‘Noy, MILF chief must talk on BBL’s disputed issues’

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Chief Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiator Mohagher Iqbal believes President Aquino and MILF chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim must meet and talk if the government and MILF negotiating panels fail to settle disputed issues in the proposed Bangsamoro basic law.

Iqbal yesterday told The STAR “it is hard but we are trying our best.”

The government and MILF panels are holding a 10-day workshop at the Waterfront Insular Davao Hotel since Aug. 1 to review the draft bill to be submitted to Congress.

Iqbal said a principal-to-principal engagement must take place if issues   cannot be settled at the level of the negotiating panels.

“What is good is that both panels are talking directly to their respective principals (Aquino for government and Murad for MILF),” he said.

“And we can easily reach out to our principals whatever we cannot resolve in our level here at the negotiating panel.”

The two panels will try to resolve 70 percent of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that has remained unsettled, especially the provisions on wealth and power sharing, Iqbal said.

However, chief government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer told The STAR they would not want to burden the President with unresolved issues in the peace process as much as possible.

The two panels have already finished several articles in the ongoing workshop, including the preamble, she added.

Ferrer said of the 18 articles that the two panels must resolve, the articles that have to do with identity have been settled.

“And since Monday, we are really looking at the hard part – the article on the administration of justice and policing,” she said.

Ferrer said that the 10-day workshop has been some kind of an emotional roller-coaster ride.

“It is really a rigorous process that requires patience and stamina,” she said.

Iqbal described the proceedings as “hard sell and difficult as well as intense.”

Heated arguments might occur in the discussions, but these are nothing personal, Ferrer and Iqbal said.

The workshop at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m.

Ferrer said peace panel members are “able to sleep well” in spite of the intensity of the discussions.

“We sometimes break into groups in discussing certain issues but we still return to the plenary where we tackle them as a body, although there have been discussions directly in the plenary,” she said.

She is hopeful that issues perceived to be “insurmountable” could be discussed, Ferrer said.

Iqbal said everything has an end, even if the process has been a hard sell. 

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the date for completion of the draft bill might be moved from December to the first quarter of next year.

– With Aurea Calica,  Roel Pareño