Muslims, Christians slam land agreement
By Inquirer Mindanao, Inquirer Staff
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:31:00 08/04/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Muslims and Christians Sunday assailed the accord on ancestral domain to be signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Tuesday in Malaysia.
Sultan Esmail Kiram, heir of the Sultanate of Sulu, expressed disgust over what he called the government’s insensitivity in offering areas which are part of his ancestral domain to the MILF without prior consultation.
“I feel really very bad. What we know prior to the agreement, the MILF was claiming ancestral land somewhere in Central Mindanao. The government committed a very drastic move by offering areas, including our ancestral domain which, unfortunately, the MILF approved,” Kiram said in an interview.
“What is the objective of the Philippine government—to set Muslims and Christians fighting in Mindanao?” he said.
Kiram said he had nothing against the MILF. “We support them, but for Allah’s sake, no one has full authority to seek historical rights or encroach over it.”
The United Opposition Sunday urged Malacañang to postpone the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the MILF Tuesday until the Supreme Court has ruled on petitions assailing the accord.
“Tension is brewing in Mindanao and old wounds are being reopened unnecessarily,” said Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, UNO president. “The government owes it to the people of Mindanao to explain what this agreement is all about.
In a press conference on Saturday night in Zamboanga City, Sheikh Abdul Wakil Tanjil, deputy mufti for Western Mindanao, also questioned the MOA. “People have the right to be consulted before agreeing and signing any deal,” he said.
Datu Albi Julkarnain, chair of the Council of Royal Datus, said the MOA would “encroach on areas under the sultanate.”
Protest rallies
Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said he was expecting thousands of residents, not just from this city but as well as from neighboring towns and provinces, to join a protest rally on Monday to “dramatize our opposition in the inclusion in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (JBE).”
The protest rally will coincide with the city’s filing of a case in the Supreme Court against the MOA.
Ustadz Shariff Mohsin Julabbi, chair of the MILF in Western Mindanao, said he did not support giving parts of Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to the MILF.
“Those agreeing to the territories given by the government are not MILF like me, they are Maguindanaoan Iranon Liberation Front,” Julabbi said, referring MILF leaders who belong to the Maguindanao and Iranon Muslim tribes.
Protest rallies were also scheduled today in Iligan City and North Cotabato.
Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the rally there would protest inclusion of eight upland villages in the proposed Bangsamoro homeland.
Shift to federal parliament
In Cotabato City, the Citizens Movement for a Federal Philippines released Sunday a report on a forum on July 21 in Makati City where it warned that the signing of the MOA would grant the MILF a status of belligerency and lead to war.
Reynaldo Deang, secretary general of the movement, told the Makati gathering: “No government, in the name of peace, can inaugurate a war in this kind of situation. I’m really very worried.”
Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr., a former member of the government peace panel, said during the forum that it was up to the government to prevent an outbreak of violence by amending the Constitution and moving to a federal parliamentary government to “legalize a Moro homeland.”
House Representatives Erico Fabian and Maria Isabel Climaco and Mayor Lobregat will file today in the Supreme Court a petition for a temporary restraining order on the MOA, joining North Cotabato officials who had earlier asked the tribunal to direct the government panel to reveal the contents of the MOA.
“Why is the government rushing to sign the document? Why the sudden urgency? What’s behind all this? Is this the kind of peace accord that both Christians and Muslims are aspiring for in Mindanao?” Climaco asked in a phone interview.
“Our appeal is for us to be given an official copy of the MOA and for the Supreme Court to hold the MOA signing.”
Veiled in secrecy
Climaco, a member of the administration coalition in the House of Representatives, said the MOA had been “veiled in secrecy” from the beginning, keeping stakeholders and the public at large from dissecting and scrutinizing its contents.
“What we want is to raise the matter on the level of national awareness,” she said.
“Copies of the MOA to be signed have not been given officially to any local government official,” Climaco said. “So no matter how long we talk, (contents) can easily be twisted because there is no official document.”
She said the closest she got to an official document was when Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. showed her a copy “very briefly.”
In the document, Climaco said she found that two barangays of Zamboanga City would be included in the planned expansion of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), even if the idea had been rejected twice in previous plebiscites.
Downright unconstitutional
But more disturbing she said was that the MOA would enclose the city’s “centers of government and commerce” under ARMM territory. She said she had raised the matter to Esperon.
“Perhaps because of the lack of knowledge of geography by the government panel, it’s only realizing now the impact of listing our two barangays in the MOA,” Climaco said.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, former dean of the San Sebastian Law School, Sunday described the Moro homeland as “downright unconstitutional” and could be a Malacañang ploy to push for Charter amendments.
“The 1987 Constitution provides that Congress can merely enact laws establishing autonomous regions, not separate states,” Rodriguez said. He said establishing a Bangsamoro homeland would require an amendment of the Constitution.
“I fear this is a strategy for the administration to be able to push again for Cha-cha by claiming that it wants to give our Muslim brothers their own state and juridical entity,” he said.
Rodriguez warned that changing the Charter, particularly through a constituent assembly, could open the floodgates for more amendments, including provisions allowing elected officials with expiring terms to run again.
South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said: “I have reservations whether or not the grant of juridical entity will give us lasting peace. The way I see it, it’s just short of declaring nation-state,” Fuentes said. With reports from Christian V. Esguerra and DJ Yap in Manila; Julie S. Alipala, Richel V. Umel, Aquiles Zonio, Nash B. Maulana and Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao
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