The Philippine Online Chronicles

University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law Dean Marvic Leonen has been appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as the chief government peace negotiator to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Leonen's appointment was confirmed today by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, who cited the professor's "varied and rich experience and expertise in advancing people's rights.”

Deles added that Leonen has "earned the respect of the peoples in Mindanao" because of his efforts to "engage the academe and marginalized sectors and communities in resolving issues.”

Leonen, a co-founder of the non-governmental Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, Inc.-Kasama sa Kalikasan (Environmental Ally) and a former UP Vice President for Legal Affairs, will attempt to patch relations between the government and the MILF, which have been in conflict since the American colonial period.

For over four decades, the secessionist MILF has been advocating and fighting for the establishment of either an independent or a fully autonomous Islamic (Bangsamoro) state in a number of areas in Mindanao and southern Palawan.

The MILF declared “Holy War” (jihad) against the Philippine government several times in the past as the armed conflict between them and the Philippine military resulted in thousands of fatalities and displaced families over the past 40 years.

The Moro secessionist side could have been granted expanded autonomy via the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domains (MOA-AD), but the said agreement was deemed unconstitutional by the Philippine Supreme Court.

Joel Villanueva heads TESDA

Meanwhile, former party-list congressman Joel Villanueva was appointed yesterday as the new director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). The said agency provides training and scholarship to students who want to pursue technical skills courses.

Villanueva, a two-term representative for the Citizens' Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC), was a prominent opposition congressman during the 13th and 14th Congress and has pushed for the impeachment of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the ratification of the junked Freedom of Information Act. He is the son of evangelist Eddie Villanueva, who ran for president in the 2010 elections but lost to Aquino.

Villanueva said that his first act is to ask the Commission on Audit to look into the financial status of TESDA, which was allegedly plundered by its former chief, Augusto Syjuco. Last February, a labor group filed plunder charges against Syjuco over alleged misuse of funds for a TESDA infomercial.

“One of the major problems of TESDA is where its funds are used,” Villanueva said, saying that he will cooperate to any investigation on the said agency.

According to Villanueva, among his first tasks is to improve TESDA training to generate jobs in the countryside. He also vowed to “depoliticize” TESDA's scholarship program to provide scholarships to “deserving” students.

“We want to make sure that Tesda scholars are really deserving of their slot and are not granted the scholarship because of their ties with politicians,” Villanueva said.