A GOOD start, but still a long way to go.
Former senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. said the peace agreement in Muslim Mindanao is a “good start,” only because it ends hostilities between the Philippine government and the separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
To resolve issues on war, poverty, and political patronage, among others, the Philippine government and the MILF signed on Oct. 15 a peace framework, creating a new political entity, Bangsamoro, to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) established in 1996 under an earlier peace deal with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Under the Malaysia-brokered agreement, the MILF dropped its call for an independent state and committed to decommission its 12,000-strong rebel force.
It does not, however, provide an encompassing solution to the conflict with the Moros, according to the former senate president who authored Republic Act No. 6734, which created the ARMM.
“The framework plan is [merely] a framework plan,” Pimentel told the Varsitarian in an interview. “There are many things that still have to be done to complete the structure of the peace agreement, so that it will be a binding kind of agreement.”
‘Exclusive’
Pimentel noted that there are three major Muslim groups in Mindanao—the Maranaws (natives of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur), the Maguindanaos (natives of Maguindanao province), and the Tausugs.
The Aquino administration had only negotiated with the Maguindanao group, particularly MILF, which initially wanted an Islamic substate.
“As a result, other Moro tribes felt left out,” Pimentel said, noting that it was MNLF of the Maranaws under its former leader, Nur Misuari, that initiated the call for a peace agreement with the government during the Cory Aquino and Ramos administrations, which resulted in the establishment of ARMM in 1996.
The MNLF feels that the peace process is not reflective of the interest of the entire Moro people but mainly the output of the concerns of the Maguindanaoans (MILF), he added.
Misuari has been ranting in protest against the framework agreement, calling it “a recipe for another big war in Mindanao.” He also encouraged his followers to take up arms.
For him, the government’s agreement with the MILF was illegal for there was already a previous accord with his group.
But Pimentel said: “Unless the effort is all inclusive, there will be other groups that will come out tomorrow, saying we are not part of the agreement anyway so we will continue to fight.”
Department of History chair Agusto de Viana said Misuari’s and the MNLF’s pessimism on the framework agreement is “justifiable.”
“The MNLF made an agreement with the government back in 1996 (the establishment of ARMM),” De Viana said in an interview. “If I were [a part of] MNLF, I’ll seek war, because MILF is a rival group.”
Meanwhile, MNLF spokesperson V. Emmanuel Fontanilla said in a statement the Philippine government has placed itself in a bind by assuming that all stakeholders, Congress, and the judiciary were amicable with the framework agreement.
“Worse, lawyer Marvic Leonen, chief government peace negotiator, never thought of the agreements—international agreements—the government had entered with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Maybe Leonen should wisely recall the pactum sunt servanda (agreements must be kept) doctrine,” he said.
Tripoli agreement
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanuglo said in an article in the Manila Bulletin that there was a need to link the Tripoli Agreement to the MILF framework agreement.
The MNLF signed a peace accord with the Philippine government in 1976 in Tripoli, Libya after the OIC moderated a meeting between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and MNLF in Jeddah to bargain for autonomy. It went into full implementation in 1996.
The agreement provided that full autonomy shall be granted to thirteen provinces in Mindanao—Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, and Palawan.
According to De Viana, the Moro group has always felt oppressed by the Philippine government. As a result, they have received a larger share of national budget, especially after 1976.
“So how come the ARMM is one of the poorest regions of the country?” he asked.
Solution
Congress must now come in, according to Pimentel, to fill the gaps, particularly the non-inclusive nature, of the framework agreement.
“As of now you only have an executive agreement,” he said. “You might need a plebiscite to ask the conformity of the people as to whether they want to be included in the area or not.”
Pimentel said the solution to the problem is to adapt a federal system of government in Bangsamoro, as well as the rest of the country.
“It’s not only good for the Muslim, but also for us,” he said.
Under federalism, sovereignty is constitutionally divided between the Philippine government and Bangsamoro, as well as the country’s political units should it have more.
Conflicts will decrease if no particular Muslim group is favored, said De Viana.
“If you give a special agreement to one, you should give it to all,” he said, adding that the Bangsamoro framework should be analyzed as to it is within the context of the Philippine constitution.
“You are practically giving away the sovereignty of the Philippines to this group which claims they want autonomy,” said De Viana who is doubtful that the current framework is the last chapter of the conflict in Mindanao.
“This may be just another part of the series of agreements,” he said. Kristelle Ann A. Batchelor and Andre Arnold T. Santiago
