World Bank report helps advance PH peace process - Deles

The Philippines can pick up lessons from a World Bank development report in order to fast track the country's peace process, including that with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This was Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles' insight about the latest World Development Report (WDR) 2011, which studied the impact of violence and armed conflicts in a country's economic development. "[The report] will bring to us, in the fastest way possible, lessons from peace and conflict situations all over the world both in terms of best practices and worst situations and scenarioes, as well insights about the dilemmas, the predicaments of peacemakers all over the world," Deles said. Aside from the MILF, Deles said the WDR report, released in April, can also help in the negotiations between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Based on the 384-page WDR report, a copy of which was given to reporters during the conference, countries lose an estimated 0.7 percent of their annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for each neighbor involved in civil war. The report also found out that poverty rates are 20 percent higher in countries affected by repeated violence for the last three decades. For every three years that a country is affected by a major violence, poverty reduction lags behind by 2.7 percent, meaning countries affected by violence tend to lag behind in poverty reduction by one percent, the report said. Though conflict can send a major backlash on a country's economy and further aggravate poverty, Nigel Roberts, special representative and co-director of the WDR 2011, said at the conference there should be a holistic approach in dealing with the peace problem hounding the Philippines. "Solving conflict through economic means and security alone is wrong," Roberts stressed. The Philippines was cited in the report as a "country case example" where multiple forms of violence exist, including local clan conflicts, kidnap-for-ransom and human trafficiking groups, as well as Muslim separatist and al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah movements. The Philippine government and the MILF are currently in the middle of a Malaysian-brokered formal exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur. Indonesia has earlier likewise joined the International Monitoring Team overseeing the peace negotiations. While saying that the Aquino government is eyeing an expedient peace resolution that would come out from the peace talks, Deles stressed there was a need to have an agreement that is "not rushed, well-planned, carefully considered, beneficial to majority of the Moros." Last February, the MILF panel submitted a "comprehensive compact," which proposes the recognition of a Bangsamoro identity while maintaining the Filipino citizenship of inhabitants in the region. Last year, the MILF withdrew its demand for an independent state for the Bangsamoro people, and instead pushed for the creation of a "sub-state" that would still recognize the power of the "central government". The government panel is set to submit its counter-proposal to the MILF's position during the next scheduled peach talks on Monday and Tuesday nest week (June 27 and 28) in Kuala Lumpur. The MILF was formed in 1984 by former members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The breakaway group thought it was more wise to split after being frustrated with the non-implementation of the Tripoli Agreement in 1977 between the Marcos regime and the MNLF. The Tripoli Agreement was signed by then MNLF chairman Nur Misuari and the Philippine government in 1976. It was the first peace pact ever signed for peace in Mindanao. A memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) that would have paved the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity was declared by the Supreme Court (SC) unconstitutional on Oct. 14, 2008. Under the MOA-AD, the BJE covers the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) plus 712 villages in five provinces. The SC decision led to the failure of peace negotiations, prompting MILF "rogue" leaders – Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar and Aleem Pangalian – to stage attacks on various civilian targets in Central Mindanao. - VVP, GMA News