it was negotiating with someone in good faith. But that's all water under the bridge. The Executive department has declared it has no intention of signing the MOA in its present form or in other form, for that matter.
The challenge now is how to prevent the outbreak of all-out war. Iqbal's suggestion that the MILF wait for the next president is a good starting point.
It's less than a year before Gloria's exit. While waiting for her departure, the current truce could be kept in place. The MILF leadership has already declared it would not resume hostilities, adding that the units engaged in recent attacks did so without its authorization.
The military, for its part, has said it was limiting its offensive against the leaders of these "rogue" MILF units. The troops can continue going after Commanders Kato and Bravo. The latter can also continue playing hide and seek with their pursuers. It's not the first time such choreographed maneuvers have taken place in the South.
Before we know it, it's already June 30, 2010. Negotiations can then resume.