Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera has been reported to have said in a manifestation to the Supreme Court that the “issuance by the honorable court of a temporary restraining order, coupled by present conditions in some areas in Mindanao dictate (sic) that the MOA, in its present form, must undergo a thorough review” and that “the executive department will pursue further negotiations with the MILF to address the issues hurled against the MOA.”
The SC must take this exit graciously being by offered by the Solicitor General.
The monkey wrench of a TRO the court has thrown thoughtlessly into the peace table has already caused too much sorrow and suffering. Let then the GRP and the MILF lay their arms and talk peace again. And let both parties consult hereon with their constituents and go back to negotiate for peace with clearer mandate.
The SC must not ignore a painful lesson here and be humble enough to accept that at this stage of the peace negotiation it’s been as clueless a stranger as an unwanted trespasser in a highly political conflict resolution process that the parties have worked so hard to forge.
The Solicitor General has said it plainer this time: the MoA is “merely a codification of consensus points reached between both parties and the aspirations of the MILF to have a Bangsamoro homeland” and hence, “not a final agreement.”
Now, if the negotiation is allowed to continue, let’s get this stipulation categorically written into the MoA: that what the Bangsamoro essentially wants is to “be given the chance to govern themselves as a sub-state entity within the larger Philippine nation-state.”
Meanwhile, the least that the nation may demand of Ms. Arroyo is for her to state in simple and honest terms that her interest in this whole affair as the president of the Republic is the attainment of ultimate peace in Mindanao, nothing more or less; and that further she is not going to circumvent her term-limit under the present Constitution in any manner whatsoever, whether by constitutional amendment or any other design.
Mabuhay ang Filipinas! Mabuhay ang Bangsamoro!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Haha! This was a cute way to describe Devanadera waving the White Flag after the Supreme Court threw a Monkey Wrench into works of the Bangsamorostan idea, Abe!
But let’s face it, the MOA is DOA.
Now that that’s settled, there is no need to wring your wrists in lachyrmose poses for the “peace process”. It only means that dismemberment of the Republic is not an option for appeasing the MILF, which by the way should now be given a much, much lower priority in govt policy, if not in fact put on the Terrorist Lists.
We must see the MOA-AD in perspective. After all it was meant simply to expand the ARMM, not establish it. And lookit. That self-same ARMM just held the most successful quasi-automated elections in Philippine democratic history. Granted it was under the management of the MNLF who are the mortal enemies of the MILF, but that was the bargain that autonomy built into the 1987 Constitution. What right does the MILF to demand better, and what compulsion do we have to grant it to them? Why is this agreement with the MILF so crucial to long term prospects for peace? There are local Mindanao politicians and especially within the ARMM who don’t support the MILF’s more radical approach. It seems the more marginalized the MILF gets to be, the better the actual prospects for peace and prosperity by natural means.
I claim that if the insurgencies were simply to disappear (out of good will may be?) things would get better quickly and with very little real trying on anybody’s part.
Gentlemen, if only Esperon and company have your counsel the next time around, we’d be in a much better situation.
Dean,
We all know that the road to peace in Mindanao has been long and hard, the best intentions of the parties notwithstanding. One roadblock that’s visibly emerging is that our government (the executive, congress and the judiciary) is nowhere near any consensus on what to offer to the Moros, such as, for example, whether to pursue a policy of “assimilation,” “self-determination” or a “state within a state” for them.
Assimilation while perhaps aimed to mainstream the Moros and attain equality for them through citizenship is also seen by many well-intentioned people as eventual disintegration of the Moro culture and traditions (as perhaps what has happened to their “brothers” in most part of the countries because of conquest and colonialism).
Even self-determination within the concept of the ARMM creation as mandated by the Constitution is still structurally paternalistic (in Nur Misuari’s time, he had to shuttle from ARMM to imperial Manila to perform his role as governor of a MNLF-dominated “autonomous” region.)
As we know too, the Moros (particularly the intellectual revolutionaries, so to speak) have their own intractable problems foremost of which are intra-tribal rivalries, opposition from traditional Muslim warlords (who prefer the status quo to protect their fiefdoms) and extremist groups, not to speak of course of the Christian settlers who have been in Moro “homeland” for generations.
Now, you ask these questions: “What right does the MILF to demand better, and what compulsion do we have to grant it to them? Why is this agreement with the MILF so crucial to long term prospects for peace?”
