By LYNDA JUMILLA
ABS-CBN News
As expected, no government representative showed up in Thursday’s Senate hearing on the aborted Philippine government-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
As early as Tuesday, August 12, Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. sent a letter to Peace, Unification and Reconciliation Committee chair Sen. Ana Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal, asking to be excused from the Thursday hearing "considering the matter to be discussed is the subject of oral arguments before the Supreme Court (SC)" Friday, August 15.
Esperon said he deemed it prudent to wait for the high tribunal's ruling on the matter. However, he also requested the hearing be reset to a later date, preferably after the SC has rendered a final decision on various petitions filed in connection with the territorial deal.
National Defense Sec. Gilberto Teodoro Jr. also sent a letter declining the invitation to appear at the hearing conducted jointly by the Peace, Unification and Reconciliation Committee and the Committee on National Defense and Security Committee chaired by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon.
Teodoro's letter read: 'The MOA-AD is currently the subject matter of a pending case in the Supreme Court wherein one of the honorable senators seeks its nullification. It is therefore prudent that the government position not be argued in any other body pending its resolution so as not to prejudice its orderly adjudication by the Supreme Court."
The other no-shows were government peace panel chairman Rodolfo Garcia, government Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) chairman Brig. Gen Reynaldo Sealana.
Also unable to attend for undisclosed reasons were MILF negotiating panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal, panel member Mohammad Musib Buat, MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) Toks Ebrahim and MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar.
Mindanao officials opposed to the MOA-AD, however, arrived in full force namely: North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol, Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, Isabela City Mayor Cherrylyn Santos-Akbar whose areas are among those proposed to be covered by the planned Bangsamoro Juridical Entity under the territorial deal.
The officials reiterated their dismay over the lack of consultation and secrecy that attended the peace negotiations and the drafting of the agreement.
Madrigal said the non-attendance of government representatives "spoke volumes" of the administration's policy of secrecy on matters of national interest.
Biazon said however he was personally willing to grant the reasons cited by government officials in light of tomorrow's court proceedings.