Biazon urges fellow solonsand Give peace a chance

MANILA (Sept. 24) -- Representative Rodolfo Biazon of the lone district of Muntinlupa City
during the pre-plenary hearing on the Office of the Presidential Adviser
on the Peace Process (OPAPP) budget at the House of Representatives
(HOR) called on his fellow representatives to support the approval of
the agency’s proposed budget for 2015 noting that all of these is for
peace.” Recounting his experiences as a soldier
in Mindanao for 18 years, Biazon reminded the body that there is no
substitute to peace.” War brings destruction war brings division among our people and war is very costly.” Biazon, during the said session, urged everyone to give peace a chance.” With
him as part of the congressional panel are Representatives Ben Evardone
of the lone district of Eastern Samar, who also chairs the House
Committee on Appropriations Lilia Macrohon-Nuño of the second district
of Zamboanga City Ferdinand Hernandez of the second district of South
Cotabato and Silvestre Bello III of 1-BAP. Peaceful, productive lives The
solon also extended his congratulations to OPAPP for being able to
finally submit the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to both HOR and the
Senate, but said that OPAPP’s job is not yet done.” Pending
its enactment, Biazon asked if there are parts of the OPAPP proposed
budget that would be dependent on the passage of the draft
BBL—particularly on normalization or the process through which those
affected by conflict can return to productive, peaceful lives. OPAPP
Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles assured there are ongoing
normalization activities conducted with the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF). In fact, we already started the
Sajahatra Bangsamoro since 2013.” The said program aims to uplift the
health, education and livelihood conditions of Bangsamoro communities. As
part of the confidence-building measures, government has also committed
to transform MILF camps into productive and peaceful communities. There
are interagency committees being set up with Departments of Education,
Agriculture, and Social Welfare and Development Philippine Health
Insurance Corporation, Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority and the Commission on Higher Education as partners. Part
of the plan is to have agencies adopt different sites for development.
What they will do is look at the area, see what crops are good there,
what is the state of the road, and all—so that each camp will have a
different development plan,” Deles explained. The peace adviser also shared the private sector’s enthusiasm in delivering reforms. The
Philippine Business for Social Progress corporations are interested.
There is interest to invest in socioeconomic activities in those areas.
So that the amount provided by the national government is only a
counterpart.” Lessons from the past Biazon
also urged everyone to be reminded of what happened with Memorandum of
Agreement on the Muslim Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in the past. What happened to MOA-AD should not happen to the law (BBL) that we may enact,” noted Biazon. Now
that government was able to hurdle a very difficult obstacle” in
ensuring that the proposed BBL is constitutional, Biazon notes that the
next challenge is to ensure that the deliberations on the piece of
legislation remains inclusive. The
representative from the lone district of Muntinlupa City pushed that
representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front be invited to the
legislative hearings as well—a move that OPAPP vowed to support.