My simplistic answer is: the MILF has the right as any other Muslim or group to demand better in terms of running their own affairs their way instead of being a lifelong object of welfare and protectionism from the Christian majority. That such an aspiration is backed by 11- thousand-strong armed militia (and apparently shored up by major regional and geopolitical players) makes it commonsensical for the government to rather deal with the MILF at this time than any other group or entity.
So, “Why is this agreement with the MILF so crucial to long term prospects for peace?” Because it could mean one huge roadblock out of the way in the long journey towards peace in Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines.
Peace in resource-rich Mindanao may for one thing translate into economic progress for the entire country, improving the lot of millions of Filipinos of whatever color or persuasion.
Is Devanadera waiving the white flag by asking the SC not to meddle any further? I really cannot tell or divine what her or the Arroyo government’s motivations are now. But, given the worsening conditions on the ground, what I can so far appreciate of the solicitor general’s constitutional maneuver is something of an opportunity, intended or not, for the SC to stay away from the temptation of succumbing to its “reviewing itch” and thereby naively setting the stage for a frightful and far-reaching Dred Scott* moment.
(*Dred Scott v. Sandford is the case decided by the US Supreme Court which has touched off a blast of crisis that some historians claim might have helped ignite the bloody American Civil War.)
Bangsamoro juridical entity, anyone?
Events in Mindanao indicate that the problem of peace in general has not been approached with a studied plan in mind – no ‘cognitive map’, no ‘blueprint’, no ‘frame of reference’. There continues to be a tug-of-war between the AFP/PNP and the MILF/MNLF to the extent that the future of the whole Mindanao hangs in the balance. Peace is presented to the viewing screen as being resolved by simple arithmetical solution. This means that the AFP/PNP, when it experienced heavy casualties, will just send additional contingent to Mindanao – more casualties, more troops.
Fact is, the government has commercialized its exclusive, bounden, constitutional duty to protect the State against its enemies – by ‘subcontracting’ the entire job of running after Commander Umbra Kato and Commander Bravo via a P5 million reward for each of the top leaders of the apparently dreaded MILF. If we go by the more official pronouncement from the defense or military establishment, it is as if, the MILF leaders are ordinarily categorized as criminals with their crimes spelled out as murder, robbery, arson, et cetera. If they were so, why is it so hard for the government to bring them to the bar of justice?
It is clear that Kato and Bravo are not your ordinary criminals or terrorists as our Defense Secretary and Chief of Staff want us believe. Thus, for bureaucrats to make a swelling understatement, oversimplification, or resort to this rather vicious reductionist arrogance – in the end – simply cannot provide soothing comfort to our people who become part of the collateral damage of this unstudied joint military and police action against the MILF. How many more innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire – Muslims and Christians alike? How many more lives – on both warring camps – will be expended for fighting an armed battle where not one single camp really wins?
If the Supreme Court did not as much as issue a temporary restraining order to the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain forged between the GRP and the MILF in uncharacteristic secrecy that could have been paved the way for a Bangsamoro State, could events have followed a different configuration? If there had not been any sort of opposition to a so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity – under the ‘terms of reference’ set forth in the MOA – could the armed conflict – have scaled down to zero? There were to be two scenarios that never have to take place. The contemporary mood is against two apparent states in a deceivingly peaceful co-existence and it remains to be the only constitutional barrier against any attempt to a secession or dismemberment. By whatever political gameplan this attempt at an independent Mindanao must have been drawn, in the final analysis, the government failed to cut clean.
Serious observers have taken an entirely different view on the matter. There is more than meets the eyes on this sad comeuppance in Mindanao – Lanao, Cotabato, Sarangani, wherever. There is a school of thought that says the whole scenario is part of a US plan in Southeast Asia to position itself against a possible increasing regional or global role of another country in that part of the geographical grid. True enough, US is always the world policeman that is willing to pay the price to set up strategic defense posts in every part of the globe as is euphemistically called – US military presence.
On another, there is a prevailing worldview that this has been borne out of fear of the US against a JI-led pan-Islamic state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines that is perceived to become a choke point through which oil imports from China, Hongkong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan will pass. Has if then become logical that US is taking a pre-emptive move if indeed this is part of a JI (Jemaah Islamiyah) plan especially so where it is said that this area contains some of the richest petroleum and mineral deposits in the world? If there is reason for US, as a major importer, to be threatened in the future of an oil embargo, then this kind of theory holds water.
