President Aquino thanks Japan for its assistance to the Philippines, particularly in the Bangsamoro peace process, in his keynote address as the Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao seminar in Hiroshima afternoon of June 24. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas President Aquino thanks Japan for its assistance to the Philippines, particularly in the Bangsamoro peace process, in his keynote address as the Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao seminar in Hiroshima afternoon of June 24. Aquino met with MILF chailr Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (onstage, second from left) before delivering his speech. To Murad’s right is Dr. Kamarulzaman Askandar of the Universiti Sains Malaysia while to his left are Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yukazi, Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario and ICA President Dr. Akhiko Tanaka. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas The President praised Japan for the assistance it has been extending the Bangsamoro peace process as member of the International Monitoring Team, International Contact Group and International Commission on Policing. He also lauded Japan’s decision to host his August 2011 meeting with Murad, “admittedly a risky move, especially since there was no certainty that negotiations would succeed.” “This meeting happened at a crucial time: Talks with the MILF had reached a difficult standstill, and I had broached the idea of directly meeting with Chairman Murad to move the discussions forward. To their credit, they responded in the affirmative. In hindsight, to us, that was the turning point in our narrative to secure a just and lasting peace. Trust was established between brothers, and genuine dialogue was possible,” Aquino said. He said that as congressman he came to understand that “the degree of resentment in the hearts of the Bangsamoro people was, on a large part, a result of land grabbing and the opportunism of some of our less scrupulous compatriots.” “Taking advantage of the illiteracy of our indigenous peoples who did not know that their lands had to be registered under their name, these lettered Christians sought control of the lands our Moro and other indigenous peoples called home. This in turn led to a struggle of our Moro brothers to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. Given the many deaths, which were the result of the conflict that raged and festered for generations, one cannot help but wonder: If a law had been passed to protect the marginalized, like the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) we have now, could bloodshed have been avoided? Is it not right that as one of my predecessors once said: That those who have less in life should have more in law? I wondered: With all the hostility and animosity that once existed between brothers, how could one achieve the trust crucial in forging an agreement?,” Aquino asked. As President, Aquino said, these questions “continued to preoccupy my mind,’ hence “every avenue to build a once-scarce trust was explored the moment we stepped into office.” Working together He said he and Murad met on August 4, 2011 in Japan “not thinking how to win, or how to give up the least — but, rather, how we could work together, and how we can improve the lot of our followers, who, after all, are all Filipinos.” He said both he and Murad understood that “the suffering of our people had to stop, and that any form of violence, neglect, and misgovernance only fueled the hatred one side had for the other,” the President said. Despite the many challenges in pursuing peace, “both Chairman Murad and I, as well as our followers, knew that we had to put an end to this vicious cycle, and in turn ignite a virtuous cycle of empowerment and advancement,” he said, adding that this was the context “from which we approached that day in August here, in Japan, almost three years ago.” “I sometimes wonder: If that meeting did not take place, where would we be today? Fortunately, that meeting, my first face-to-face encounter with my brother Chairman Murad, was a breakthrough,” Aquino said. The innocent pays Aquino began and ended his speech with August 6, 1945, when an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki three days later, killing over a hundred thousand residents. “A fundamental question arises from this tragedy: What did the peoples of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki do for them to pay the ultimate price of war? The tragedy that was the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, seven decades later, only reminds us the futile results of conflict, and impress upon us the collective responsibility we hold in defending the rights of our respective peoples to live not only without fear, but to live in a world where peace is a shared reality by all nations,” the President opened his speech. “It is therefore fitting that we are gathered in this city consecrated to the principle of the preservation of peace, to discuss how the combatants of yesterday can become partners for the avoidance of future conflict.” Aquino ended his speech by reminding participants that “whenever it seems that the path to peace is filled with so many obstacles, when our spirits are tested and our faith in the processes are shaken, those of us who are in a position to make decisions must remember what happened here in Hiroshima, and in Nagasaki, and in the many places that have faced and are now experiencing conflict: If we falter, it is the innocent who will pay the ultimate price.”(Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews) Read moremindanews/peace-process/2014/06/24/pnoy-murad-meet-on-concerns-over-draft-bangsamoro-basic-law/
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 08:55:00 +0000
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