June 19, 2008, Luwaran, MILF on Esperon's statement: 'Hope not wishing for the star',

June 19, 2008, Luwaran, MILF on Esperon's statement: 'Hope not wishing for the star',

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is not new to hearing positive statements coming from various government officials especially those connected to the GRP-MILF peace process regarding propect of signing of peace deal, the likes of “within a year”, “in year’s time”, “soon”, or “for the next couple of months”, etc.

“These are cliched or hackneyed words that lost all original effectiveness or power as a result of overuse,” Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF committee on information, told Luwaran, immediately after reading the statement of newly installed Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process retired Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Monday, June 16, that the government will sign the final peace agreement with the MILF in a year’s time.

Musa told Luwaran reporter that he hoped the new OPAPP secretary is not wishing for the star to fall, but mean well and real.

Musa said Esperon is new to the job and has no track record similar to his predeccessor, Jesus Dureza, now government press secretary, who was widely seen among MILF circles as an “untractable personality”.

“We just hope Esperon would follow the footsteps of former government chief peace negotiator, Silvestre Afable, who is highly respected in the MILF especially those whom he faced across the negotiating table,” Musa stressed.

According to reports, Afable resigned as chief negotiator in June 2007 after he was pressured by his Principal to retract what he had already conceded to the MILF on the basis of the mandate given him by the government.

Musa, however, reminded Esperon that the government legal study team has spent 3 months and 22 days just to look at the “legality and constitutionality” of the 49 or so consensus points on the four strands of ancestral domain, before they submitted their findings to the President and her Cabinet on June 15.

The reckoning started from February 23, after the last shuttle of Malaysian chief facilitator, Datuk Othman bin Abdulrazak, between Manila and Darapanan from February 19-22, where he managed to get the Parties’ nod on the proposed draft of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD).

“How long President Arroyo and her Cabinet will examine the document?” Musa inquired, even as he reiterated the MILF position that the review results have no bearing on the MILF, which recognizes only those decisions reached across the negotiating table.

“The review is absolutely internal to the government and that is their right,” he added, even as he hit the government once again for “dribbling the talks to a ravine”, without elaborating. LINK: