Call to change members of gov’t peace panel fall on deaf ears

MANILA, March 13 — There will be no change in the composition of the government peace negotiating panel even with the urging of a senator to replace the peace adviser Teresita Deles and chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer for talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

In a privilege speech on Wednesday, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, called on the President to change the members of the peace panel because of their apparent bias, towards the MILF. That call fell on deaf ears as Communication Secretary Hermenio Coloma, Jr. said that Aquino has no plan to replace the members of the peace panel.

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Asked to comment on Cayetano’s allegations that the MILF coddled Marwan, one of the targets of the bloody Mamasapano clash last January 25, Coloma said the senator should submit his information to the Senate committee investigating the Mamasapano encounter.

The infamous Mamasapano debacle of the Philippine Nationl Police Special Action Force, which resulted in the killing of 44 troopers and wounding several others, has a mushroom effect as too many investigating bodies looking into the incident instead of just one. Soemof these include the Senate version, the Philippine National Police’ Board of Inquiry, the Department of Justice, the International Monitoring Team (IMT), and the Commission on Human Rights. The MILF is even doing doing its own probe, only that the result will be submitted to Malaysia.

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