President Aquino orders OPAPP to promote peace process even beyond his term

(Photo by Joseph Vidal/ Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA – President Benigno S. Aquino III has directed the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) to firm up consultation with the stakeholders to come up with an action plan for promoting the peace process in the transition period during the remaining months of his administration and up to the next administration.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. told the Radyo ng Bayan on Sunday the directive has been given to the OPAPP through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

According to Coloma, OPAPP Secretary Teresita Deles has said the government needs to hold consultations with all the stakeholders, particularly with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) with the government peace panel in 204.

“But measures will include strengthening existence peace bodies and mechanisms, joint bodies for socioeconomic interventions,” Coloma said, quoting Deles’ statement.

The government, Deles said, wants to operationalize the recommendations of the transitional justice and reconciliatory commission regarding the healing of the wounds of war and moving towards sharpened interfaith and multicultural dialogue and cooperation.

“And also very important, undertaking the necessary groundwork to ensure the legal political track in the next administration. We need to do all that is possible to ensure the full implementation of the CAB beyond this administration,” Deles said.

The signing of the CAB between the Philippine government peace panel and the MILF has resulted in the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which both the Senate and the House of Representatives are still working to get it pass in the remaining sessions of the 16th Congress.

In the Senate, Committee on Local Government Chairman Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos submitted a substitute bill entitled Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR) which, he said, will not violate the Constitution.

The Senate, however, is still deliberating on the BLBAR at the plenary and Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Senate is already running out of time to pass the Bangsamoro bill.