World News
Philippine bishops call for calm, study of stalled agreement
Published: August 20, 2008
ILIGAN, Philippines (CNS) -- In an effort to battle fear and rumors, Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines called for calm and the study of a stalled agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In reflections sent to the Asian church news agency UCA News Aug. 19, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato expressed sadness that "violence is breaking out again in southern Philippines, when it could be prevented." He urged people to study the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, the stalled agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and said the "great tragedy for the country" is that it "is being rejected for reasons that can be resolved or may not even be" in the agreement. Rejecting it totally on the basis of what it fails to say could generate "a tragedy of incalculable proportion" and sound a possible "death knell to lasting peace," he said.
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