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NSC claims no role in nixed MoA-AD

By Angie M. Rosales

10/07/2008

From various government agencies’ claims, not one appears to want to admit having any kind of involvement — including President Arroyo — in discussing or even recommending conditions listed down in the aborted Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) earlier agreed upon between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine peace negotiators.

In a budget hearing at the Senate yesterday, the National Security Council (NSC) claimed it had no involvement in the crafting of the MoA-AD, which was scheduled for formal signing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Aug. 5 but was aborted by a restraining order issued by the Supreme Court.

NSC deputy director Milo Ibrado, on questions posed by the Senate claimed that the NSC had “no actual involvement,” but said that it is possible that his “principal,” National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, was given general instructions, such as being asked for his comments and suggestions.

Statements made by Ibrado before the Senate finance committee headed by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile contradicted earlier claims

earlier claims made by other Malacañang officials, including President adviser on the peace process Gen. (ret.) Hermogenes Esperon.

In the three-year period that Esperon claimed the proposed peace pact with MILF took before it was nearly signed, the NSC was not made to be involved in its drafting, its provisions and terms and conditions, Ibrado said, saying that while the body was convened last convened last year, it did not take up the matter or even consulted on it.

This came about after Enrile inquired about the involvement of the NSC in the conceptualization or consideration of the terms and conditions embodied in the MoA-AD, which yielded a negative response from the said official.

“To my knowledge your honor, this recent MoA-AD, there is practically no involvement of the NSC as far as the specifics go. Maybe general directions, but the actual work was done for the last three years, there was practically no involvement from the NSC or the NSA itself, our office,” Ibrado said.

“On a personal, basis, maybe on comments or suggestions, our principal might have given directions,” he added, referring to National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales.

Ibrado himself provided further explanation as to the lack of participation of the NSC in the crafting of the said agreement, saying that there are no ties that bind the government negotiating panel with the NSC.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the national defense and security committee, questioned why the council has not been convened despite the worsening Mindanao conflict.

“What do you think the NSC is concerned with today? Is it drugs, international security or internal security? Isn’t it the internal security? This means we must address with the highest priority, the internal security. So why is not the NSC being convened?” he asked.

“How come the NSC has not been convened to discuss the MoA-AD because there are a lot of implications to national security if it succeeds, or maybe worse, if it fails as it did,” Biazon further inquired.

Ibrado failed to give any answers.

Enrile noted that it is the prerogative of the President on whether to call for the convening of the council, as chairman of the NSC which includes Congress leaders, or opt for the convening of the Cabinet Cluster E to handle the issue on national security.

Officials of the Departments of National Defense (DND), Interior and Local Government (DILG), Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Justice (DoJ) form part of the Cabinet Cluster E.

Ibrado assured the senators that despite the controversy stirred by the MoA, peace talks are continuing.

Enrile was prompted to inquire on the recent appointment of defeated senatorial candidate, former Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson as deputy security adviser.

Ibrado claimed Singson is currently engaged in “backchannel” talks with the MILF, but it is still Esperon who is on top of the job.

“He’s under the office of Secretary Gonzales, he’s part of our organization but there is some distinction between the Office of the National Security Adviser and the National Security Council which performs basically as secretariat to the council.

“If there is a specific function (of Singson right) now, we’ll probably say that he is part of the back-channeling work on the MILF issue. In fact, I believe he’s right there now in Mindanao, doing that kind of work and from the few conversations I had with him, that seems to be the direction that he’s going into. In the general peace process and negotiations, he seems to be going toward the back-channeling work. Aside from that, your honor, I’m not very, very aware,” said Ibrado.

When asked by Enrile to compare the role being played by Singson with Esperon and retired Gen. Rodolfo Garcia who is a member of the government negotiating panel, the NSC official stressed the NSC official pictured the former governor as merely providing assistance to presidential adviser on peace process.

“In essence, he is assisting the function of Esperon because as I understand it, the work on the peace process is led formally by Esperon as the head of the presidential adviser for the peace process office. But there are a lot of offices assisting the office of Esperon and one of that, of course is the NSC and the office of the national security adviser.

“Overall, it’s Esperon who’s running officially the show and whatever we contribute to the peace process is just assistance,” Ibrado said.

Gonzales was not present during the hearing of the NSC’s P61.5 million budget.

Gonzales was one of the first peace negotiators of Mrs. Arroyo, having signed the general agreement on ancestral domain with the MILF in Libya, Tripoli, in July 2001.

He was heavily involved in the earlier discussions of the peace agreement with the MILF, and got into trouble with some legislators for having agreed to the MILF’s demand to be compensated for war damages, owing to the all-out offensive launched by the Estrada government in July 2000, where all the camps taken over by the MILF were successfully retaken by the government.

