Arroyo Calls on MILF to Return to Peace Talk TablePhilippine President Gloria Arroyo on her tour in Mindanao Thursday called on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to return to the peace negotiating table, said a presidential news release issued here.According to the press release, Arroyo, when addressing a social assembly in Davao City, South Davao province, urged the MILF to declare a ceasefire in response to the government's suspension of military offensive against the secessionist group. "Our message to the MILF is this: we have decided to stop firing. It is now your turn to unload your weapons and keep them for a while, organize your peace panel and we will send our own panel to meet with you," Arroyo said. "Let us not dwell on preconditions. Let us dwell on how we can take a common stand for peace. Peace with honor, peace with justice, peace with dignity for all concerned," she added. The MILF, with an armed strength estimated at 13,000, is the biggest rebel group fighting for more than two decades for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao. The talks between the MILF and the government collapsed last year after the military captured dozens of MILF camps in line with former President Joseph Estrada's order for an all-out offensive against the separatists. On February 9, newly-installed President Arroyo named a government peace panel to resume talks with the MILF. On Tuesday this week, Arroyo ordered ceasefire with the Muslim rebel group to pave the way for resumption of peace talks. The government's ceasefire order is reportedly appreciated by the MILF. Meanwhile, reports said the rebel group is demanding the return of their military camps as one of its preconditions before the formal peace talks could start. Arroyo Unveils 3 PrinciplesPhilippine President Gloria Arroyo, on her tour in Mindanao Thursday, spelled out three principles that would guide the government to work out a comprehensive plan to develop Mindanao, said a presidential news release issued here.The first principle is that the government's objective must be both peace and development, Arroyo was quoted as saying at the Third Mindanao Food Congress held in Butuan City of North Agusan Province. The second principle, the president said, is that the framework of development must be based on constitutionality, national sovereignty and territorial integrity. And the third, she noted, is that the society, being a multi- ethnic society, should be founded on social justice for all, including the accommodation of ethnic traditions, especially among the Filipino Muslims. "After all, Christians and Muslims or lumads (indigenous people), Chinese or Spanish, Tagalog or Cebuano, these are but a few of the names to which the Filipino responds in a wondrous testimony to our rich and varied heritage as a nation," she said. She also called on all congress participants to discuss ways on how to transform Mindanao "not simply as the land of promise but the land where promises are fulfilled." And to fulfill that promise, Arroyo said, Mindanao's vast resources, its fertile land, bountiful water, hardworking people must be optimized towards agro-industrial development. Arroyo said Mindanao, especially the Muslim provinces, still have the highest poverty incidence in the country. She said that as "a child of Mindanao," she deemed it her "filial duty" to work to uplift the conditions of the people in the island. The president also said that the main goal of her administration is the conquest of poverty. "This is the unfinished business we inherited from the past. We must endeavor to eradicate poverty within this decade," she said. |
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