TO PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte, they’re thugs to be stamped out. Or so he sometimes says. “There is no redeeming factor or reason for me to sit down and talk with criminals. Pareho lang rin ‘yan sa droga.” Duterte described the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) this way, during the mass oath- taking of his appointees in Malacanang,
STATEMENT: In his first state of the nation address Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte, digressing from a prepared speech, talked about the peace process in Mindanao and the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). Duterte said: “Iyong BBL, ibigay na natin, minus the things that you do not want. Iyong mga constitutional issues. Tanggalin muna natin. Ibigay ko yung area .Nandiyan
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THERE was something amusing in the narration of Mamasapano Mayor Tahirodin Benzar A. Ampatuan that reflects a trait common to many Filipinos. Mayor Ampatuan (yes, the Ampatuans of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre are still very much a force to reckon with
By JANE DASAL A BETTER police force, improved infrastructure and transportation facilities, and opening up business opportunities are urgently needed in areas that will comprise the new Bangsamoro political entity, British Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad said Monday. Ahmad, who addressed a forum at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration
By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS, MindaNews KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – “On the same paragraph now, but it’s still a long paragraph,” Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed summed up to MindaNews Thursday the progress of the first three days of the August 7 to 11 peace negotiations here between the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS, MindaNews and VERA Files KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels ended their three-day talks here Wednesday with a five-paragraph Joint Statement “expressing confidence in wrapping up” discussions on the transition from the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the “new autonomous political
By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS, MindaNews and VERA Files KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – “On the same page now, but different paragraphs.” This was how Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed summed up the progress of the first two days of the three-day peace negotiations here between the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation
By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS, MindaNews DAVAO CITY – A network of peace groups has asked the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels to suspend the election of officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in May 2013 to give way to a transition government that would oversee the shift from
By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS,Mindanews
GENERAL SANTOS CITY - Now the silence can be explained.
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim on Thursday evening shook hands and talked peace for two hours in a hotel in Japan with their respective panel chairs taking down notes, the President’s Cabinet members and the MILF’s peace panel and Central Committee members as well as the Malaysian facilitator waiting outside the meeting room.
