Implementation of govt-MILF pact against criminals in limbo

KORONADAL CITY - Administration and Moro separatist rebel leaders have admitted that almost one year after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had agreed to jointly flush out criminal elements in Mindanao, its implementation remains in limbo.

Secretary Eduardo Ermita, presidential adviser on the peace process, and Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, confirmed early this week that the joint communiqué forged by both parties in Malaysia on May 6, 2002, has yet to take off.

Under the agreement, government troops and Moro rebels will cooperate and coordinate in pursuing lawless elements in Mindanao.

Ermita said the technical working groups (TWGs) of both sides have not yet been convened to discuss the mechanisms of the communiqué.

“The TWGs of both sides were supposed to meet but it did not push through because of intervening events such as the Sasa wharf bombing in Davao City,” he said.

Ermita added that the government is keen on convening the TWGs of both sides for the implementation of the agreement, where the MILF, according to him, agreed to turn over criminals hiding in MILF bailiwicks.

For his part, Jaafar accused the Arroyo administration of insincerity in implementing the agreement, pointing out that the MILF representatives have approached the government many times to discuss the mechanisms of the agreement but they were shunned.

“We wonder why the government is having second thoughts on implementing the joint communiqué. The body which was supposed to oversee the framework of the agreement is yet to be organized,” Jaafar said.

He said the government also failed to provide the list of criminals to the MILF as provided for in the agreement.

“Until now not even one name of a suspected criminal in Mindanao was submitted to the MILF by the government,” Jaafar said in Pilipino.

Both the government and the MILF, following the signing of the joint communiqué last year, boasted that they have reached a “landmark agreement.”

“Finally, the MILF is officially a partner of the Philippine government in going after suspected criminals and terrorists in Mindanao,” Jaafar said then.

He said that in the absence of a joint committee, the MILF could not be expected to unilaterally implement the agreement. The ad hoc committee, which will also supervise the implementing guidelines of the joint communiqué, will have to be made up of two representatives each from the government and the MILF, Jaafar said earlier.

Malacañang said the joint ad hoc committee will bolster “coordination system and the exchange of communication and working relations between law enforcers and the rebels in curbing kidnapping and other criminal activities in Mindanao.” R. Sarmiento