Blame Estrada's 'macho policy' for turmoil in Mindanao - Dureza

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel should blame the so-called "macho policy" of President Estrada in Mindanao for the sudden upsurge of violence in the island, and not look for convenient scapegoats.

This was the terse reaction of former Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza to Pimentel's statement that the handling of the Mindanao situation during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos is responsible for the latest upsurge of violent incidents in Basilan and in Central Mindanao.

"Sen. Pimentel, who is from Mindanao, ought to be the last person to grandstand at the expense of truth and make such a preposterous claim," Dureza, a former Davao congressman, said in a press statement.

Every Mindanaoan knows how the Ramos administration pushed the island as a development center and as gateway in the East Asian Growth Area (EAGA) and maintained a peaceful equilibrium among the diverse cultures that make Mindanao unique, he added.

"But by a single stroke, the Estrada administration demolished all that with President Estrada's now famous 'if you want war, I'll give you war' policy," Dureza said.

"Why look elsewhere for scapegoats and blame the previous administration for all this when all Sen. Pimentel has to do is refresh his memory and objectively look at Mindanao in the perspective of the Ramos administration vis-a-vis the Estrada presidency?" Dureza said.

Dureza added it is not even fair to make comparisons as what Pimentel does because every administration has its own unique conditions to face and handle and that each president has his own style of governance.

"What President Estrada must do, if I may, is to act as a father of all Mindanaoans. He must be a consensus-builder who seeks and maintains a peaceful equilibrium among the diverse cultures of Mindanao and not be viewed as a war-monger or saber-rattler," he said.