For the Record: Leonen says no need for CHA-CHA to implement Framework Agreement, October 9, 2012 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

For the Record: Leonen says no need for CHA-CHA to implement Framework Agreement, October 9, 2012 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

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For the Record: Leonen says no need for CHA-CHA to implement Framework Agreement, October 9, 2012

Introduction

With due respect to the editors of The Philippine Daily Inquirer, its headline today, October 9, 2012, which says “Cha-cha next peace step” is misleading.

Dean Marvic Leonen, in his interviews, such as the one on DZBB at 9:18 a.m. of October 9, and his press briefing with the Malacañang Press Corps on the afternoon of October 8, clearly says there is no need to revise the charter in order to complete the peace agreement. Furthermore, the Framework Agreement itself does not in anyway mention revisions to the constitution.

And yet the PDI chose to highlight in its headline the claim by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago that charter change is the next step in the completion of the peace agreement with the MILF.

We would like to gently remind the PDI and the public that Senator Santiago was not involved in the negotiations, nor was it clear if she had even read the framework agreement at the time that she was quoted by the paper. In contrast, Leonen has been intimately involved in the peace process. While we respect the right of the PDI to angle the story in whatever way they see fit, we also exercise our right to express that we fail to see why the comment of the good senator would be used as a headline, taking precedence over the statements of Leonen and the text of the Framework Agreement itself.

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Interview with Government of the Philippines (GPH) Peace Panel Chair Marvic Leonen:
On the Framework Agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)

[Radio interview on Saksi sa Dobol B - DZBB on October 9, 2012]

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