Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero said in Davao City last week that all-out consultations, not all-out war, is the only way to achieve lasting peace and genuine development in Mindanao.
“I have never believed that the elusive peace in this region can be solved through the barrel of a gun,” he said during a visit here. “But we must draw the line when dealing with terrorists and other armed criminals.”
Escudero said only an all-stakeholders approach will succeed in stopping the violence that has long plagued communities in Mindanao and held back the realization of its full potential.
He said the next president should immediately convene an assembly representing all stakeholders in the region to work out and agree on a plan to resolve the conflict.
Escudero said a military solution will not address the fundamental problems of injustice and poverty which are the result of “atras-abante, urong sulong” policies on Mindanao by various administrations.
The capture of Camp Abubakar in 2000, the main MILF camp, as well as its other key camps in central Mindanao, failed to completely destroy the rebel force.
“Our own military has lost so many brave men, many of them from Luzon and the Visayas, in this long war of attrition,” he said.
“The wisdom of a policy of all-out consultations is captured in an old African adage: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together,” Escudero said.
In the past year alone, reports say that hundreds of people have died and at least half a million displaced in renewed fighting between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after the aborted signing of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.
The pact, which was to be inked in Kuala Lumpur, was later on declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court after it was challenged by petitioners led by then North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol.
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