ARMM Gov hails 'historic' agreement

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Oct. 15 (PIA) -- Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Mujiv Hataman lauded the signing of the historic Framework Agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) today. 

In a press statement, Hataman said the ARMM welcomed this development with utmost sense of support and cooperation. 

He said the pact brings the decades-long negotiation close to achieving its final goal - a lasting peace for the coexisting peoples of Muslim Mindanao. 

Hataman thanked those who had worked hand-in-hand into the long process, whether directly or indirectly from day one. 

He also credited both the first and the current Aquino administration for the breakthrough in the government’s peace dealing with the MILF. 

“On-and-off to some points of discord in more than two decades, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III broke gridlocks in the first face-to-face presidential talk with the MILF leadership in Tokyo, Japan on August 4, 2011,” he said. 

“Again, this presidential move effectively followed the straight path to waging peace, yet a similarly crucial decision on the part of then President Corazon C. Aquino, when she met MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari, right in the heartland of the Moro conflict in Maimbung Sulu on September 5, 1986,” he added. 

The ARMM Governor assured the public of a smooth transition to power in case parties would reach the summit of the peace negotiations. 

Principally, both panels agreed to hold subsequent discussions on the essential issues on the security aspect (ceasefire), the rehabilitation and development of conflict-affected areas, and ancestral domain. 

Hataman said the ARMM under him had worked extensively on the second point, while the other two points were left to the negotiators of the both panels to hammer out. 

“Within the sphere of the region’s mandates, our administration of the autonomous region becomes the first of seven dispensations to have opened partnership to peace endeavor with the Civil Society which effectively crafts and gives substance to efforts in rehabilitating and developing conflict-affected areas in all its five provinces and one-city component,” he further said.