Zamboanga City - - Councilor Abdurahman Nuno has strongly reacted to reports that he and Mayor
Celso Lobregat were invited by the national government to be members of the panel negotiation peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“That is not true. We were never invited to be members of the peace panel and Councilor (Juan Climaco) Elago has no factual basis for making such unfounded statements”, Nuno exclaimed.

Councilor Elago in an interview with reporters and aired over IBC-TV 11 purportedly said that Mayor Lobregat and Councilor Nuno were invited to be members of the peace panel and that Mayor Lobregat declined the invitation.
Nuno said he and Mayor Lobregat was invited for an interview and dialogue sessions with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process to discuss about a range of issues concerning peace, security and development but not to be members of the peace panel.

Nuno said the invitation he received was signed by Local Government Undersecretary Austere Panadero dated August 3, 2009 informing him about the joint activities slated by the DILG in partnership with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on peace Process to celebrate the National Peace Consciousness Month which will be observed on September 2009.

The letter stated that the two agencies are “currently in the process of holding a series of individual interviews and dialogue session with key figures and personalities in Mindanao in order to solicit their own views about a range of issues concerning peace, security and development.”

Panadero in his letter also sought Nuno’s availability for a possible few hours of interview/ dialogue on a mutually acceptable place and time within the month of August.

According to Nuno, similar invitations have been given to Mayor Lobregat and Congresspersons Beng Climaco and Erbie Fabian.

“Initially they are inviting 4 key officials from the city and later they will be inviting the stakeholders during dialogues that they will hold in the city”, the councilor, a respected Muslim leader in the city, disclosed.

He also stressed that the present peace panel is composed of mainly people from Mindanao. He identified the members as the following: Ambassador Rafael E. Seguis, GRP principal peace negotiator; Atty. Tomas Cabili of Iligan, former General Santos Mayor Adel Antonino, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman of Lanao, OPAPP Secretary Nabil Tan of Jolo and a representative from the indigenous cultural minority from Cotabato City. (Sheila Covarrubias)