DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 August) – North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol says he will no longer have the government peace panel cited for contempt for allegedly “ignoring the Supreme Court decision declaring the MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain) unconstitutional,” saying the panel has clarified the matter with him in a three-hour meeting in Cebu on Wednesday.
“I have softened my stance on that,” Pinol said, but added he would still ask his lawyers if they could pose a legal inquiry on the “acknowledgment” of the MOA-AD by the government and MILF peace panels.
He told MindaNews that government panel member Tomas Cabili met with him and Iligan mayor Lawrence Lluch Cruz in Cebu on Wednesday, where he proposed a “localized” peace process.
“The situation in North Cotabato is different from Maguindanao or Lanao del Sur,” he said.
Pinol said that while negotiations will still be conducted by the government peace panel, proposed solutions should be on a province-for-province basis. “We should base it on the situation on the ground,” he said.
Government peace panel chair Rafael Seguis said they would also listen to the other voices of North Cotabato.
The government and MILF in a Joint Statement signed in Kuala Lumpur on July 29 agreed during their two-day “special meeting” on four issues that would help “pave the way for the early resumption of the stalled peace negotiations,” among them the “acknowledgement of MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed document, and commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement.”
Peace Process Undersecretary Camilo Montesa, also government peace panel spokesperson, told MindaNews acknowledgement “means what it says.”
“It is a document that is unsigned yet initialed and that Parties will move on to negotiating the comprehensive compact. It describes a fact and a resolve by the Parties to move forward,” he said.
By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court on October 14, 2008 ruled the MOA-AD “unconstitutional” but noted that “surely, the present MOA-AD can be renegotiated or another one will be drawn up to carry out the Ancestral Domain aspect of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001, in another or in any form, which could contain similar or significantly dissimilar provisions compared to the original.”
“Clearly, the Supreme Court allows ‘acknowledgement’ as it has clearly done so. But of course Vice Gov. Pinol can go to the Supreme Court and seek a confirmation of his ignorance,” said Montesa.
Lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, secretary-general of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus, told MindaNews, “what is his problem? Why is he preventing the Moro people from ending the war and reclaiming their ancestral domain? With or without the MOA, the ancestral domain is a legitimate grievance that any right-thinking leader should recognize. He better read the Supreme Court decision first before he makes such a move. The Supreme Court said that the present MOA-AD can be renegotiated or another drawn up that could contain similar or significantly dissimilar provisions compared to the original.”
“It is high time for him to transcend his blatantly ostentatious economic interests for the sake of peace, “ she said.
A preess statement on August 5 signed by 41 organizations and four individuals said “Pinol’s threat only reveals his own incorrigible stand to oppose whatever efforts to resume the talks and resolve the armed conflict in Mindanao through peaceful means. And to claim that the people of Cotabato are behind him in this stance is a clear misrepresentation of the real sentiments of the people. We can only say that the real sentiments of the people of Cotabato will come out quite clearly and strongly when they cast their votes in 2010. And we call on all peace-loving people of Cotabato and Mindanao to never ever allow this type of leader to continue to stay in public office.”
The MOA-AD was the third and last agreement out of the three-agenda items in the talks -- security, relief and rehabilitation, and ancestral domain – prior to the negotiation on the political settlement.
In a press statement dated July 31, Pinol said “the brazen act of the GRP Panel to include the MOA-AD in the Joint Statement will not go unquestioned.”
Pinol claimed that he “and the People of North Cotabato, who have long been searching for true and lasting peace, take note of the accomplishments of the new peace panel negotiating with the MILF and consider its efforts as a genuine gesture to attain peace in Mindanao. But at the same time, we raise serious concerns and express extreme disappointment over the reference to and inclusion of the MOA-AD in the Joint Statement and the expressed ‘commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement.’”
Pinol last year spearheaded the filing of a petition for temporary restraining order to stop the government from signing the MOA-AD. The Supreme Court issued the TRO on August 4, the eve of the formal signing of the MOA-AD in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
North Cotabato Governor Jesus Sacdalan dismissed Pinol’s statement as "Grandstanding lang yan para mapansin. (He’s just grandstanding to catch attention)... Tama na. (Enough). Let's move on. Give peace a chance.”
Sacdalan was Pinol’s vice governor until 2007. Pinol served as governor of North Cotabato for three terms from 1998 to 2007. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)
Source: http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6811&Itemid=190
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What a sudden change of mind? Three days past when the Vice Governor annouced he is filing "contempt of court" against the GRP Panel...Now he won't file anymore.
Is the vice governor showing state of "unstable mind" set? Or is just because he is afraid of the challenge posted as stated:“Clearly, the Supreme Court allows ‘acknowledgement’ as it has clearly done so. But of course Vice Gov. Pinol can go to the Supreme Court and seek a confirmation of his ignorance,” said Montesa.
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