A more auspicious accord?

SOME are skeptical of the goodness of the news that the Philiippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to come to an agreement to create the “Bangsamoro.” It will reportedly be signed on October 15.

In 2008, the Supreme Court killed the “Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain” portion of the hoped-for final and comprehensive peace agreement between the government and the MILF.

The MOA-AD was a great disaster for the Philippines and the MILF. For reasons that until now have not been fully disclosed and explained, the Philippine side was not transparent about it. It seems that the Arroyo regime wanted to be able to proclaim that the at-that-time 12 year-old ceasefire and negotiations between the MILF and the government had come to a happy pass. The breakthrough would have helped then President Arroyo to recover from her extreme unpopularity.

And it would have triggered a flood of foreign direct investments into Mindanao—and perhaps also into other areas of the Philippines. That was because—and this is still the case to day under President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s administration—one of the negative perceptions abroad about our country is that Mindanao is at war and no serious undertaking can be achieved there without a peace agreement with the MILF.

Several countries are very much involved, right now and in and before 2008, in giving social and economic aid to Mindanao—the US, UK and some other European countries, Japan, and a dozen rich Muslim-majority countries. They have been held back from pouring really substantial aid and investment to make Mindanao a land of profitable productivity and prosperous Christian and Muslim Filipinos. These countries have been pleading with the Muslim rebels and the Philippines to reach a final and comprehensive peace agreement because once that happens they would fund all kinds of agricultural, agro-business, industrial and commercial enterprises and make Mindanao a wealthy place.

These countries are eager to see Mindanao develop and its people get rich because they have political leaders, NGOs and media pundits who really care for the Mindanaoans and the Filipinos as a whole. But also because their business and financial sector leaders know that being an investor in an economic super-growth area would be profitable for them.

BIMP-East Asian Growth Area
The continued stunted state of Mindanao—owing to the MILF rebellion and the terrorist activities of the Abu Sayyaf and other unsavory groups—affects the potential burgeoning of profitable commerce in the region, specially the one that has been identified as the BIMP-EAGA or the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippine-East Asian Growth Area. This area has been identified by analysts as being a potentially strong driver of growth for the global economy.

Another thing to remember is that the seas of Mindanao, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia are an important part of the global shipping route.

That is why ambassadors of the United States, Japan, Britain, Australia and some other important, including Muslim-majority countries, were so eager and happy to be in Kuala Lumpur on August 5, 2008 to witness the formal signing of the MOA-AD by the Philippines and the MILF.

MOA-AD unconstitutional
The Philippine government’s chief negotiator and his MILF counterpart more than a week earlier had actually initialed the MOA-AD document. But before it could be signed on August 5, the Supreme Court declared it “contrary to law and the Constitution.”

“In sum, the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process committed grave abuse of discretion when he failed to carry out the pertinent consultation process, as mandated by Executive Order (EO) No. 3, RA 7160, and RA 8371. The furtive process by which the MOA-AD was designed and crafted runs contrary to and in excess of the legal authority, and amounts to a whimsical, capricious, oppressive, arbitrary and despotic exercise thereof. It illustrates a gross evasion of positive duty and a virtual refusal to perform the duty enjoined,” said the Court decision on a petition filed against the MOA-AD by former North Cotabato governor Emmanuel Piñol.

The MOA-AD with MILF would have set up the “Bangsamoro Homeland” governing parts of Mindanano through “the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).” The agreement would have given the BJE the power to set up its own security, trade, education, elections, and the right to explore and develop natural resources in the territory of the “Bangsmoro Homeland.”

The Court held that the Philippine government had failed to comply with the legal requirement to consult the local government units and communities of Mindanao The SC also ruled that the Philippine panel had exceeded their authority when they guaranteed that the Philippine Constitution would be amended to give due course to the agreement.

As a result of the nullification of the MOA-AD, some commanders of the MILF ran amuck. They raided Christian as well as villages where Christians and Muslims lived harmoniously. They killed people and cattle, they destroyed property and rendered hundreds of thousands homeless.

MILF’s former enemy okays agreement
Manny Piñol, who is a Manila Times columnist, will not challenge the creation of what seems to be almost exactly like the new agreement’s equivalent to the MOA-AD’s “Bangsamoro Homeland.” Manny Piñol was one of the MILF’s declared enemies. In a message he sent to media people, Manny Piñol said he has changed his perspective.

He now believes even the MILF is for lasting peace. He thinks President Benigno Aquino 3rd consulted the people of Mindanao.

Piñol, the UK, the USA, Japan and Australia, and of course Malaysia, are all praising the government and the MILF for this new agreement. Will other Christian leaders of Mindanao—like Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat—be as approving or acquiescent?

The President and his men better be sure that the moves they make don’t violate the Constitution and any law. The Palace insists that there is no need to amend the Constitution to redefine our local governments and set up regions ruled by prime ministers with their own police forces and other things.

We pray this is not the beginning of the fragmentation of our country.