Solon hopes GRP-CPP pact to get House support
A HOUSE Representative delegate in the Oslo Peace talks hopes that whatever results can be had with the peace talks will enjoy smooth sailing in Congress.
The Office of the Presidential Adviser to the peace process in a statement issued Saturday bared that the House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Bai Sandra Sema does not want a repeat of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) when it failed to pass in the Congress during the previous administration.
The statement read that Sema wants legislators to be engaged with the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
"We are very pleased that the Office of the Presi-
dential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) is already involving us in the peace process at this early stage instead of later so we can keep track of what is being talked about at the negotiating table,” Sema said.
She also explained that at the end of the day, whatever agreements that will be forged between the two parties will need the concurrence and support of Congress, especially the proposed amnesty for rebels and the socio-economic and political reforms package.
Sema added that based from the experience of both the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islmic Liberation Front (MILF), it is important that the Congress is engaged in the progression of the talks.
Sema also recalled how the Mamasapano incident changed everything with just a flick of a finger saying that it is due to the fact that legislators were not involved in the peace process in the beginning.
She believes that if the legislators awareness and understanding of the issues had been sufficient, one incident would not make them reject an enabling law that took a long time to draft.
"We commend the transparency of the executive department under President Rodrigo Duterte and that helps in assuring our legislators that there are no secret deals being made, no surprises along the way,” she explained in the statement.
In the same Opapp statement, the House Committee on Peace and Reconciliation Chair Rubi Sahali from one district of Tawi-Tawi expressed that the big difference then and now is that they can feel the sincerity of the president to end the war once and for all and to include all sectors in the peace process.
"Before it was all just media hype but no engagement with legislators. We only got a copy of the proposed BBL from Malacañang when it was all done. But now, it is different, we feel included in the process from the start,” she noted.
Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza, in the same statement expressed confidence that the peace talks between the GRP and NDF will get support from the legislative branch with the early involvement of key mem- bers of the House of Representatives in the process.
"With the legislators being part of the whole process, we are assured that whatever we will be taking up across the table will see some kind of an implementing mechanism that Congress will approve. So they will be with us all the way beginning now until the end of the negotiations,” Dureza added.
Aside from Sema and Sahali, the congressional delegation to the second round of Oslo talks include Representatives Jesus Sacdalan, Nancy Catamco, Leopoldo Bataoil, and Karlos Isagani Zarate, all part of the House Committee on Peace and Reconciliation. (KVC)