What probably adds insult to injury is the observation that the Chinese have strategic interests in the Spratlys that would make US jealous. After all, China is US’ next strategic enemy in the higher scheme of things. Where the Philippines will favor a China than a US, a lot of things can result in the diplomatic landscape that probably bears watching. There are indications that a China-RP trade relationship is being strengthened with new contracts with the Chinese. Be that as it may, this can have certain political implications in the future. In the meantime, PGMA remains a nut hard enough to crack as one historian says.
Is there really an oil game beyond the peripheral peace problem in Mindanao? Who stands to benefit in a given constitutional order legalizing a Bangsamoro state or that a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity finally secedes itself from the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines? There appears to be a larger picture beyond what are presented as though isolated pockets of rebellion throughout the Mindanao peninsula. There seems to be a grand scheme of things thought out by the stronger societies in the international realm.
Can RP just play pony to a Trojan Horse? What really is this war in Mindanao as it is happening now? Who amongst us are actually selling our sovereignty by a dubious independent Bangsamoro state? We hope the problem settles down soon with us better enlightened than what we just hear over radio, view from the TV, read from newspapers. The war in Mindanao is being made a convenient smokescreen for the real motives of either a China or a US over our territorial sovereignty. In the end, RP is under siege in the guise of a theatrical war game of sorts.
Abe,
One cannot ignore the outstanding fact that of all the hundreds if not thousands of “non government organizations” seeking to improve the lives of Filipinos, only a very, very few are armed to the teeth and go on deadly rampages while they are going about their “good works” of attaining independence and freedom.
But we cannot speak of the MILF as if it were just one of those groups seeking reform and progress. All Filipinos are suffering, but why are the Moros supposed to be so special?
They claim they are unique in not having surrendered to or been defeated by colonialists. This is is plainly wrong history as many of their sultans pledged allegiance to Spain, and they were indubitably conquered by the Americans with both guns and money, not the Cross. Heck, they were conquered by Bisayans, too and Marcos.
But here is the shocking irony: the Bangsamoro cannot possibly be “indigenous” themselves since every succeeding sultanate was a conquering foreign power that arrived to enslave the lumads.
Islam is every bit a foreign religion and culture as Christianity!
Who will deny that homo sapiens have inhabited the archipelago since at least the late Paleolithic Age (around 40,000 years ago)? Who will deny that Shariff Kabungsuan did not arrive to found the Sultanate of Cotabato until the 16th century (1511)?
All this talk about being in Mindanao “since time immemorial” from Eid Kabalu and other “scholars” makes me laugh. The Bangsamoro founders (with their directline of descent warrants from the Prophet Mahomet called tarsilas) were every bit colonizing imperialists that the Spaniards and Americans were, although the latter insisted on abolishing their slave-trading and slave-raiding ways.
These are facts we could argue over and decide about, not just sloganeering bromides.
All Filipinos are suffering. Both from the past and the present. But armed rebellion is getting long in the tooth. Sure everyone has a natural right to revolution, but victory is not guaranteed, or even mercy, just because one group decides to break the law but cannot seem to win!
The one lesson violent jihadists must learn is that it is not only them who have unalterable convictions which will be defended by strength greater than their hatred.
“Why are the Moros supposed to be so special” and why do they “claim they are unique”? – Dean
Let me give it a shot.
We were probably basically Lumads, Moros or Chinese during the Islands’ conquest by the Spaniards. The Lumads were driven uphill and the rest including Abe’s and Dean’s ancestors stayed in the lowlands and chose to be assimilated to the ways of the conqueror. The Lumads and the Moros “resisted” and thereby have retained their cultures, traditions and institutions. Abe’ and Dean’s ancestors having lost theirs, had come to learn and accept a new way of life imposed on them although by the passage of time they acquired or founded their very own identity.
Rizal and co. were apparently the First Filipinos – a new national being that unfortunately excluded the Lumads, the Moros and the Chinaman. The “First Filipino being” while first nipped in the bud by a new conqueror somehow has reemerged even if maybe in another form or essence. That’s how Abe and Dean have become Filipinos.
On the other hand, the Moros and the Lumads have managed for the most part to preserve their distinctiveness or uniqueness, even though some equivocating whether they were Moros or Lumads or both. But no sooner, the Moros, in particular, have been subjected anew to another colonization only that this time it was an internal one – by their own Filipino brothers, and yes, by the Bisayas and Marcos too.
In the foregoing sense, if I may cut to the chase, both the Moros and the Lumads are “indigenous people,” entitled according to the “UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples,” among other rights, “to maintain and strengthen their institutions, cultures and traditions, and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs” and “to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State” and “not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.”
Great post, Primer.