Mindanao civil groups launch peace talk watch- by Rose Uro,interaksyon.com

Mindanao civil society groups have strengthened their monitoring  of the peace process by launching the Peace Talks Watch. Last Monday, as the peace negotiation panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) convened for their 22nd exploratory talks ,monitoring billboards will be set up in strategic locations in Iligan, Cotabato and Davao cities. According to Abdul Malik Cleofe of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC),the billboards will be marked "365"  Days Countdown to peace" and will contain major updates from the negotiations. The one –year timeframe is in keeping with the optimistic  estimate of both panels within  which they can hammer a political settlement, said Cleofe. Juanito Enriquez, managing director of the Civil Society organizations Forum for Peace (CSOFP),said that peace talks watch is one way of formally rendering  the government and MILF negotiators that the people are interested in seeing a definite conclusion to negotiations. "Let us see the end of talks and the beginning of implementing the measures necessary to empower the Moro people and reverse historical injustice", stressed Enriquez. "We are highly confident  in the capacity of both panels  to see the process through these aims", he added. A day before e last April's talks, civil society groups from key cities of Mindanao held a peace caravan as a symbolic send-off of the panels. The talks  on June 27 to 28 in Kuala Lumpur is the fourth  under Aquino administration-three formal meeting  every two months since February, and one formal meeting on January. On Monday , the government panel is slated  to present  its counter –proposal to the draft peace pact submitted to tit by the MILF last February. A working draft of a comprehensive compact is expected to be drawn from both proposals. In    Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday, chief government Marvic Leonen said the solution to the Bangsamoro question must" remain principled, yet pragmatic" "We will reach out t o the MILF without conceding or surrendering our ideals. We hope that they will take that hand that is out to them so we can leapfrog the process and enter into an  agreement soon", Leonen said, Leonen held a briefing on the peace process to 85 battalion commanders of the Philippine Army in Mindanao at Camp Evangelista where they gathered to discuss about the internal peace and security plan of the Armed Forces. "let us move forward by seeing the larger picture (of the Bangsamoro problem),moving together in small political steps to find reasonable solutions to longstanding problems," he said. There is one aspiration that within the year, we will try to put everything in place to give primacy to the peace process," he added