Mixed feelings over Tony Blair´s role in peace process

Published Date: March 26, 2009

Church people, after a visit of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have mixed reactions on his role as government adviser in peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Blair, visiting the country March 22-23, spoke at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City on “The Leader as Nation Builder in a Time of Globalization” as part of the Jesuit school´s 150th foundation anniversary activities.

He also addressed the Second Leadership Conference Series at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel in Pasay City, co-sponsored by the Christian Brothers´ De La Salle University.

He had lunch with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in between the talks. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told a radio interview that Arroyo was to ask Blair´s help in the peace process with the MILF.

On March 24, however, Remonde told Manila reporters that there was no formal invitation, but Blair has been giving Arroyo advice on how to handle the negotiations for peace in Mindanao, the southern Philippines.

The MILF, created in the 1970s to establish Islamic rule in claimed traditional Moro (Philippine Muslim) territories in Mindanao and on Palawan island, has been engaged in on-and-off peace talks with the government since 1997.

The talks last stalled in August after politicians and civic leaders petitioned the Supreme Court to block the signing of an agreement on claimed Moro ancestral lands.

Jesuit Father Albert Alejo of Ateneo de Davao coordinates the planning team of the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) that has been asked during the impasse to coordinate peace consultations among stakeholders.

Ulama are Islamic scholars recognized as religious leaders, and the 13-year-old BUC was established to enable religious leaders to collaborate on peace and development in Mindanao.

Father Alejo said Blair, who became a Catholic after he resigned his premiership, could be consulted “about a few things” but that he was “not sure” how well the British politician would be accepted by Muslims in Mindanao.

Retired Bishop Hilario Gomez of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines said Blair´s prestige might help push government and MILF back to the negotiating table. However, Filipino nationalism has to be taken into consideration, said the convener of Protestants in the BUC.

“This is a Filipino and a Mindanao problem and must be resolved by us,” said Bishop Gomez. “We should have the primary task to handle the issue.”

He also wonders what it really means to have Blair as adviser. Arroyo had asked him and BUC conveners, Catholic Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao and Hamid Barra of the Ulama League of the Philippines, to be peace advisers. “Until now we have never been consulted,” Gomez said.

Barra in a separate interview the same day said he would personally welcome anyone who could help bring the two parties back to the negotiating table.

“If Mr. Blair can bring about understanding between our peoples then I would not object,” said the representative for the ulama in BUC.

Jesuit Father Romeo Intengan said he welcomes Blair as an adviser because of his experience as a negotiator between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists in Northern Ireland in 1998, as well as his role in the peace agreement between the government of Aceh in Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement.

“To me it makes sense,” said Father Intengan, co-founder of the Philippine Democratic Socialist Party to which Arroyo´s National Security Adviser belongs.

He noted “Blair´s and his staff´s hand” in the government´s recent adoption of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) policy in peace negotiations with rebels. “They (Blair and team) are credible and experienced with DDR,” Father Intengan said. One of Blair´s staff members briefed the government security agencies on DDR late last year and the team has been conducting back-channeling talks with MILF until February this year, Father Intengan said.

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