Arroyo signs new ARMM organic act

President Arroyo signed into law yesterday a bill seeking to expand the territorial jurisdiction of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) from four to 14 provinces.

Speaking before the Bishops-Ulama Conference at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo said the new ARMM Organic Law would bolster the government’s peace initiative with the separatist Moro Islamic Li-beration Front (MILF).

"We did this to pave the way for the reconstruction of the peace process," she said. "Our message to the MILF: ‘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’."

Mrs. Arroyo said the government continues to count on the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to help forge a "final peace agreement" with the MILF in the same way that it brokered peace between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996.

"The OIC will continue to be our indispensable ally," she said. "We will continue to depend on the goodwill, the full support, and the amity of Islamic nations in the search for peace and development."

Mrs. Arroyo said residents of the 14 provinces will vote in a plebiscite that would coincide with the congressional and local elections to determine whether they would be part of the expanded ARMM.

"We now face a dynamic political horizon," the President said "This is a fortuitous development for as we search the apex in the implementation of the government-MNLF peace agreement in 1996, we now commence a peace process with the MILF which we hope will result in the final settlement of the conflict in Mindanao."

Mrs. Arroyo said the election of the new ARMM officials will take place in September immediately following the ratification in a plebiscite of the new ARMM Organic Law.

"Much has to be done," she said. "It is now time to wage the peace more relentlessly. We have been left behind by the march of time and folly. We must brandish the political will decisively and bravely to return the lost glory to this place in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of the world."

In the same venue, Mrs. Arroyo announced the creation of an inter-agency committee that would oversee the implementation of rehabilitation and development programs in Mindanao.

Mrs. Arroyo said she has appointed acting Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who is also Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, as chairman of the committee.

Mrs. Arroyo also swore in Presidential Assistant for Eastern Mindanao Jesus Dureza as chairman of the government peace panel negotiating with the MILF, and with the following as members: Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mahid Mutilan, Dr. Emily Morohomsar, and Irene Santiago of the Mindanao Council of Women’s Leaders.

In Davao City, Undersecretary Nabil Tan told The STAR yesterday: "The process of bringing the transitional mechanism to regular autonomy can now be completed as envisioned in the peace agreement."– With Edith Regalado