ZAMBOANGA
CITY - Mayor Beng Climaco
reaffirmed her unwavering support for President Aquino’s program for peace,
particularly the ongoing peace talks between the Government of the Philippines
(GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“But we reiterate that the people Zamboanga
City in two plebiscites, just a reminder, do not want to be part of the
Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) or the Bangsamoro territory that
the MILF is currently negotiating with the government,” Climaco said during a
dialogue between officials of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the
Peace Process (OPAPP) led by Secretary Miriam Coronel Ferrer and members of the
city council headed by Vice Mayor Cesar Iturralde at the Sangguniang Panlungsod
on Wednesday morning.
Despite the Moro National Liberation
Front’s (MNLF) attack on Zamboanga City last September, Climaco still believes
that Zamboanga, being a very influential and important part of Mindanao, needs
to continue the dialogue with all other sectors that really want to be relevant
to any efforts at attaining peace in Mindanao.
“The lesson that we have learned is very
painful that up to now we are still reeling from all the difficulties. We know
what it was and what it is, and we still feel the pain years onward,” the lady
chief executive said.
According to her, the city of Zamboanga
holds the GPH peace panel dearly that whatever actions, initiatives and
programs it will have will really hopefully redound to a more progressive, a
more participatory understanding of what is for Minadanao to forge peace.
“It it not peaceful when we say everything
is okay, but there are disgruntled groups,” she said. “Time and again, as I
have already said in congress that we just really have to patiently continue
dialoguing with them and that is what we have been doing in Zamboanga City,”
she added.
“It might be in this particular term that
we will try to contribute to what we call peace but definitely also we respect
the voice of the people of this city and we will continue to strive for justice
so that our children will have a better opportunity for a brighter future,”
Climaco further said.
For her part, Secretary Ferrer shared with
the mayor’s statement, stressing that learning from the lessons of the past is
one of the guidelines that the President has given to the OPAPP.
“Learning from the past, lessons of the
very recent past, the pain that Zamboanga continues to feel and the
difficulties in rebuilding. This is something that is very paramount in all
considerations that we are doing now in OPAPP,” Ferrer said. “The process is
also participatory, transparent and of course within the constitution.”
She told the mayor and the councilors that
“we are not negotiating independence; that’s overstepping the constitution, but
the flexibilities of the constitution. Within these parameters we have been
able to reach this stage where we are at the brink of completing the
comprehensive agreement hopefully by January of February next year.”
Ferrer was in the company of former
Agriculture Secretary Senen Bacani and NCMF Commissioner Mehol Sadain. (FPG/JPA/Vic
Larato/PIA/CIO)