BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

PRESIDENT Arroyo has asked the Bishop-Ulama Conference of the Philippines to spearhead a wider consultation on peace efforts between the government and Moro National Liberation Front, including the controversial proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain, Malacañang said yesterday.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the BUC, an interfaith group composed of bishops and ulamas in Mindanao and led by Archbishop Fernando Capalla, is now consulting members on whether they would take on the task.

Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said the BUC is very much willing to participate in the peace efforts.

Ledesma is head of the Episcopal Commission on Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and former CBCP president.

"Maybe we should ask the intermediation of a third party to make sure that both sides are really sincere at tinutupad nila ang agreement... The religious groups from both sides are willing to show that these issues could be solved by consultation," Ledesma said.

Arroyo on Friday said the government would assume a supporting role in resolving peace efforts-related problems and allow non-government groups to lead the moves.

Cerge Remonde, chief of the Presidential Management Staff, said the Executive is planning a "wide stakeholders meeting" of all parties that would be affected directly or indirectly by the peace efforts, especially the ancestral domain issue.

It would be undertaken either by the Office of the President or the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. No date has been set.

Ledesma said religious leaders have the competence to provide "the moral and spiritual guidance" to the peace process.

He expressed support for wide consultations.

PIMENTEL A PEACEMAKER

Administration Rep. Abraham Mitra (Palawan) said the opposition should be represented in the peace negotiations and suggested that Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. lead the opposition in the negotiating table.

"Senator Pimentel is a Mindanaoan, a constitutionalist, a friend of the Muslims, and a champion of the rule of law," he said.

He further described Pimentel as a "credentialed peacemaker" who served in the government panel that successfully worked out a cease-fire agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front.

"The complex job of mediating a conflict with deep historical roots requires the services of a statesman. Of the latter, we can barely come up with a handful today, and none of them has the additional traits of being a son of Mindanao, a student of the Constitution and a veteran of peace negotiations."

Pimentel, who is from Cagayan de Oro, has a pending resolution proposing a federal system.

ACCEPTABLE PACT

Mitra said Pimentel will be taking a "forced vacation" from the Senate less than two years from now, said "this work of untangling the mess of the failed peace talks can be part of his legacy to the country."

Davao del Norte Rep. Anton Lagdameo called for a tripartite solution to the Mindanao problem, saying Mindanaoans "are in the best position to search for a homegrown solution to a homegrown problem."

"If the peace agreement has some defects, then the challenge is to perfect it and the best way to do it is for Mindanaoans — Muslims, Christians and Lumads alike – to come to the table and forge a pact for Mindanaoans, by Mindanaoans and of Mindanaoans," he said.

OLD MOA, NEW MOA

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said an old draft MOA is being circulated "in some quarters." He said critics should read the latest one whose signing early this month in Kuala Lumpur was stopped by the Supreme Court.

"The use of the terms of reference that would imply that we will be setting up a new state is the difference between the initialed MOA and new one. Unlike the previously initialed MOA, the new one explicitly states that the agreement should be within legal and constitutional processes," said Puno, a member of the National Security Council that has held extensive discussions on the proposed agreement.

The new MOA, he said, also cited several statutes on establishing an autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao, such as Republic Acts 9054 and 6734, "which means that the agreement cannot go beyond what are stated in these laws."

Thus, fears of "dismembering" the republic or giving up the country’s territory in Mindanao to the MILF are unfounded, he said.

"From the very beginning," the government made it clear that the peace process with the MILF "will not lead to secession but autonomy," he said.