It was also during Gonzales’ time of negotiations with the MILF that the agreement to grant the MILF territories under the secessionist rebels’ control and allowed as well, in yet another agreement, for the MILF to maintain an armed force of its own.

The Department of Foreign Affairs had earlier denied that it was consulted by Malacañang in the drafting of the MoA-AD.

Similarly, Malacañang claimed that Mrs. Arroyo was not aware of the conditions of the MoA-AD agreed upon by the peace negotiators, saying that the documents never passed her desk.

Her Solicitor-General, Agnes Devanadera, before the Supreme Court during the oral arguments, claimed that Mrs. Arroyo was not only unaware of the MoA-AD agreement and signing, but also that the document was signed by the peace negotiators without the authority of the President.

Chief government peace negotiator, Gen. Rodolfo Garcia also told the court that he had initialed the MoA-AD even as he admitted that he had signed it without any presidential authority to do so. in effect taking the rap for Malacañang.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno also stated earlier that the NSC held thorough discussions on the MoA-AD.

In a related development, the European Union (EU) said Monday it will extend seven million euros, or almost $10 million, in emergency aid for people displaced by the Muslim insurgency in the southern Philippines.

The announcement by the EU, one of the largest sources of official development aid to the predominantly Catholic southeast Asian country’s Muslim region, followed similar pledges of more aid from UN agencies.

Alistair MacDonald, head of the European Commission office in Manila, urged the government and the MILF to end the fighting on the island of Mindanao and resume peace talks.

It is “reaching the point where resources are being thinly stretched,” he said.

Fighting flared up in August after the Supreme Court suspended a draft agreement that could have led to a peace accord with the 12,000-member MILF, which has been waging a four decades-old campaign to set up an Islamic state.

Hardline MILF units attacked Christian communities, burning and looting homes and killing civilians in fighting that has claimed about a hundred lives and forced half a million people to flee their homes. About 100,000 are still in evacuation centers.

In the latest incident, three Filipino soldiers were wounded when a military convoy hit a landmine near Valencia city on Saturday, the Philippine army said in a statement Monday.

MacDonald said the EU retained “a lot of optimism” about the prospects for peace.

The EU aid package includes up to four million euros in immediate humanitarian relief for the affected population.

The EU also approved a grant of three million euros to address the problems of civilians who had been displaced by fighting in recent years and had not been able to return to their homes.

Over the past decade, the EU said it has approved about 33 million euros in assistance to people displaced by the Mindanao conflict, on top of 93 million euros in development aid.

Meanwhile, the US State Department denied any mediation role in peace agreements between the Arroyo government and the MILF but admitted that the US is “doing what it can to encourage both sides to reach an agreement that can make the difference for the future” of the Philippines.

It said the Philippines’ quest for lasting peace and stability in Mindanao faces “big challenges” but the government’s counter-terrorism work is “first and foremost a Philippine effort” and the US is “not serving as intermediary or getting into details.”

This view was expressed by the US State Department’s ambassador for Asean Affairs, Scot Marciel, at a recent meeting of a Washington-based think tank. He is also State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

The references to the Philippines was part of State’s overview of current US relations with Southeast Asia and China, which Marciel described as no longer associated with war and refocused instead on what he called “less traditional” issues such as commerce, climate change, health and education.

Marciel maintained that the Philippines has made “substantial progress fighting terrorists who threaten it,” and noted that the U.S. military “is working exceptionally well to support the activities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines against the internationally-listed, Philippine-based terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group and the foreign-based Jemaah Islamiya (JI). The latter is known to operate cells in the Philippines.

Saying that US treaty alliances with the Philippines remain one of the pillars of its engagements in the Asia-Pacific, Marciel also announced that a Philippine-US joint hosting of transnational disaster relief exercises is scheduled in May 2009 under a mechanism of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF). The U.S. is an ARF member.

He described the Philippines as a “long time friend” of the U.S. and the exercises “a showcase for ARF’s developing relevance to regional security.”

US ambassador Kristie Kenney in Manila herself has repeatedly echoed the Washington line that it is “not interfering in the peace talks process because it is for the Philippines to determine what is best for the Filipinos in Mindanao.”

The Islamic State of Malaysia, which co-founded with the Philippines the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), had facilitated the peace talks until the government peace panel and the talks themselves were ordered scuttled by President Arroyo.

There are now moves to replace Malaysia as a facilitator due to issues over its neutrality and accusations of “conflict of interest” because of the Sabah and Spratly issues.

With AFP and PNA