Moro politicians urge truce, want hand in talks
KORONADAL CITY - Showing apparent signs of impatience over the
“sporadic cycle of hostilities” between the military and the secessionist Moro
rebels in Central Mindanao, Muslim political leaders in the region on Monday
strongly called for a bilateral cease-fire and wanted a more direct hand in the
resolution of the conflict.
Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pakung Mangudadatu, chairman of the Central
Mindanao Regional Peace and Order Council, called on the conflicting parties to
stop pulling the triggers and instead use diplomacy in resolving the
difference.
“We must ease the suffering of our people. Let us now stop the
armed hostilities and go back to the negotiating table,” Mangudadatu urged the
military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which engaged the
military in a renewed gun battle for over a month now.
Following the call for truce, the governor also said that local
Muslim political leaders should be given greater involvement by the national
government in bringing peace to Mindanao.
“We [local Muslim leaders] are in a better position to solve the
[existing] problems in Mindanao or anything that may crop up… not the people
from Luzon and Visayas, and from other countries but local Muslim leaders in
Mindanao,” he told reporters here.
Mangudadatu said he was poised to present the recommendations to
the National Peace and Order Council in a meeting set late yesterday afternoon.
He said he would insist that local political leaders like
congressmen, governors and mayors be given greater participation in the peace
process.
Speaking bluntly, however, Mangudadatu pointed out that local
Muslim political leaders, not only the MILF, are partly to be blamed for the
trouble in
“If we [Muslim leaders] are not being transparent in our
dealings, not committed and not visible to our constituents, we are part of the
creation of problems [in
Owing to this, he called on Muslim leaders to discipline
themselves and correct the supposed flaw he pointed out.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong, who was recently
appointed by President Arroyo to the government peace panel with the MILF,
expressed hope that both sides would ink a final peace pact with the reported
resumption of the stalled peace talks before the month ends.
“There’s no better way of solving our problem of peace in
He claimed that the political package approved by the President
had passed the scrutiny of Congress leaders.
He, however, declined to discuss the contents of the government’s
peace proposal for the MILF, saying that Presidential Assistant for Mindanao
Jesus Dureza, peace panel chairman, “is in a better position to talk about it.”
Besides causing deaths, Mangudadatu said the worst victims of the
conflict are civilians displaced from their villages and forced to bear the
difficult life in the refugee camps.
At least 160,000 individuals were reported to have been displaced
by the war since it broke out on February 11, following the military assault on
the MILF at Buliok in Pikit,
Some 36,000 individuals continue to stay at evacuation sites in
Pikit even though the military has announced that they can now return to their
villages, according to Fr. Roberto Layson, parish priest of Pikit.
Mangudadatu, who claimed to have been designated by fellow Muslim
political leaders, said he was set to inventory the funds released by the
national government to the evacuees.
Layson earlier said lack of medicine from the government is now
hounding the evacuees. At least 23 individuals, mostly children, succumbed to
various illnesses. R. Sarmiento