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MANILA, Philippines ? There is now an ?impetus? for the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to forge a peace agreement as the term of the Arroyo administration winds down, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.
Clinton said both the government and the Muslim secessionist group should ?strike while the iron is hot? and take a chance to make the talks work under the current administration because no one would know what could happen under the next government.
But Clinton said that the government should also remain firm in isolating those who were not interested in making peace with the nation.
?I think from what I hear and the briefings I have received yesterday [Thursday] it is really a fresh approach to try to make sure that the agreement can be realized and there is an impetus because of course the President?s term will expire and I think everyone believes that it would be important to get this done because you don?t want to star over again,? the former US first lady said in a forum at the University of Sto. Tomas in Manila aired live over television.
Clinton said that during the term of her husband, Bill Clinton, the US got close to striking a peace agreement in the Middle East.
?There were those who thought that well, he?s getting towards the end of his term and maybe we can get a better deal with the new administration and in fact nothing was done. So for eight years all the progress we got so close and if it had been just pushed over the line maybe we would have gotten somewhere but after my husband left office then President Yasser Arafat said well now we?ll take that deal, well, he wasn?t president anymore,? she said.
?So strike while the iron is hot, that?s an old saying. When people are in the mood and willing to make peace, do not sleep, do not rest until you finally get [it],? Clinton said, but stressed that those who were not interested at all in peace should be isolated.
The former first lady said she understood why the previous agreement with the MILF did not work, referring to the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which was not signed last year after it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
?One of the attempts was thrown out because it didn?t correspond with existing laws and constitutional requirements but I think that everybody is now working toward an agreement that would do that,? she added.
Clinton assured the Philippines that the US would continue to help the country through trainings and other forms of assistance to achieve its goal of lasting peace in the south.
