Press Release
August 12, 2008

ROXAS: "PIGILIN ANG GIYERA SA MINDANAO"
NO TO CHA-CHA, LIBERAL PARTY PRESIDENT SAYS

Senator Mar Roxas, Liberal Party President, stressed that the government must push forward with agreements in the South with the objective of attaining real peace and to not deepen the divide between Filipinos.

"Bago lahat, protektahan natin ang kapwa nating Pilipino sa Mindanao at sa buong Pilipinas. Ang tunay na pamamaraan para magkakaroon ng kapayapaan ay sa pag-uusap sa mga mamamayan, at hindi lang sa mga lider ng grupong MILF at ng Government Peace Panel," said Roxas, who filed yesterday his petition at the Supreme Court to cancel the controversial GRP-MILF Peace Panel Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on Ancestral Domain.

"What we have in Mindanao is the exact opposite of security. It is insecurity in the very essence of the word. The people are uneasy that even if a peace accord is signed, it raises the prospects of war," he added.

He stressed that there was no present need to amend the Constitution, whether to shift to federalism or to a parliamentary form of government.

"Hindi ko maunawaan na halos ibinigay na ang lahat sa kasunduang ito, na itong ibinigay ay mangangailangan ng pagbabago sa ating Saligang Batas. Maaari nga na iyon talaga ang layunin dito," Roxas said.

Roxas said in addition that any agreement delineating boundaries of a state such as that of the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in the MoA should be subject to a referendum, not only among the Mindanaoan communities, but among all Filipinos.

"Tayong mga mamamayang Pilipino, wala ba tayong sey dito? Parang hiniwa tayo at ipinamigay ang isang bahagi ng katawan natin na wala man tayong ka-sey-sey," he said.

Roxas said that a future peace agreement would have to be negotiated by a different government peace panel. "We no longer have faith that our present peace panel has our country's best interests at heart. It is therefore imperative that, to end the war in Mindanao, our President revamps her peace panel," he said.

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