KORONADAL CITY -- The government has set January next year as timeframe for the conclusion of the ticklish ancestral domain agenda in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a ranking government peace negotiator said.

Rudy B. Rodil, vice chair of the government peace panel, however, declined to give specific details involving the territory strand even as he noted that three elements are being considered to thresh out things.

"By the first week of December, we hope to come up with the draft agreement on ancestral domain for signing [hopefully] by middle of January," Rodil said in a peace journalism seminar organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility last week in Antipolo City.

With the government shelling out at least P73 billion in the war with the Moro rebels from 1970 to 1996, Rodil stressed that more days have been utilized in fighting than in talking peace.

"How many children could that amount send to school?" he added.

Although the government signed a final peace agreement in September 1996 with the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro rebellion in Mindanao has not died down with the MILF taking on the cause for the Bangsamoro people.

Rodil said the government dangled 613 villages outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), a region formed in 1990 and ceded to the MNLF following the 1996 peace agreement, to the MILF.

But the MILF rejected the proposal because it will be subjected to the constitutional process of plebiscite.

According to Rodil, the MILF wanted at least one-third of Mindanao to be under its territory and "is no longer pushing for an independent state in the southern Philippines."

Rodil said the three elements being considered in the negotiations to put a close to ancestral domain are the maritime areas, which are adjacent to the autonomous Muslim region and areas that are far from the Armm.

On the maritime aspect, Rodil explained that the MILF is asserting that its areas include not just lands but also the seas because Moros are sea-faring people.

Rodil, a historian, said that Moro people used to dominate the political, cultural, and economic landscape of Mindanao but this all changed over time with the coming in of settlers several decades ago.

He said that after the ancestral domain agenda will be agreed on, they would then proceed to the signing of a compact peace agreement that includes security and rehabilitation.

The security and rehabilitation/development aspects have been approved by both sides a few years ago.

Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, MILF chair, earlier said the front is anticipating rough sailing for the final political settlement of the Mindanao conflict with the government.

"I see more challenges ahead on the political negotiations. That is why we need more help from the international community and the local key players of the peace process," Murad said in a statement.

But the MILF chairman expressed confidence the stumbling blocks can be hurdled with strong political will especially on the side of the government, leading to the forging of a comprehensive peace agreement possibly within 2008.

Last October, both sides were able to break the deadlock caused by the ancestral domain agenda starting September last year.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF, currently the largest Islamic armed group in the country, started in 1997.

Present negotiations are being brokered by Malaysia, which is also leading the International Monitoring Team mandated to check on ceasefire violations. 

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Thousands of disgruntled government teachers in the province of Sulu have threatened to stage mass protest if the government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) fail release their unpaid salaries and other benefits. The ARMM was created as a result of the final peace agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in September 1996.


The teachers are complaining that they have not been paid of their salaries and other benefits since the past year and that their contribution or remittances to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) were not also transmitted to GSIS office in Manila.

Some 1,000 public school teachers sought the help and intervention of Gov. Sakur Tan of Sulu to help them bring the matter to the attention of the president.

The Sug Educators Forum headed by Jackaria Rasik is demanding the Manila government to conduct investigation on reported corruption of government officials in the ARMM. A certain Abdulbasit Pawaki, President of Federation of Sulu Teachers, is also asking the government to conduct investigation and to audit those officials concerned in the ARMM.

The report said that since the time of Nur Misuari as governor of ARMM down to Dr. Farouk Hussin and to the present administration, the teachers in the ARMM region have been complaining of their unpaid salaries and benefits as well as their GSIS remittances.

Mr. Ahmad Jundam of Indanan Sulu in a telephone interview told Luwaran that the teachers in his municipality are also complaining of the same predicament.

Meanwhile, the SSS office in Cotabato City has been transferred to Kidapawan City  recently for security reasons. Some employees are reportedly receiving threats from still unknown individuals, demanding them to shut their mouth or else they would be silenced forever.

 Effort by Luwaran to verify this report failed.

source: luwaran website

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The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not engage in word war with MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari relating to his stinging remarks contained in his speech during the opening session of the Tripartite Meeting Meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 10, 2007. The speech was read for him by Almarin Tillah, the brother of former Senator Santanina Rasul.

Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF Committee on Information, told Luwaran that the MILF leadership fully grasps the difficult situation confronting the MNLF leader, who has been detained for more than six years and whose release is dependent on the mercy of the government.

