Arroyo sets out agenda for peace in Mindanao

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo yesterday setout an agenda for peace in Muslim Mindanao that brings in Bahrain as a key player to ensure the president's twin objectives of ending terror and initiating development in the south are met as soon as possible.

During an exclusive interview in the Bahrain capital Manama where Arroyo is on a two-day visit, she lauded His Majesty the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, for his uniltateral offer to play a major role in monitoring the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as well as redeveloping "the bread basket of the Philippines in the aftermath of peace."

Malaysia, Bahrain, Libya and Bangladesh are committed to the Organisation of Islamic Countries' plan to assist the Philippines in bringing peace to war-torn Mindanao.

With the death of Foreign Secretary Blas Ople, Arroyo told Gulf News she was taking charge of the foreign ministry, in addition to introducing other far-reaching changes to the Philippines polity.

The first move would be a general amnesty for all those who stood against her government to "heal the divide in society," Arroyo said, adding the draft bill for the amnesty was ready to be tabled.

More important, in her first definitive statement on the subject, she said "if I am re-elected president, I will change the country's constitution to make it a parliamentary democracy."

"My two and a half years as president have shown that we need to change two areas in the Philippines to ensure that it does not lag behind – the political and the economic," she sad.

Arroyo, who paid rich tribute in a Christmas message of peaceto overseas Filipino workers in the Gulf for "their great sacrifices for the country,"dismissed charges that her visit was to drum up overseas Filipino workers' votes in her bid to retain the presidency.

Instead, she stressed the enormous dividend that had accrued from her empowerment of overseas Filipino workers through "expanding their rights and privileges" by passing the overseas voting law and an anti-money laundering law.

See also: Arroyo promises parliamentary democracy for the Philippines