President Approves Peace and Development Roadmap

President Rodrigo R. Duterte approved on 18 July 2016 the comprehensive peace roadmap presented by Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Jesus G. Dureza that will hopefully bring peace and development. The roadmap aims for peace and development addressing the Bangsamoro issue, resumption of peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF), and the implementation of closure agreements with other rebel groups.

The roadmap presented by Dureza proposed a strategy for massive on-ground development simultaneous with the implementation of agreements entered into by the government with rebel groups. Dureza said during the closed door meeting, “I can sign a hundred peace agreements but if those on the ground do not immediately feel the dividends of peace, those agreements will not be sustainable.”

President Duterte immediately directed that the executive order of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) be amended to empower it to implement projects related to peace and enable it to oversee all development projects.

Bangsamoro

President Duterte during that meeting said that the government is now on the “implementation stage” of the peace negotiations with the Bangsamoro “as the time for negotiations are over.”

The peace strategy envisions the synthesis of various peace agreements like the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro (CAB) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) including relevant provisions of the Republic Act No. 9054 (or the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Law) and the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997.

Jesus Dureza said in the Malacañan Palace press briefing that, “There will be inclusivity, henceforth, under the Duterte Roadmap for Peace where all the Bangsamoro factions, groups will have to come under one roof so that there will be inclusivity in the implementation of all this particular agreements.”

The roadmap entails the operationalization of a mechanism where an all-Moro body will draft a more inclusive Bangsamoro enabling law to be filed with Congress in place of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that failed to be passed in the 16th Congress. The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) provided for in the CAB will be reconstituted with representation coming from the MILF, MNLF, the ARMM and other Bangsamoro representatives. The work on the new bangsamoro enabling law of the reconstituted BTC will be undertaken simultaneous with the shift to federalism and will be mandated propose amendments to the Philippine Constitution that are pertinent to the bangsamoro as inputs towards the implementation of federalism.

CPP/NPA/NDF

In the same Malacañan meeting, President Duterte also approved the way forward in the impending resumption of peace talks with communist rebels. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, government panel chair to the talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF, led in the oath taking of the new panel members. The resumption of talks reset tentatively to the middle of August 2016 will be preceded by the release of some 11 leaders of the CPP/NPA/NDF, who are presently detained and who will participate in the talks. President Duterte directed that legal procedures be complied with to effect their temporary releases pursuant to the previously signed Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Nur Misuari

After the President approved the peace roadmap, he talked to MNLF chairman Nur Misuari.

Misuari is facing arrest due to the Zamboanga incident and technically he is still a “fugitive of justice”, Dureza said. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed rebellion charges and violation of the International Humanitarian Law against Misuari, MNLF commander Habier Malik and 60 others after the 20-day Zamboanga City attack which led to the deaths of over 200 people and the displacement of thousands. An arrest warrant was issued against Misuari and three others in 2013. ●