COTABATO CITY – Diplomats from 10 member-states of the European Union toured Central Mindanao yesterday to assess the Southern peace process and evaluate the impact to the local communities of various EU-funded socio-economic projects in the region.
Led by French Ambassador Gerard Chesnel, the dignitaries also met with Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, who belong to the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace pact with the Philippine government on Sept. 2, 1996.
Sema told Chesnel’s companions – Ambassadors Herbert Jager of Austria; Gregoire Vardakis of Belgium; Ritta Resch of Finland; Robert Brinks of The Netherlands; Valeriu Gheorghe of Romania; Luis Arias Romero of Spain; Inger Ultvedt of Sweden; Peter Beckingham of the United Kingdom and EU Special Envoy Alistair McDonald – that both the MNLF and the MILF are committed to the Mindanao peace process and are always for the peaceful resolution of the socio-economic and political issues besetting the region’s Muslim communities.