Guingona bucks US role in peace talks

Although the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) may be open to the idea, Vice President Teofisto Guingona yesterday opposed suggestions that the United States be asked to help broker the peace process in Mindanao.

Guingona said the task of forging peace with the MILF was "an internal matter that should be left to us" and compared to the situation to that of a family’s prodigal child.

"If there is a black sheep in the family who should fix the problem or discipline the black sheep? The family themselves or outsiders?" Guingona asked.

The Vice President said it would be impractical to compare a possible US involvement in the peace talks with Indonesia’s and Libya’s role in brokering the government’s 1996 peace pact with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) "because the American influence over the Philippines is different." He did not elaborate.

Instead of tapping the US, the Vice President said the government should tap the Inter-Faith Peace Commission (IFPC), a government he formed recently, to broker the peace process.

But Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who originally proposed that the US be asked to help forge a peace pact with the MILF, urged President Arroyo to ask the US for assistance during her state visit to the US beginning tomorrow.

"It’s about time we ask the only superpower in the world to broker peace in Mindanao," Pimentel reiterated, adding that the US should rechannel their energy toward peace instead of war.

"I am quite confident that they would listen to reason that war is not the ultimate solution. The US should send diplomats and not generals to the country," Pimentel said, apparently referring to the succession of intensified military exercises between the Philippines and the US.

Pimentel noted that his idea to ask US assistance in pushing the Mindanao peace process forward is already gaining momentum. – With Jose Rodel Clapano and Perseus Echeminada