Gov’t, MILF eye roadmap to new Moro political entity
OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines—Government is hoping to firm up with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) a “framework agreement” within the four-day 31st exploratory talks that kicked off in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday.
According to presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Quinto-Deles, the framework agreement will expectedly include a roadmap for replacing the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with the New Autonomous Political Entity (NAPE), which will have far greater political and economic self-governance powers.
Deles explained that the concept of a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) has long been abandoned in the negotiations because it was associated with the failed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The creation of the NAPE was agreed on by the parties last April. It was enumerated as one of the 10 Decision Points to guide the crafting of a comprehensive peace formula to end over four decades of Moro rebellion in Mindanao.
The NAPE’s core territory will be the current ARMM. The MILF has also proposed that six predominantly Moro-populated towns in Lanao del Norte and some 735 barangay (villages) contiguous to the region be included, subject to a plebiscite.
The six Lanao del Norte towns voted to be included in the ARMM during the 1989 plebiscite but the reckoning of majority was at the provincial level.
But Deles revealed that “the two parties have not yet agreed on the mode and scope of jurisdiction for the autonomous entity.”
Deles said the framework agreement must also spell out the immediate transitional measures.
In an earlier interview, chief MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said the legal instruments being considered to be employed to effect a transition ranged from an executive order by the president to a Congressional act.
From its original proposal of seven years, the MILF has agreed to trim down the period of transition to three years so that the major portions of an eventual political settlement will be implemented within the term of President Benigno Aquino.
This adjustment has also led to a new strategy adopted by the parties of concluding a series of agreements.
Deles said the framework agreement would be the first in the series of pacts the government and the MILF would sign in the process of establishing and empowering a Moro self-governance entity in Mindanao.
This means the peace formula will no longer be contained only in one document.
Deles explained that the framework agreement would contain “an elaboration of the 10 Decisions Points” as well as “an enumeration of principles” that would guide the crafting of successive agreements.
She clarified that negotiations for all these agreements must be completed also within the term of President Aquino.
“We want the major commitments that will have bearing on building peace in Mindanao implemented within this administration,” she pointed out.
“But of course the task of building lasting peace in Mindanao goes beyond this administration,” Deles stressed.
Within the agreed three-year transition phase, other substantive measures like the enactment of a Bangsamoro Basic Law and normalization would be worked out, Deles further said.
Under the MILF proposal, the basic law will govern the operation of the NAPE just like the charter or organic act of the ARMM.
Iqbal hinted that a plebiscite for the expansion of the NAPE’s core territory might be done within the transition phase.
Normalization refers to measures to ensure the integrity of civil government.
“But eventually, we want the political setup entrenched in the Philippine Constitution so that it becomes a permanent feature of the legal system,” Iqbal said in an earlier interview.
In the proposals of the parties, these include disposition of firearms and deactivation of the MILF’s armed wing, the dismantling of private armies, policing, and degree of presence of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) within the self-governance region.
In his statement during opening rites, government chief negotiator Marvic Leonen proposed that in the current round of talks, “we take as our objective that we take home to our principals a completed product, a consensus draft, even a very rough draft with some options of a framework agreement for their serious consideration.”
“We do not aim for a perfect agreement. We do not aim for an agreement whose words will immediately solve centuries-old problems,” Leonen said.
“Instead, we aim for an agreement that is viable – one that produces the first platforms that can inspire both sides to build on the trust and confidence that we may now have with each other,” he added.
Deles admitted that the current round of talks could be considered the start of the countdown towards finally concluding the already 15-year negotiations.
Optimism over more positive results from the negotiating table has been founded on the “utmost goodwill that the parties have for each other,” she noted.
“But there is also no denying that the issues still on the table will not be easy to settle as in critical details of power and wealth sharing, territorial scope, and normalization to include disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of the MILF’s troops,” she pointed out.
The creation of technical working groups on power-sharing and wealth-sharing last month was aimed to hasten discussions on the two substantive issues.
Iqbal earlier said the parties have been stuck on several points relating to these issues for a long time.
For one, Iqbal said, there has been no consensus on whether election and energy are exclusive powers of either the central government or the NAPE.
He revealed that the MILF would be willing to make it a concurrent power of both entities and the specific terms of sharing such power would be defined in subsequent pacts.
“A little more patience, a little more creativity, in the words of a senior MILF leader in the newspapers today: We are almost there,” Leonen emphasized.
During the opening rites, Leonen said he was planning to ask for a moment of silence to honor the late interior and local government secretary Jesse Robredo.
“But then I realized that there may be a better way to honor him as well as those who passed away living lives founded on the belief that there can be better societies that are better governed and therefore more humane,” he added.
“We seek that all guns be silenced permanently. That it is these guns that will become a memory and that our disagreements, our disappointments and perhaps even our anger will never be again channeled to cause deaths in violent confrontation,” Leonen explained.
“It is there where we will truly start to honor all of our dead,” he said.
