Peace talks for all and projects for peace,' GMA promises Mindanawons in Iligan visit

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews / 8 Jan) -- While President Gloria M. Arroyo promises to attain lasting peace in Mindanao using "peace talks for all and projects for peace" as her new formula for peace in her recent visit in Iligan city,hundreds of Maranao youths gathered in neighboring Marawi City "to ask government to restart peace talks from where it ended."

Ms Arroyo arrived Tuesday for a "full cabinet" meeting at the Macaraeg-Macapagal ancestral home, a venue which was alternately chosen against the original choice -- Molundo town in Lanao del Sur.

Among numerous concerns of the country, Arroyo talked of starting year 2009 as a mark for the "renewal of sustained, intense and vigorous efforts to ensure the fulfillment of the government's Mindanao Agenda, an agenda of two main planks and anchored on two Ps -- Peace talks for all and Projects for Peace."

Arroyo said that "an all-inclusive effort" should be waged where all stakeholders must have one mindset -- a passion for peace.

"The stakeholders include local government units, non-government organizations, religious groups, separatists and federalists, " she said as posted in the official website of Office of the President Secretary (www.ops.gov.ph).

The OPS article said the projects for peace involve increased government investments in Mindanao and fast-tracking of ongoing development projects in the area.

It also stated that "this development projects will fully exploit Mindanao's 'awesome asset' of being typhoon-free, and will include the creation of agri-business processing zones."

Arroyo also committed to "undertake a crash program to address the problem of illiteracy and poverty in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and give priority to the Mindanao provinces included in the list of the 10 poorest in the country."

"Our objective is to realize the century-old quest for lasting peace. From the wreckage of war, we will fashion implements for progress and lasting peace," the President said.

But 31 kilometers away from where Ms Arroyo held a meeting with her cabinet members, hundreds of Maranao youths marched around Marawi City, urging here to "respect and honor the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD)." [Read More...@MindaNews]