8/14/2019 GRP-MNLF Talks: New GRP Chairman for Tripartite Review of Peace Agreement

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Montesa is new gov’t chair for Tripartite Review of 1996 GRP-MNLF pact

Contributed by MindaNewsFriday, 06 November 2009 20:50

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 November) – Peace Process Assistant Secretary Camilo Miguel“Bong” Montesa is the new chair of the government in the Tripartite Committee that is tasked to review the1996 Final Peace Agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Organization of the IslamicConference (OIC).

The MNLF holds an observer status in the pan-Islamic organization. Montesa takes over the chairmanship fromNabil Tan, the first vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and vice chair of thegovernment peace panel that forged the final peace pact with the MNLF in 1996. Tan, who resigned from his post onNovember 3, served as government chair and head of delegation since the first tripartite meeting in November 2007 inJeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Tripartite Committee reviews the implementation of the 1996 agreement.Montesa was named new chair by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Annabelle T. Abaya. Montesa, a lawyerwho hails from Cagayan de Oro, is head of the Peacekeeping and Peacemaking Group at OPAPP and has served for acouple of years in the government peace panel that is negotiating peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).In a press statement, Abaya directed Montesa to “find ways to hasten the review process and complete theimplementation of the remaining pending issues” of the 1996 pact.Montesa said there is a “need for a more inclusive process to review the implementation of the Final PeaceAgreement and to see whether or not the implementation adheres to the basic agreement and whether it responds to thecore issues which brought the conflict in the first place.” “The proof of the pudding is whether there is more

peace, more development in Mindanao to date,” he added. Under Phase 1 of the implementation, a total of 7,500former MNLF fighters had been integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine NationalPolice (PNP). In addition, some 13,000 former MNLF rebels and their families in 115 municipalities in Mindanao havebeen given livelihood assistance, skills training, resettlement housing and study grants, the press statement said. Thegovernment also implemented 937 projects and sub-projects related to education, health and sanitation, water supply,agriculture and transportation infrastructures such as bridges, piers, and farm-to-market roads, it added. TheUSAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) program has implemented 745 projects and sub-projects, thepress statement read. Other projects undertaken by the Action for Conflict and Transformation (ACT) For Peaceprogram included seaweeds production, ice-making project, cattle-raising, corn and vegetable production, and otherlivelihood assistance in addition to the provision of a Bangsamoro Community Fund Assistance in Maguindanao andTawi-Tawi, it added. (MindaNews)

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