Credibility problem hounds gov't, MILF peace panels

COTABATO CITY - Negotiators of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government may not just have to intensify their efforts in restoring the cordiality of the shaky peace negotiations, but also in improving the "deteriorating" credibility of their respective panels.

Local peace advocates, among them members of the Catholic religious community, attribute the "credibility crisis" now hounding both panels to their failure to religiously carry out dozens of low-level agreements formulated to prevent hostilities between state and rebel forces while the talks are under way.

Oblate missionary Eliseo Mercado Jr., floor leader of the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development, said this problem has left people in areas often affected by the hostilities virtually confused about the direction of the peace talks.

"There have been many peace agreements, reached right after one encounter after another and yet, there have been clashes in spite of these agreements. People do not know where to put themselves. Something could be wrong. We cannot talk and talk forever," said Mercado, who chairs the inter-agency Quick Response Team, an independent body helping oversee the military-MILF ceasefire.

Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, admitted that they have been getting feedback from various sectors that the credibility of the two panels is "deteriorating" due their failure to really address the main problem besetting the so-called Bangsamoro homeland.

Defense Undersecretary Orlando Soriano, chairman of the government peace panel, said his group is trying its best to accelerate the peace talks and come out with a lasting settlement to the nagging security problems in the South.

Another influential peace advocate, Datu Michael Sinsuat, mayor of Upi, Maguindanao and president of the province's League of Mayors, said that apart from suffering from a credibility crisis, the two panels have not been religiously furthering the cordiality of the peace talks.

Sinsuat said violators of the ceasefire must be penalized, but these infractions could only be ascertained by civilians, not the military or the MILF.

Mercado, president of the Notre Dame University here, said he himself is confused on why state and rebel forces have been killing each other despite dozens of low-level peace pacts, "to the detriment of the people."

When the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) ventured into a ceasefire with the government to enhance the cordiality of the peace talks which lasted from 1993 to 1996, Mercado said there were no encounters up to the time the peace agreement was forged on Sept. 2, 1996.