Peace initiatives boost economic progress: Ramos

Peace initiatives boost economic progress: Ramos

MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos said yesterday that his
peace initiatives with the Philippines' three main rebel groups
had opened the door for economic development in regions formerly
in the grip of the insurgents.

Ramos brushed aside criticism that his government was bending
too far to accommodate the rebels' demands. He challenged critics
to join him on his trips to the provinces to talk to residents.

"It is an honorable peace, a just peace and an enduring peace
that we are working on," Ramos told a news conference. "This
takes a lot of patience. This can't be done instantly," he added.

The president has been criticized for allowing the talks to be
held abroad. There are also fears that the government might agree
to the demands by Moslem rebels for control of most of the
country's south.

Peace talks are underway with right-wing military rebels --
whose coup attempts weighed down the economy under former
president Corazon Aquino -- and guerrillas of the Moslem rebel
group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the south.

Formal negotiations with the communist-led National Democratic
Front (NDF) got bogged down in Belgium last month over a dispute
on the release of a jailed communist guerrilla leader.

But Ramos said that regions of the country which were formerly
combat zones are now seeing the fruits of peace in their rapid
economic development.

He cited the booming cities of Zamboanga, Davao and General
Santos in the main southern island of Mindanao -- which are part
of a proposed East Asian Growth Area with Brunei, Indonesia and
Malaysia.

In the 1980s Communist urban guerrillas were strong in these
southern cities, as their assassination squads called Sparrows
sowed fear in the streets.

But Ramos pointed out that residents in these and other areas
are "now seeing the wisdom of this peace process because they are
also enjoying a steady development as a result of improved peace
and order conditions in their respective communities."