He said a person who is not free and practically caged for years usually speaks with intense emotions and vents his ire on people or groups whom he believed are stumbling blocks to what he thinks is the right way of doing things.
 
“We understand him and we hope he will be freed soon.”
 
He said the MILF will not resort to word war but to dialogue and reach out to our brothers in the various factions of the MNLF that what the MILF intends to sign with the government is better than the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement in all aspects.He also said the MILF will explain to the MNLF leaders that the MILF leaders have no personal agenda once a peace deal with the government is realized but for the benefits of the entire Bangsamoro people.
 
However, he said the MILF is preparing a paper which will outline the comparison between the GRP-MNLF FPA and the various points so far agreed by the GRP and MILF negotiators in order to showcase where the difference between the two agreements lies.
 
The MILF is also planning to send a delegation to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in order to brief the OIC about the progress of the GRP-MILF Peace Talks.

In July 2006, the Malaysian government had arranged a special meeting with the OIC Assistant Secretary General for International Relations Atta El-Manan Bakheit for a joint briefing by the GRP and MILF peace panels. Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr. led the government delegation and Mohagher Iqbal the MILF group.
 
Before the joint briefing took place, there was first separate briefing for the OIC official by the GRP and MILF peace panels.

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After negotiators of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) wrapped up and agreed on the issue of maritime domain of the future Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), they paid a courtesy call to the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and concurrently Minister of Defence Dato’ Seri Najib Mohammad bin Abdul Razak at his residence in Kuala Lumpur last November 15, 2007. GRP peace panel chairman Sec. Rodolfo C. Garcia and MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal were accompanied by Prof. Rudy Rodil and Atty. Michael Mastura during the call, which lasted for about an hour.

Also present were Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak, who made the arrangement for the courtesy call, and Dato’ Zamzamin bin Hashim of the Research Department.

The main purpose of the call was to personally convey to the Malaysian leader the request of the two Parties, the GRP and MILF, for the extension of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the expansion of its coverage to include the provinces of Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, and Palawan.

Both requests were positively granted by the Malaysian leader.

However, during the meeting the Malaysian leader reiterated earlier view of his government that the GRP-MILF Peace Process must show substantive progress, according to report, “in order to give importance and meaning to the IMT presence.”

During the September 2007 special meeting of the GRP and MILF negotiators in Kuala Lumpur, Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak, chief pace facilitator and speaking in behalf of his government, told the GRP and MILF peace panels that the IMT would be pulled out in three months, which falls at the end of this month, if there is no substantive progress of the talks.

It is widely believed that the recent substantive progress of the talks particularly on both the land and maritime areas of the BJE, which so far is the hardest nut to crack in the ten-year talks, gives enough reason for the Malaysian government to extend the IMT tour of duty until August 30, 2008.

The Malaysian leader also talked of the need to pour investment into Mindanao once a peace deal is signed between the Parties.

He also sought clarification on both Parties especially to the Philippine government represented by Secretary Rodolfo Garcia on how best ways to comply and implement their part of the bargain, citing the presence of diverse political groups in the Philippines.

The reply was not reported.

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Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) Regional Director Joel Goltiao has readied a battalion of policemen to secure the area where Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan is set to deliver his state-of-the-region-address (Sora) Wednesday.

Soldiers belonging to the Army's 6th Infantry Division were also deployed in the area.

The Armm governor is set to deliver his speech at the 32-hectare Armm complex in Cotabato City.

Hundreds of mayors from different towns, six governors, and several dignitaries from different foreign-funding institutions and non-government organizations (NGOs) are expected to attend Ampatuan's Sora.

Ampatuan said he would pay homage to the late Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar who was one of those killed in the blast that rocked the building of the House of Representatives.

The speech, he said, is focused on how his administration managed the region for the past year and his plans for the coming years.

The region, created on August 1, 1989 through Republic Act No. 6734 otherwise known as the Organic Act, is still experiencing economic woes.

But the region, he said, is coping with problems on low literacy rates, lack of livelihood opportunities, poor delivery of basic services, through the help of many foreign-funding institutions, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).

For more than a decade after the signing of the peace accord between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the region is still the poorest in the country.

"My speech will not just focus on how far has my administration gone with its local and foreign-funded socio-economic projects in the Armm, but also on how we shall go about with more maneuvers aimed at converting the region into a progressive community of mixed Muslim and non-Muslim residents," he said. 

