Clarifications on July 26 Inquirer report on Opapp re DAP

This is in reference to the news article, “No peace process with MILF without DAP funds, says Deles” (News, 7/26/14). The article first appeared on the Inquirer website on July 23 with a different title, “Deles now attributes Bangsamoro peace accord to DAP” (https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/622724/deles-now-attributes-bangsamoro-peace-accord-to-dap). Both articles were written by Germelina Lacorte.

To provide the public with accurate information, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) sent a letter to the editor on July 24, a day after the publication of the Web article. In that letter, we made important points of clarification, which were apparently disregarded in the article that saw publication on July 26.

We, therefore, would like to reiterate the following:

1) The inaccuracy of the lead in both stories. It misinterpreted an article published July 22 on the Opapp website, titled “Reforms happening in conflict areas due to DAP.” Please note that there was never any mention in the Opapp press release that Secretary Teresita Deles attributed the Bangsamoro peace accord to the Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP. Certainly, the Opapp article did not convey that Secretary Deles said that the peace agreement with the MILF would not have been possible without funds from the DAP.

2) The Inquirer story reported that “Deles said that aside from the reforms in the ARMM, the DAP was also used to fund development projects critical to the Bangsamoro peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.” There was never such statement in the Opapp press release. Our article stated that “the funds were utilized for priority development projects for communities nationwide affected by and vulnerable to armed conflict as well as areas covered by existing peace agreements.”

3) The last paragraph of the story provided inaccurate elaboration of Opapp funding from the DAP. Note that the amount of P1.819 billion in 2011 and P248 million in 2012 did not go just to the implementation of the provisions of the agreement with the Cordillera Bodong Administration-Cordillera Peoples’ Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA) but, as explained in our article, “the funds were also utilized for the provision of immediate and livelihood assistance to former rebels; for consultation and capacity-building interventions in support of addressing women’s issues in situations of armed conflict through the ‘Localization of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security’; and for the conduct of information, communication, and monitoring activities in line with the peace process.”

—POLLY MICHELLE Q. CUNANAN,

communications director,

Office of the Presidential Adviser

on the Peace Process

I stand by the lead of my story.  Although it did not mention the Bangsamoro accord and the DAP, the Opapp statement repeatedly mentioned “the gains of reforms” and “the peace process” as a consequence of the DAP funds.

It’s true Secretary Deles did not specifically mention the Bangsamoro accord but paragraph 9 of the Opapp statement said the P1.819 billion funds in 2011 and P248 million in 2012 was intended to “support its crucial work on achieving negotiated political settlement of armed conflicts” and “peace and development initiatives as a complementary track” under the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana) program. It was not the negotiated settlement, per se, that the DAP funded but the priority development initiatives in vulnerable communities, as a “complementary track crucial to achieving the negotiated political settlement.”

Paragraph 8 of the statement also said, “In terms of the peace process, Deles noted that as a result of DAP funding, there are those who feel the consequences of the reforms of “pagtigil ng ‘dating-kagawian’ or ‘business as usual’ or what they were formerly doing.”

I don’t think I have misquoted or misrepresented Opapp in my report, but I believe a reporter has the right and duty to report in digestible terms the obvious stuff  that he reads in press statements.

—GERMELINA LACORTE,

correspondent,

Inquirer Mindanao