Solons: GHP-MILF peace pact may require Charter amendments

By: 11 years ago

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Lawmakers said the sealed peace pact between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) may require constitutional amendments in the crafting of the Bangsamoro organic law.

“We have to make sure if it will require constitutional amendment,” Majority floor leader Neptali Gonzales II told reporters Monday.

The Philippine government and the Moro secessionist group signed the last annex of the Bangsamoro framework agreement on Saturday, sealing the comprehensive peace pact in a bid to end the conflict in Mindanao.

The agreement would be the basis for the crafting of the Bangsamoro organic law that would create the Bangsamoro political entity and replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The law would need to be passed by Congress.

Gonzales said the Constitution may be amended because the pact annexes discuss power sharing and territorial waters that were also mentioned in the Constitution.

Gonzales added that the lower chamber should give in to a need for Charter change if it is the only way for a true solution to the conflict in Mindanao.

“If peace in Mindanao requires constitutional amendments, so be it, because that is the true solution,” he said in Filipino.

Meanwhile, Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, national defense and security committee chairperson, also raised constitutional amendment to give way for a special police force of the Bangsamoro.

He noted that the Constitution only provides for one police force, the Philippine National Police.

“We need to study all the four annexes and begin to study which of these provisions of these annexes will require deeper exam where traps might be (that) require constitutional amendments or enactment of new laws, amendment, revision or repeal of existing laws,” Biazon said.

Meanwhile, Maguindanao and Cotabato city Rep. Bai Sandra Sema supported the peace pact but added that there should be thorough consultation with the stakeholders in the crafting of the new law.

Sema also pointed out that the RA 9054, which expanded the ARMM organic act, does not cover all the points under the 1996 peace pact between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Philippine government.

The MILF broke off from the MNLF over disagreement with the 1996 peace deal.

“What we really wanted is to adopt a position that most of the stakeholders will support,” said Sema, the wife of Muslimin Sema, chairman of one of the MNLF factions.