MALACAÑANG will remain firm in its stand that it would only
continue negotiations and agree to any settlement with the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) as these negotiations and settlements conform with the
1987 Constitution, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday.
Bunye said that while government is committed to moving the
peace talks with the MILF forward, it believes that bringing the issue of
ancestral domain to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) would not sway the
government from its position.
"I don't think bringing that to the international court will
change our position.As far as respecting the provisions of the Constitution,
that will have to remain, that cannot be negotiated but just the same we'd like
to move forward with the peace process," he said.
Presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza said
he simply wished the MILF well in its proposal or plan.
MILF lawyer and senior negotiating panel Michael Mastura
dared the government to bring the ancestral domain agenda to the ICJ to help
settle the issue once and for all. Mastura made the proposal as the MILF blamed
the government for the delay in the resolution of the ancestral domain issue
after the government stressed that it is still working on the proposed
agreement.
"Our response seeks a parallel way out of this stonewall
mentality. So I have challenged government leaders to give consent and submit to
the International Court of Justice the Bangsamoro ancestral domain question,
much like the Polisario case affecting the Western Sahara, for formal Advisory
Opinion," Mastura said at the Forum and Workshop in Cotabato City Wednesday.
He was referring to the territorial dispute between the
government of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el
Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario) covering 266,000 square meters in the
northwestern tip of Africa where the United Nations had stepped in to broker a
ceasefire in anticipation of the conduct of a referendum which never
materialized.
The UN Security Council on October 2006 passed Resolution
1720 reaffirming its support for the UN settlement plan of 1991 to allow those
from Western Sahara to determine the future of the disputed territory in a
referendum.
Morocco in April 2007 submitted a proposed autonomy to the UNSC that led to
renewed talks which, however, ended inconclusively with Polisario rejecting any
solution short of a referendum for independence. - Jocelyn d. Montemayor
