Palace urged to reveal contents of accord with MILF

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged Malacañang to submit to the Senate the government's accord on ancestral domain, as well as other agreements it has forged with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as a result of the peace negotiation.

Pimentel suggested that the administration's peace authorities and members of the government's negotiating panel should officially inform the senators on the progress of the peace talks which began at the inception of the Arroyo presidency.

He said the members of the Senate are in the dark about the agreements that have been hammered out by both sides. And yet, he said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has cited the need to sustain the momentum of the peace talks as a reason for postponing the August 11 election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The agreement on ancestral domain supposedly provides for the inclusion of about 700 more barangays or villages in the so-called Muslim juridical entity subject to the results of a plebiscite in accordance with constitutional process.

Pimentel, principal author of the ARMM organic act, maintained that the ongoing peace negotiation between government and Muslim rebels should not be used as a ground for disrupting the scheduled regional polls.

He said any postponement of elections is inadvisable because it will unnecessarily extend the term of incumbent officials, including the incompetent and corrupt. At the same time, he said postponement deprives deserving leaders of a chance to get elected and serve the people.

If the ARMM election is postponed, the biggest casualty will be the costly automated voting and counting system intended to eliminate fraudulent practices. He said this will also jeopardize the plan to computerize the 2010 national and local elections.

"People must remember that the ARMM election was also intended to provide the venue for testing of the computerized election process in preparation for the 2010 elections. If you postpone the election now, that means there will be no more opportunity to test the automated voting machines. Therefore, they can use that excuse that since the machines were not tested, they could not be used for the 2010 elections. That, to my mind, is the ultimate purpose to defer or cancel the ARMM election," the minority leader said.

Other reasons cited for Pimentel for opposing the postponement of the ARMM polls:

1. There is no more time for Congress to pass the bill to defer the elections.

2. It is unfair to candidates for ARMM positions who have already spent a lot of money for their election campaign.

3. It will create the impressions that the government is weak for being unable to enforce its election laws.

4. It will aggravate political instability in Mindanao.

5. It will put to waste billions of pesos in taxpayers money already spent on the automated electoral system and other preparatory activities.