Palace: No need to amend Constitution to make peace deal work

With one voice, Malacañang officials and government negotiators in peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Tuesday stood their ground and said they would not ask Congress to amend the Constitution to make the preliminary agreement to end the war in Mindanao work.

But Nur Misuari, leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that signed a peace accord with the government in 1996, said the framework accord with the MILF was illegal and would never resolve the conflict in Mindanao.

“Instead of solving [the Mindanao problem], this [agreement] will plunge Mindanao into another war that the Philippine government cannot afford to have at this time,” Misuari said.

The MNLF, Misuari warned, is still “alive and kicking.”

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles and Marvic Leonen, the government’s lead negotiator, said allowing the new autonomous region, Bangsamoro, to have a “ministerial” form of government would not require amendments to the Constitution.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. does not think, either, that the Constitution must be amended to establish Bangsamoro and give it a ministerial form of government.

Belmonte, however, said he was only going by Leonen’s explanation of the preliminary agreement to the press on Monday.

“We don’t know all the details yet,” Belmonte said.

Bangsamoro, which will replace the  Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), will not be a substate, contrary to the understanding by some lawmakers, Deles said.

“It’s part of the Philippines [and] under direct supervision of the President,” Deles said when asked by reporters if Bangsamoro would be a substate.

On Monday, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the Constitution must be amended to implement the government’s framework agreement with the MILF.

Belmonte said the establishment of Bangsamoro might require amendments to the Constitution, but if changes to the Charter would be needed he promised the effort would not go the way of the Moro homeland deal of the Arroyo administration with the MILF that the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional in 2008.

Leonen on Monday said that it was the MILF that requested a constitutional amendment to give legal certainty to Bangsamoro, and potentially give it more power than the government was willing to concede.

A Transition Commission, Leonen said, will draft a basic law that will serve as the constitution of Bangsamoro, and submit it to Congress for legislation.

Once legislated, the basic law will be subjected to a plebiscite throughout the areas comprising Bangsamoro.

When ratified, the basic law will set the Bangsamoro Transition Authority in motion and replace the ARMM, which will then be deemed abolished.

The new autonomous region, Bangsamoro will operate under a ministerial government.

Santiago, chairperson of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, said those objectives of the agreement would require the amendment of the constitutional provision on the presidential form of government and a change that would allow the adoption of the federal system if the government were to treat Bangsamoro as a substate.

No substate

Santiago, a constitutionalist, said there was no such thing as a substate.

“Was this term invented for us? What we know in constitutional law is that there are so-called dependent states which is what the Bangsamoro area will become.  [Do] not call it a substate, it will become a dependent state or a nonsovereign state, that is what it actually is,” she said.

Santiago said the Constitution must be amended to accommodate the new political entity Bangsamoro.

At a briefing for reporters in Malacañang Tuesday, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte echoed the position taken by the government peace panel.

“Perhaps there is a difference in legal opinion. However, as stated by Dean Leonen [on Monday], there is no amendment required,” Valte said.

Constitution silent

Speaking to reporters after receiving a “Model for Peace” award from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Deles said, “There’s nothing [in the Constitution] that says the form of government [of the Muslim autonomous region] should be presidential.”

Asked about the “ministerial form” of government mentioned in the framework agreement, Deles explained that the Constitution did not expressly prohibit the autonomous area in Mindanao to adopt a parliamentary form of government.

“What it says is it has to be elected, a parliamentary government still needs to be elected,” Deles said.

“So the ministerial [provision], we checked that before we said yes [to the MILF panel],” she said.

With this understanding the Palace will not ask Congress to amend the Constitution at this point, Deles said.

But Misuari said the agreement was illegal, because it violated international laws, and the MNLF could sue the government in the International Court of Justice for it.

1996 peace accord

“This is illegal, we can bring President Aquino to the International Court, the criminal court, for violating international law,” Misuari said.

He explained that the peace accord that the MNLF signed with the government in 1996 made the framework agreement with the MILF illegal.

The 1996 agreement is internationally recognized, he said.

“The Philippine Constitution says that this nation is committed to respect the international law, as part of the law of the land. The [1996] peace agreement was based on the United Nations Charter,” he said.

Misuari described the framework agreement as “a misguided act” of the government.

“To think that the head of the government peace panel, the head of the [University of the Philippines] College of Law, Marvic (Leonen) is a good lawyer. Why, has he forgotten international law?” Misuari said.

“I am a UP student, and the UP is a respecter of international law,” he said.

Misuari, 70, said the 1996 peace agreement was incompatible with the framework accord with the MILF.

“The difference is heaven and earth,” he said. “In the framework, it only covers five provinces, while the Tripoli Agreement, the territories [span] 13 provinces,” he said.

Misuari said a “wide consultation” on the framework agreement would be held in Davao City, and he expected many MNLF members to attend the meetings.

He warned of “major trouble,” because the MNLF felt it was stabbed in the back.

“We have been watching, we’ve been quiet, tolerant, silent, complacent, even if we are being treated rudely,” he said.

“Despite our silence, for how many decades, we are still strong. Only the people of Mindanao know the real meaning of peace. We are ready for anything,” he said.

Experiment

Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile suggested Tuesday that Bangsamoro be considered an experiment in the parliamentary system of government.

Enrile said leaders of an earlier time wanted a parliamentary government, but fate had other plans.

“Under the 1973 Constitution, we adopted a parliamentary system,” said Enrile, who was at the time the defense secretary to the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

After Marcos fled in 1986, Enrile said the framers of the 1987 Constitution tried to adopt the parliamentary system, but the proposal was defeated by one vote in the Constitutional Commission.

“That’s why we [had] to redo the Constitution, and so it now includes numerous vague provisions,” he said.

“So there is, in fact, in the psyche of this country, the desire to adopt a parliamentary system,” he said.

Good model

Enrile said he believed the writers of the framework agreement with the MILF “think this would be a good experiment to find out how a parliamentary system of government would operate.”

He said that, personally, he supported the idea.

“I’m not forcing my opinion on others, [but] I would risk this for this purpose and find out how good is a parliamentary form of government. This [Bangsamoro region] would be a model,” he said. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan, Cathy Yamsuan in Manila and Ryan Rosauro and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao; AFP