MILF wary of Mar Roxas’ impending appointment

Moro rebels on Wednesday expressed apprehension over the impending appointment of former Senator Mar Roxas II as President Benigno Aquino III’s chief of staff. “We do not look at it as a positive factor as far as the peace process is concerned," said Mohagher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest secessionist group in the country. Roxas, a defeated vice presidential candidate in the May 2010 elections, was “very instrumental" in the non-signing of an agreement between the government and MILF in 2008 that could have created the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in Mindanao, Iqbal said. Malacañang, on the other hand, did not directly address the MILF’s apprehension, saying only that the mandate on the peace process is with presidential peace adviser Ging Deles. “The process has moved dramatically forward and the peace negotiators have been performing a sterling job in the conduct of the peace process," said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda in a text message to GMA News Online. Aquino is set to come up with an administrative order clarifying Roxas’ role in his government. Roxas was among those who questioned the constitutionality of the agreement — the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) — before the Supreme Court, which later ruled the deal as unconstitutional. “Based on his actuation, he has shown his real color that he was opposed to the real resolution of the conflict in Mindanao," Iqbal said of Roxas. “Instead of examining the [MOA-AD], he went all-out against it." The SC decision sparked MILF atrocities in Central Mindanao, causing the military to launch an all-out offensive against several factions of the MILF and for the peace talks to bog down during the latter part of the Arroyo administration. Roxas, Aquino’s running-mate in last year’s elections, can already be appointed to a government post as the one-year ban for people who ran in the elections had expired last May 11. Malacañang had confirmed plans to name Roxas as Aquino’s chief of staff. Iqbal, however, said the MILF will maintain a hands-off policy in Roxas’ appointment as the matter is “internal to the government." — with Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News