links: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/365435/peace-groups-hail-formation-of-transcom-for-bangsamoro
Peace groups hail formation of TransCom for Bangsamoro
By Ryan D. RosauroInquirer Mindanao
8:09 pm | Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Quintos-Deles. AP FILE PHOTO
OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines – Peace advocates lauded the formal
organization of the Transition Commission (TransCom) by President
Benigno Aquino III as the beginning of a new history for Mindanao.
“We applaud both sets of the TransCom members and congratulate
each and every one of them on their selection and endorsement by their
communities, leaders and peers. We know that they each have the support
and backing of the sectors they represent,” the Mindanao Peace Weavers
(MPW), a network of nine major peace groups in the country focused on
the Mindanao peace process, said in a statement.
The peace roadmap for Mindanao is expected to formally take off
as President Aquino has constituted the 15-member TransCom that will
draft a Basic Law to serve as charter of the future Bangsamoro
autonomous political entity.
The appointment of the TransCom members was made on the same day
the peace negotiating panels of the government and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) kicked off the 36th exploratory meeting in Kuala
Lumpur to hammer out consensus on the remaining key issues relating to a
comprehensive peace agreement.
“Now that the Commission is operational with the appointment of
its full membership, the mechanism to move forward on the roadmap set by
the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro is firmly in place,” said
presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Quintos-Deles in a
statement e-mailed to the Inquirer.
MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal is slated to head the
TransCom. Joining him are MILF nominees Robert Alonto, Abdulla Camlian,
Ibrahim Ali, Raissa Jajurie, Melanio Ulama, Hussein Mu?oz, and Said
Shiek.
The government nominees are Akmad Sakkam, Johaira Wahab, Talib
Benito, Asani Tammang, Pedrito Eisma, Froilyn Mendoza, and Fatmawati
Salapuddin.
As provided in the framework pact, the TransCom seats are
reserved for Bangsamoro. Of the 15, four are women, namely, Wahab,
Jajurie, Salapuddin and Mendoza.
According to a Palace statement, the seven government nominees
underwent thorough screening and evaluation by a TransCom Selection Body
composed of Deles, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, and Secretary Mehol
K. Sadain of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).
The Palace further said that the Selection Body screened the
nominees based on their “track record in support of the peace process,
and established probity, untainted by any charge or suspicion of
corruption or abuse of power.”
Earlier, the MILF said its nominees were
selected based on their “sincerity to the Bangsamoro cause (and)
capability to discharge the task.”
Deles has noted that the TransCom
membership is drawn “from various ethnic, professional and political
backgrounds from within the Bangsamoro” hence it is “imbued with gender
and generational balance.”
“This manifests the commitment of the Aquino administration in upholding inclusivity in the peace process,” she stressed.
She added that the main challenge for the
TransCom is formulating a Basic Law that shapes “inclusive,
participatory and empowering social and political institutions in the
future Bangsamoro region.”
Government chief negotiator Miriam
Coronel-Ferrer said the Basic Law, while ensuring the realization of
Moro self-governance aspirations, must also “guarantee the rights and
wellbeing of all citizens, groups, and sectors in the new political
entity.”
“The challenges to the 15 men and women of
the TransCom remain the same as those that the negotiators faced when
they sat on the table to discuss a lasting solution to the armed
conflict in Mindanao for the first time,” Coronel-Ferrer added.
The MPW expressed hope “their shared vision
for the Bangsamoro will prove to be the bond that unites” the efforts
of the TransCom members regardless of who nominated them to be part of
the body.
Iqbal, who will chair the TransCom, is a
veteran in the Mindanao peace process and of the Moro struggle. Alonto
and Camlian are currently members of the MILF peace panel.
Ali is a Muslim cleric; Ulama is a leader
of the Teduray Lambangian tribe who serves as consultant to the MILF
peace panel along with Jajurie, a Tausug.
Muñoz is military commander of the
Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the MILF armed wing, while Shiek, a
Maranao, heads the MILF ceasefire committee.
Both Tammang and Sakkam are lawyers and
natives of Sulu. Sakkam is also a diplomat while Tammang served a term
as Sulu congressman from 1992 to 1995.
Also a lawyer, the Maguindanaoan Wahab currently heads the legal team of the government panel.
Benito, a Maranao, is dean of the King
Faisal Center for Islamic, Arabic and Asian Studies of the Mindanao
State University in Marawi City.
Eisma, a native of Isabela, Basilan, used to be a local politician.
Mendoza is a member of the Indigenous
People and Cultural Communities Sectoral Council of the National
Anti-Poverty Commission being leader of the Teduray Lambangian Women’s
Organization.
Salapuddin heads the Sulu-based Bangsamoro
Women Solidarity Forum, and at present director of the NCMF’s Bureau of
Peace and Conflict Resolution.
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