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Regional Secretary Nasar A. Salmani of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the expanded autonomous region has launched the drive of the new ARMM management under Governor Parouk S. Hussin to provide one of the most needed basic services - the production of sufficient, affordable and accessible food for everyone.

In route on his tour of the provinces to consolidated the agriculture department's manpower and program resources, Regional Secretary Salmani also presided over the conduct of various provincial activities under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) food production program.

In Tawi-Tawi, Salmani distributed 342 sacks of certified palay seeds and 155 sacks of registered seeds that will be planted in the newly opened 497 hectares rice area in the Municipality of Languyan. The seeds were handed by the Secretary as the province is being developed as a new rice area of ARMM, in addition to Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. The seeds, distributed on February 22, 2002 at the DAF Provincial Office, will be planted in the later portion of the dry season - November 2001 to April 2002. With a substantial rice-eating population, Tawi-Tawi has been importing rice from Zamboanga and Sandakan, Malaysia. Tawi-Tawi has 8,000 to 10,000 hectares potential area for rice.

Tawi-Tawi's Provincial Agricultural Officer (PAO) Sangkula A. Tindick announced during the meeting that the Local Government Officials of the province have committed to support the rice farmers in their areas by providing the farmers' counterpart of the purchase cost of the rice seeds under the so-called 50-50 subsidy of the Department of Agriculture. The LGU will pay half of the P 650.00 or P 325.00 per bag of 40 kilos seeds out of their 20% agricultural development fund. The LGU noted that the difficulty of the farmers in meeting the 50% counterpart required under the Department of Agriculture's GMA Rice Program may affect program implementation. In support to the Tawi-Tawi GMA Rice Program, a consultative workshop conducted on February 21, 2002 at the area raised the issue on the lack of working animals and farm implements and post-harvest facilities and technical trainings. On the same occasion, Secretary Salmani and Operations Director Keise Tan Usman committed to provide five (5) power tillers, five (5) multi-purpose drying pavements with five(5) mini-warehouse in the municipalities of Languyan, Panglima-Sugala, Tandubas, Mapun and Bongao. Secretary Salmani also distributed eleven (11) heads of cattle; six (6) heads of carabaos and sixty (60) goats for Rural Improvement Clubs and 4-H Club members. The Secretary also launched the artificial insemination program for livestock using imported Brahman cattle semen The livestock industry of the province has taken a backseat while the province took a lead role in seaweeds production. In a multi-sectoral meeting attended by farmers and DA officials, a proposal for the establishment of a stock farm and ten multiplier farms was endorsed for inclusion in the GMA livestock program of the government. A farmers group committed an area of at least one hundred hectares for the stock farm development. Tawi-Tawi has been importing its meat requirements from the Zamboanga area. Tawi-Tawi contributes 80% of the national dried seaweed production. In fish production, Tawi-Tawi contributes the bulk of ARMM's total output that is 15% of the national output. Overall fishery regional production ranks ARMM second to Region IV. By provincial ranking, Tawi-Tawi is probably the country's top producer as seaweed production falls under the fishery category.

The Secretary and the ARMM Rice Task- Force also met with the National Food Authority Provincial Manager Israel "Tots" S. Jadjuli on the mechanics of the DA-NFA Rice procurement and distribution scheme in support to the rice program

High Value Commercial Crops production in Tawi-Tawi still needs the full support of the department. Currently DAF-ARMM has programmed the provision of quality planting materials, post-harvest facilities for cassava, and establishment of technology demonstration on sweet corn and vegetables.

In an interview with DAF-ARMM Media, Professor Romeo Taup and Redentor Lauddin, President and V-President of the Tawi-Tawi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, great optimism for the agri-fisheries sector with the opening of the cross-border travel with the neighboring Malaysian state was apparent. Among the local products that will be marketed via this route are dried seaweeds and other fishery products. The officials, however, prescribed a joint government-private sector move for product quality improvement in order to raise sufficient export demand and consequently generate expansion in production.

Also aimed to improve productivity, the Research and Development activities of the agriculture department were also inspected by Secretary Salmani. Among these were the sea fish cages for Lapu-Lapu, a highl-priced fish with ready export market. A newly-built Research Center for Germplasm collection, conservation and evaluation was also inspected. This facility is designed to develop and conserve plant species in the area for long-term use.

