Muslims, Catholics laud Aquino-Murad meeting

Roman Catholic and Muslim leaders on Sunday commended the meeting between President Benigno Aquino III and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad Ibrahim in Tokyo last Thursday. Grand Imam Padel Hassan said the meeting is a step toward lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao. “Ang hangad ng Muslim Mindanao, lalo na ng kapatiran nating MILF, ay magkaroon ng kapayapaan… Hindi lang kaysa ise-separate ang Muslim Mindanao, kundi kung paano magkakaroon ng kapayapaan ang sambayanang Pilipinas," he said in a news report aired over GMA News’ “24 Oras" on Sunday. “President Aquino and MILF chair Murad have strengthened the trust and confidence of the citizens of conflict-affected Mindanao that a just peace will come soon," Hassan added. Cotabato Bishop Orlando Quevedo, meanwhile, said that the meeting between Aquino and Murad will definitely fast track the peace process between the government and the MILF. “When the final agreement comes out, I hope it is a win-win solution," he said in a separate television interview. Aquino met with the leader of the country’s largest Moro separatist group at a hotel in Tokyo last Thursday with hopes to boost the peace talks between the two parties. Officials from both the Philippine government and the MILF called the meeting as a development in efforts to end the decades-old conflict in southern Philippines, which the Aquino administration hopes to achieve by 2016.

More praises The Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, for its part, also lauded the Aquino government’s move, saying it gives high hopes for peace to citizens from conflict-ridden areas. Even traders from Muslim Mindanao praised the Aquino government for doing something past administrations failed to accomplish. “Ito’y isang bagay na hindi nagawa ng mga nakaraang (administrasyon). Ito’y isang bagay na pinapangarap ng sambayanang Pilipino," Yussuf Khandi Macalangcom of the Muslim Vendors and Traders’ party-list said in an interview. The Muslim-Christian Alliance for Justice and Peace in the Philippines, for its part, said the government’s agenda to bring lasting peace in Mindanao will definitely boost economic progress in the region. “Many Muslim overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East will consider returning home, stay in Mindanao and help build Mindanao attain economic progress and development," Abdulrahman Palcarey, one of the group’s lead convenors, said in a separate statement. — KBK, GMA News