MANILA, Philippines?Moro lawmakers Wednesday took umbrage at Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr.?s remarks in a privilege speech that the proposed Bangsamoro homeland would be without respect for civil and human rights.

Anak Mindanao Rep. Mujiv Hataman said Locsin?s remarks may result in animosity against Filipino Muslims.

?What he said may fuel hatred. These are disappointing remarks coming from a bright lawyer like him,? the party-list representative told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the phone after landing in Manila from Kuala Lumpur.

?What he said was hurtful of the Muslim population,? Hataman said.

Contempt

Hataman and three other congressmen went to the Malaysian capital to witness what was to have been the signing on Tuesday of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The signing was aborted by a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court.

Sulu Rep. Yusop Jikiri said Locsin?s views were passe.

?We cannot agree with Congressman Locsin?s view, which is outmoded and reflects contempt of the Bangsamoro people. We assure [him] that the Moros are a civilized people of the 21st century,? Jikiri said.

Locsin on Monday entered into the House records a privilege speech warning that the proposed Bangsamoro homeland would ?exercise absolute political powers without any of the civilized limitations in the Bill of Rights, such as equal protection of laws, due process, and the prohibition against such cruel and unusual punishments as stoning to death a woman taken in for adultery,? Locsin said.

His basis was the absence of any mention of the Philippine Constitution, the Bill of Rights and human rights in the MOA.

Locsin came up with the privilege speech to rail against the agreement that was cloaked in secrecy and its implications on national sovereignty.

Calls for calm

He also argued against the postponement of the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was supposed to be a confidence-building measure in the talks between the government and the MILF.

With emotions running high in connection with the proposed Bangsamoro homeland that was to rise from an expanded ARMM, House leaders called for ?calm and sobriety.?

?Anger and obfuscation won?t solve the peace problem in Mindanao now,? Speaker Prospero Nograles said.

Said Deputy Speaker Simeon Datumanong: ?It doesn?t mean that because the signing of the pact has been temporarily suspended, we have already begun the countdown to war.

?If the MOA will hit a legal snag, then it would be back to the negotiating table, and not off to war.?

Meanwhile, lawyers Oliver Lozano, Elly Pamatong and Evangeline Junio Lozano submitted to the House an impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo based on the Inquirer news report on Locsin?s privilege speech.

The lawyers said Ms Arroyo had betrayed public trust as shown in the MOA?s perceived defects.

They said the agreement would also ?incite a bloody civil war.?

The one-year ban on impeachment complaints against Ms Arroyo remains in effect because the last one was referred to the House committee only in October 2007.