Fast-track peace pact with RPA, GMA orders

BACOLOD CITY — President Arroyo ordered the joint enforcement monitoring committee to fast-track the implementation of the three-year-old peace agreement with the breakaway Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA).

The agreement was bro-kered by businessman Eduar-do Cojuangco and signed in December 2000 at the mountain town of Don Salvador Benedicto, a known RPA stronghold.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman said local military and police commanders gave Mrs. Arroyo yesterday an update on the peace pact with the RPA.

She said Mrs. Arroyo wants the implementation of the peace accord speeded up so that the people living in priority areas can feel the impact of the development projects.

Soliman, who chairs the joint enforcement monitoring committee, said she will work for the conclusion of the peace accord with the RPA within a three-year period.

Mrs. Arroyo called for a confidential meeting with Maj. Gen. Gabriel Ledesma, commanding general of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, Region 6 police director George Aliño and Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sodusta, commander of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade, for an update on the RPA peace pact.

The Peace Advocates of Negros has called on the President to act on the continued carrying of firearms by RPA members without gun permits from the Commission on Elections during the election period, their maintenance of training camps and other alleged violations.

Apparently irked by the renewed criticisms, RPA leader Carapali Lualhati accused the peace advocates of being "peace saboteurs."

Former Negros Occidental governor Rafael Coscolluela, who facilitated a dialogue among all stakeholders in the peace agreement, reiterated his invitation to the Peace Advocates of Negros to join the local monitoring team and local technical working group so its concerns will be properly addressed.