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A high-ranking official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) – Region XII here cheated death on Friday as a grenade intended for him failed to explode.

Supt. Willy Dangane, city police chief, said DA-XII Finance Officer Osmeña Montanier has just alighted from his vehicle around 1:30 p.m. and was on his way for work at the DA building situated along Sinsuat Avenue here when two motorcycle-riding men zipped by and rolled on the pavement an MK-2 fragmentation grenade towards him.

“Fortunately, the grenade bounced off from Montanier’s parked vehicle’s tire and did not explode despite its safety pin off as its safety lever got stuck at a roadside drainage canal,” Dangane said.

Other DA-XII employees called the local police for assistance after informing them of the incident.

Responding members of the Army’s Explosive Disposal Ordnance Unit sealed off the area and detonated the live grenade due to its precarious position.
 

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Marawi City, Philippines: Some new village officials in the province of Lanao del Sur have been trying to assume office since their proclamation in the recent concluded October 29 Barangay and Sangunayang Kabataan Elections. The question has been raised: "who has the authority to receive the Barangay Internal Revenue Allocation for the month of November," invites disagreement between the outgoing and the incoming officials.

This controversy has been normalized after the disclosure of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Acting Chairman Resurreccion Z. Borra that the three-year term of office of the newly elected or reelected 671,120 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials in the last Oct. 29 synchronized village polls starts on Nov. 30.

Borra highlighted this in the wake of reports that many newly elected barangay and SK officials have tried to assume their posts after they were proclaimed winners, creating misunderstanding between the outgoing and incoming village officials.

He said barangay and SK officials who might not have been reelected have the duty to continue performing their functions up to Nov. 30, while the newly elected have to wait until that date before they could perform their duties.

"Incumbent village officials who might have lost in the Oct. 29 village polls could be charged with neglect of public duties, while those newly elected could be guilty of usurpation of functions if they would insist on performing their duties before their term of office starts," Borra explained as published in the Manila Bulletin, a leading news paper in the Philippines.

He also said that except for candidates affected by pending disqualification petitions or failure to elect, all winning village and SK officials in the country's 41,995 barangays have been proclaimed.

Many people in this province have expressed their thanks to the Comelec Commissioner after his disclosure that the term of office of the new Barangay and Sangunayang Kabataan Officials  starts on November 30, 2007.

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Unknown persons at dawn today reportedly fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) at the residence of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. along Barangay Pangao Saduc, Marawi City, reports monitored here said.

It cannot be ascertained if the governor was in his house, and no one was reported hurt in the 3:30 a.m. attack, according to Chief Police Supt. Joel Goltiao in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The canopy of the governor's house was damaged while another projectile destroyed a nearby bridge, Goltiao said.

Goltiao has deployed additional police forces around the house to deter further attacks as investigation on the case continues.

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A new book on the peace-making in Mindanao is to be launched on November 28 at Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan, it was learned by Luwaran recently. According to Prof Abhoud Syed Lingga, head of the Institute of Peace, which publishes the book, only handful of guests are invited. Former Secretary and head of the government peace panel Silvestre Afable Jr. is officially invited to grace the occasion by rendering a message in the launching.

Also invited are Ghazali Jaafar, MILF deputy chairman for Political Affairs, who will make the closing remarks, and Atty. Datu Michael Mastura, who will also render a message.

The title of the new book is “The Long Road to Peace: Inside the GRP-MILF Peace Process” and is written by Salah Jubair.

Jubair is a nom de guerre of one of the leaders of the MILF, which is currently talking peace with the Philippine government.

Actually, this is the second book of Jubair on the Mindanao Problem. His first book was “Bangsamoro: A Nation Under Endless Tyranny”.

The Foreword of this present book, 250 pages excluding 20-page pictorials, was written by former Secretary and Chairman of the GRP peace panel, Silvestre Afable Jr. Atty. Datu Michael Mastura, a constitutionalist, a former congressman, and currently member of the MILF peace panel, wrote the Afterword.

There are five blurbs of the book, courtesy of former OPAPP Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles, Manny Mogato, journalist and former president of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), Atty. Mary Ann Arnado, Deputy Director of the Initiatives for International Dialogue, Father Robert Layson, former parish priest of Pikit and now Vice Chairman of the Mindanao People’s Caucus, and Al Jacinto, Editor-in-chief of the Mindanao Examiner.

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