Chief government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer AFP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The head of the government panel that negotiated peace with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is seeking to meet with Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, presumably because of the senator’s opinion that the peace deal she negotiated was unconstitutional.
“We will be seeking a meeting with the honorable senator and other legislators to extensively discuss the different provisions in the CAB [Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro] and to allow for a deeper understanding of the context and substance of the documents,” Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement.
“The honorable senator is a brilliant professor and an expert in constitutional law. We certainly appreciate her insights and opinion on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” she said.
Ferrer insisted that the agreement, signed with much fanfare in Malacañang last March 27, fell “within the framework of the 1987 Constitution.”
She gave assurances that “through every stage of the negotiations, we remained ever mindful of the President’s instructions that any agreement we must conclude must be within the framework of the 1987 Constitution.”
“Accordingly, the roadmap set by the CAB leads to Congress as the established lawmaking institution,” she said.
In a speech she gave before graduating students in Olongapo City last Wednesday, Santiago tore into the CAB and upbraided the executive branch, saying it had exceeded its powers and infringed upon the powers of the legislature when it concluded the agreement.
Santiago, a constitutional and international law expert, said the agreement violated the supremacy of the Constitution and derogated the sovereignty of the central government by putting up a sub-state, the so-called Bangsamoro.
“When the executive branch misrepresenting itself as the Philippine government enters into an agreement with the rebel group, the result is not a mere autonomous region as provided for by our Constitution, but a sub-state,” Santiago said in her speech at Gordon College.
A transition commission appointed by the President is now in the process of drafting the basic law for the Bangsamoro entity that will be created.
The President will endorse the draft bill “as an administration bill to Congress for their due consideration and passage at the soonest possible time,” Ferrer said.
“The Bangsamoro Basic Law, as enacted by Congress, shall serve as the organic act for the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao provided for in the 1987 Constitution,” she said.
Santiago, who heads the committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws, said the executive branch did not represent the entire Philippine government when it signed the agreement with the MILF.
“The executive branch, in negotiating the agreement had no power to bind the two other branches—legislative and judicial,” she said.
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