Gov’t denies lobbying for Aquino’s Nobel Peace Prize

[Monseratto]

Hahahaha....

By Kristine Angeli SabilloINQUIRER.net11:36 am | Sunday, June 29th, 2014

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government on Sunday denied rumors that it is lobbying for President Benigno Aquino III’s nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

“I definitely confirm that I am NOT lobbying for (President Aquino’s) nomination for Nobel peace prize. I wouldn’t even know how to do it,” Secretary Teresita Deles, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) told Inquirer.net in a text message.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) claimed they received credible information that Deles, during her visit to Norway, lobbied for the prestigious award.

“She and (Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chair Al Haj) Murad (Ebrahim) were reportedly in Norway recently to attend a peace conference after which they both went to Hiroshima to talk to [Aquino]. This info we got (from Norway-based parliamentarians and groups),” Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes said.

In a forwarded text sent by Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., Deles confirmed she attended a forum in Oslo where she met Nobel Peace Prize laureates Kofi Annan and Tawakkol Karman.

She said she had always been invited to the said forum but had never met anyone from the nomination committee.

Meanwhile, Presidential Secretary Edwin Lacierda said, “During the Oslo Conference, Secretary Deles had occasion to meet Nobel Peace Prize winners but there are no lobbying efforts. But please note that since Aceh, there has been no significant peace accord reached. Hence, it is possible that there are groups who do wish to nominate the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). But certainly, OPAPP is not lobbying for it.”

While the CAB had already been inked by the Philippine government and the MILF, its enacting law is still being studied by Malacañang.

Murad and Aquino met in Japan on Tuesday to discuss the draft of the Bangsamoro basic law.

Despite the denial, Reyes said they believe the alleged nomination was being timed for the State of the Nation Address in July.
“Aquino is highly unqualified for such an award,” he said.

The group claimed that human rights violations under Aquino’s watch resulted in 192 cases of extrajudicial killings and cases of enforced disappearances and illegal arrests.

“Aquino fosters regional instability and tension with his support for the US military pivot and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that allows the return of US bases and weapons of mass destruction in the country, and through his unqualified support for the rise of Japanese militarism and revision of Japan’s Peace Constitution,” Reyes added.

He said the Bangsamoro peace pact was “deceptive” and has yet to be considered “sealed” pending the approval of Congress.
This is in addition to the stalled peace talks with the National Democratic Front.

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[Tj_abs]

Under Aquino’s pact, MILF won’t give up arms
April 1, 2014 • By Rigoberto Tiglao
Second of three parts

“MILF firearms to be placed under lock and key,” read the headline of one of The Manila Times’ front-paged news the other day, and other newspapers had similar stories.

It was based on statements made in a press conference by Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal the day after the signing of President Aquino’s pact with the Muslim insurgents, called the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

Iqbal was certainly right when he said during the conference: “There is no other way to have real peace in Mindanao except to undertake the decommissioning of our forces and firearms.”

But he added: “The firearms of the MILF would be decommissioned and a third party would take charge. These will be stored in a warehouse . . . The MILF does not control the key.” Aquino’s chief negotiator Miriam Ferrer made a similar claim in an interview posted

February 14, 2014 at the Wall Street Journal blog “South East Asia Real Time”:

“We agreed that decommissioning would be gradual and phased, but we need to have a timetable so we can ensure closure to the whole process. We’re very pleased that we have these benchmarks, timetables, and the diverse elements in place.”


MILF fighters celebrating Aquino’s pact. (AFP photo)

Iqbal and Ferrer are fooling us.

Nowhere in the Annexes nor in the CAB can one find Iqbal’s claim that the MILF’s arms will new surrendered to a “third party” and put under lock and key. Nowhere there are Ferrer’s claims of specific benchmarks and timetables.”

The key element of peace talks in the world—which justified governments to agree to settlements with their insurgencies—is a specific commitment by the insurgent group to turn over their arms, and with schedules to do so.

An example is the most recent of such settlements, the Indonesian government’s peace agreement with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). It was signed August 2005 with very specific figures on how many of its fighters will be demobilized (3.000), how many arms will be surrendered (840) and when (September 2005 to December 2005). The insurgents even agreed that they will and no longer wear their military uniforms.

The Aceh agreement even specified: Immediate destruction will be carried out after the collection of weapons and ammunitions. This process will be fully documented and publicized as appropriate.”

Does Aquino-MILF’s Annex on Normalization, which the CAB refers to, have similar demobilization numbers and dates?

None at all.

Instead, what the Annex merely says: “The decommissioning of MILF forces shall be parallel and commensurate to the implementation of all the agreements of the Parties. (Emphasis added). As I pointed out last Monday, the MILF under the agreements would merely be converted into the Bangsamoro police force.

