‘Creativity’ key to breaking deadlocks between PH gov’t and MILF, says negotiator

Miriam Coronel-Ferrer. PHOTO FROM OPAPP.GOV.PH

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said both the Philippine government and the MILF peace negotiators would have to  be creative in keeping the talks going and ensuring that the talks lead to a comprehensive peace pact.

“Both parties need to find creative solutions to the issues to expedite the negotiations,” Coronel-Ferrer told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone.

Already, peace activists have expressed concern that the more the talks are delayed, the more doubtful the Bangsamoro transition becomes.

“It is worrisome to note that up to now, there is still no schedule for the next round of peace talks,” said a statement from the nongovernment Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC).

“Given the very limited (time for the) transition roadmap between now and 2016, any delay in the signing of the Annexes will cause irreversible consequences on the viability of the transition period itself,” the MPC pointed out.

But Ferrer expressed confidence that concluding a comprehensive peace pact with the MILF “is still possible” in the next five weeks.

Earlier, a bullish Ferrer predicted a signed peace pact before President Aquino’s State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.

Coming up with a comprehensive peace deal has been delayed by six months already. Such document ideally guides the crafting of a Basic Law that would serve as charter of the future Bangsamoro autonomous entity which would replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

After signing the preliminary Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) last Oct. 15, 2012, the parties were expected to have concluded a comprehensive agreement two months later.

That would have happened if the four annexes to the FAB dealing on power-sharing, wealth-sharing, normalization, and transitional arrangements and modalities (TAM) were completed.

So far, only TAM was done. The one for wealth-sharing was initialed last February although government has sought some more changes to it; and consensus on two power-sharing items still eludes the parties.

“Normalization is still a long way to go,” admitted Ferrer.

Under the TAM, transition from ARMM to Bangsamoro should take place by 2015, culminating with the assumption into office of a full set of elected officials by July 1, 2016.

A Bangsamoro Basic Law, which Congress has to enact and to be ratified by the affected population, will be the principal instrument to carry out the transition.

Malaysian facilitator Dato Tengku Ab’ Ghafar Bin Tengku Mohamed traveled to the country early this month to do separate backroom talks with the parties to keep the talks going.

Within the slack period since April, the peace panels agreed to exchange notes to move the consensus-building exercise.

Ferrer explained that the exchange of notes will “allow the parties to gain more clarity with respect to the current language of the Annexes and lead them to an agreement on the unresolved issues.”

A schedule for the resumption of the talks in Kuala Lumpur can be set once the parties “come as close as possible to [an] agreed language” on the annexes on power-sharing and wealth-sharing, she said.

“The government panel is just as anxious to find workable solutions to these contentious issues and is working diligently and with urgency towards this end,” she added.

Pass crucial test

Last March, the government requested a reset of the talks to allow it to do due diligence review of its political, economic, social and financial commitments arising from the negotiations. By April, the parties agreed to meet after the May 13 midterm polls.

Substantive progress of the talks has stalled since then.

“It is taking more time but we are confident that the FAB and all its Annexes, as carefully crafted as they are, will be able to pass the crucial tests of implementation,” said presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Quintos-Deles.

“The whole of government has been working to ensure clarity in how some of the new fiscal and power-sharing arrangements will be implemented, especially those which will have to be enacted into law,” Deles added.

Minus a comprehensive agreement, Deles said the Transition Commission (TransCom) can “begin their substantive work on the issues which need no further elaboration in any annex, such as on the specifics of the ministerial form of government.”

The TransCom was created by President Aquino, pursuant to the FAB, to draft the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

Ferrer told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone that the TransCom can also begin to design representation in the future Bangsamoro Assembly.

“Will this (Assembly) be composed of representatives from districts only? Or will there be proportional and sectoral representation? These issues can already be taken up by the TransCom,” Ferrer explained.

Recently, the MILF decried what it perceived as the “backtracking” by the Aquino administration on the wealth-sharing consensus saying this “is a serious drawback to the peace process.”

In a statement, the MILF said the changes were on the items of natural resources and block grants from the national government.

Principally, wealth-sharing deals with taxation, block grants, and share of the Bangsamoro government in the income from use of natural resources.

Asked to comment, Ferrer said her panel “recommended refinements” to the wealth-sharing item on block grants “after consultations with experts and members of the Cabinet.”

Ferrer said the refinements the government was seeking were not meant to water down wealth sharing but to define how to operationalize wealth sharing.

Based on existing fiscal management practice, the budget containing an appropriation for such block grants must also define its funding source, she said.

“What the MILF laid down are principles. We worked on the question of how to do it,” she added.

Government’s formula for providing block grants would be like the internal revenue allotments (IRA) that local government units have been getting from the national government, Ferrer said.

Taken as a whole, she added, the wealth-sharing refinements would still bring about enhanced fiscal autonomy for the Bangsamoro.

In power-sharing, Ferrer said the negotiations have been stuck on “jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro over matters pertaining to transportation and communication, and the notion of regional waters that may extend a few kilometers more beyond the current municipal waters.”

Last December, there were still five issues, meaning the parties have already hurdled three.

In the MILF’s original proposal, the regional waters aim to physically connect the Bangsamoro territory, which consist of the island localities in the Sulu archipelago and those in mainland Mindanao.

The Philippine Fisheries Code only defines municipal waters which is 15 kilometers from the shoreline.

On normalization, Ferrer said consensus-building could catch-up with the other annexes with the adoption of a new approach.

She said the major challenge has been on “agreeing on the sequencing and timetable for the decommissioning” of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and the corresponding handover of law and order work from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to the Bangsamoro police force.

Under the FAB, the MILF agreed to “undertake a graduated programme for decommissioning of its forces so that they are put beyond use.” The BIAF is the MILF’s armed wing.

In turn, government agreed to “a phased and gradual” transfer of law enforcement functions from the AFP to the Bangsamoro police that would have a structure now being worked out by an International Commission on Policing (ICP).

Based on the FAB, normalization refers to the wide-scale process whereby “communities can return to conditions where they can achieve their desired quality of life… within a peaceful deliberative society.”

The annex on normalization must contain “some decision points on what to do, prescribe a process, and provides for a general timeframe while the details can be worked out during the implementation stage,” said Ferrer.

Such details can be based on the recommendations of the ICP and the study group on transitional justice, Ferrer added.