In a spirit of goodwill, sportsmanship, and mutual respect, peace negotiators of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) paid tribute to the integrity, capability, and dedication of their counterparts from the Philippine government headed by Secretary Rodolfo Garcia.
In his letter to his counterpart, Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief peace negotiator, described the government peace panel as “worthy partners in peace.”
“We will not forget you (referring to Secretary Garcia) and your wonderful team and we hope that in some future time and occasion we meet and cross paths for the sake of peace and humanity,” Iqbal added in his letter.
“We will always treasure the fruits of our hard work, sleepless nights and sometimes our constructive disagreements to finally thread together the two far ends (very far when we started) into the realization of the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) …,” he continued.
The disbandment of the GRP Peace Panel took effect last September 3, which the government used as evidence before the Supreme Court that the MOA-AD would not be signed “in its present form or in any other forms”.
Asked to explain why this happened, Iqbal said, “This is politics as its worst in the Philippines.”
He did not elaborate, except by saying that in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Arroyo last July 28, 2008, she made mention of the initialing of MOA-AD in Kuala Lumpur on July 27 as part of her administration achievements in the field of peace making.
He recalled that every time the two peace panels meet, letter of authority from their respective Principals to commit were presented before session starts.
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