With no criteria agreed upon on what “commensurate” entails, the MILF could insist that it will hand over its arms, or what is left after being renamed as “Bangsamoro police arms“, only when the Bangsamoro State is established—which is after Congress passes the “Basic Law” to implement all the agreements, and a referendum undertaken on the establishment of the new Muslim state-within-a state.

And what happens to the MILF camps? The Annex on Normalization is the very first government document recognizing the camps—seven, including Camp Abubakar which had been captured by the military in 2000. It even committed to assist these camps to be “productive”.

Illusion
To create an illusion that the MILF is laying down its arms, the Annex on Normalization provides that an “Independent Decommissioning Body” will be organized to “oversee the process of decommissioning of the MILF forces and weapons.”

Again there is no timetable for creating this body, and the MILF would likely claim— given how the Annex is formulated—that decommissioning will commence only after the Bangsamoro is a reality.

Ferrer in her interview also said: “(The agreement on normalization) took some time—we understood that this was a very sensitive matter to the MILF, as it could cause internal dissent and break up among their ranks.” (Ferrer seems to have imbibed Aquino’s self-righteousness, saying in that interview that those who would file a case in the Supreme Court against the pact are “parties who wish to derail the process or by lawyers who wish to make a name for themselves.”

How gullible can our negotiators be?

Of course the MILF would try as hard as they can not to agree to turn over its arms, and to commit to a schedule for this. They’d even pretend that the issue would break their ranks.

But demobilization is precisely the heart of any peace settlement.

Why call it a peace settlement when the insurgents do not make any commitment to give up their arms on an agreed-upon schedule?

But more than the specifics of decommissioning, Aquino and his officials do not seem to understand how our entire nation’s legal superstructure is built on this document called the Constitution, which has to be respected. We exist as nation because of this document.

The Executive Branch cannot enter into an agreement with a rebel group or any entity whose provisions violate the Constitution, as the Supreme Court had ruled in the case of the previous administration’s “Memorandum of Agreement Ancestral Domain” that was the equivalent of Aquino’s Framework Agreement:

“It virtually guarantees that the necessary amendments to the Constitution and the laws will eventually be put in place. Neither the GRP Peace Panel nor the President.. is authorized to make such a guarantee. Upholding such an act would amount to authorizing a usurpation of the constituent powers vested only in Congress, a Constitutional Convention, or the people themselves through the process of initiative, for the only way that the Executive can ensure the outcome of the amendment process is through an undue influence or interference with that process.

”Often in agreements and declarations, the most important is what is not said.

Filipinos?
Read the agreements and you will be shocked by one huge omission: Nowhere is there an assertion that the MILF or the Moros consider themselves Filipinos, or Filipino citizens.

Nowhere in Aquino’s pact is the MILF required to pledge allegiance to the Philippine flag and its constitution, and profess to be Filipinos. Why should they? The creation of a Bangsamoro, in essence means Moros organizing their own state.

This again is in contrast to the Aceh pact which refers to the insurgents as “citizens of Indonesia”.

Nowhere in Aquino’s agreement with the MILF an assertion by the MILF that it recognizes the Philippines as a sovereign nation, of which Bangsamoro is a part of. The single reference to the Constitution is something to “amend for the purpose of accommodating and entrenching the agreements of the Parties.”

In fact, the only references to the “Philippines” is as a “party” to the agreement, as a place where “negotiations began in 1997”, or as what country Mr. Aquino is president off.

An uncritical mainstream press showered kudos on Aquino, as succeeding where his predecessors in 17 years have failed.

Of course, he succeeded: He capitulated to what the MILF basically wanted, which is surrendering a part of Philippine sovereignty to it.

If not stopped by Congress and the Supreme Court, a fourth of Mindanao will gradually be outside of the national government’s ambit. “Bangsamoro” is just a small step away from an Islamic Republic of the Bangsamoro.”

Aquino and his negotiators have betrayed the nation.

What happens if Congress and the Supreme Court see through the MILF’s ruses, realize that the agreements will be dismembering the country and throwing the Constitution to the wastebasket, and refuse to go along with Aquino, after he has promised the insurgents the moon?

But let’s give peace a chance, and let’s pray that the MILF will eventually give up their arms, some gullible observers have said.

Or did Aquino fall into the MILF’s trap? With their arms intact, their camps strengthened, the MILF has put a gun in the Republic’s head. Agree to Aquino’s pact, or else.

What sycophants called Aquino’s most important legacy, will be a curse on the nation for decades to come.

tiglao.manilatimes*gmail.com
www.trigger.ph and www.rigobertotiglao.com

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