Gov’t peace deal with MILF founded on consultations – Ferrer

Miriam Coronel-Ferrer File Photo

NAGA CITY, Philippines — The ultimate goal of the Philippine government in signing its historic peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is to bring peace to the ordinary child in Mindanao, according to government chief negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer.

Questions have been raised on the constitutionality of the breakthrough Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) because it creates a sub-state. Ferrer has been appearing in public forums to explain the agreement, urging Filipinos from all sectors to look at the big picture.

” … At the end of the day, the meaning of this (peace) process is what it is to the ordinary child in Mindanao. And that is a chance to go to school, a chance to have equal opportunity with other citizens of the Philippines. Not to be discriminated upon based on ethnicity or religion,” said Ferrer, peace panel chairman, who was here for a peace forum organized on April 4 by the Ateneo de Naga University Center for Good Governance.

“This is really what we’re after even though we do need to deal with all the legal and political implications and go through a lot of institutional processes. This is our goal,” she added.

She said one of the biggest issues raised against the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain in 2008, when the Supreme Court struck down that agreement was the lack of consultation and transparency.

But Ferrer said there were consultations and transparency that led to the signing of CAB with MILF. “Every step of the way, that’s something that guided the whole process,” she said.

She said the whole process was trying to move one constituent group of society, from a position of demanding or fighting for independence, to the negotiation table about a peace settlement.

“After that kind of feel good event in Malacañang, the week after heto na yong mga (here come the) challenges,” Ferrer said.

Before the signing of the agreement last March 27, Ferrer and the peace panel members had a closed door meeting with President Aquino and 12 leaders of the central committee of MILF.

She said the President told them during the meeting to address the public’s “fear of the unknown.”

Ferrer said one approach in facing the challenges after the signing of CAB would be to go through the issues raised, “sort out what it is not and then move ahead to what it is and what it is all about.”

“…Of course, we first heard it’s unconstitutional. And again, that’s grabbing the headlines now with no other than Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a constitutional expert, raising this question,” she said.

She acknowledged the numerous legal and technical issues but at the end of the day, the Philippine government, the MILF and the Filipino public must look into the core of the whole process to find solutions to the “underlying causes or grievances” that had propelled the Moro rebellion.

Ferrer said under the CAB, the country could remain as one together with the Bangsamoro, living peacefully, co-existing peacefully, and sharing the benefits of being one country together.

“I think it is very clear that what we are putting in place is not a separate entity. What we are putting in place is an arrangement that would allow (the Muslims) a unique place in our society. Because it’s the only place in the country where more than 90 percent of the population is Muslim,” she said.

Ferrer said the MILF has agreed to transform itself from an armed group into a movement that would join the mainstream society and participate in the institutions of that society.  “They will put up their own political party.”

She cited many aspects of the agreement that have not been getting headline attention, among them were provisions in the “Annex on Normalization.”

Ferrer said the annexes contained various programs in economics, reconciliation, the process of transforming an armed group into a civilian movement, and the various organizations where the MILF could continue to pursue their aspirations.

She dismissed claims that the Bangsamoro would go the way of Kosovo, which seceded from Serbia and of Crimea from Ukraine.

Ferrer said the circumstances have been entirely different in the case of the Bangsamoro.

“Our process is entirely preserving our country. Preserving our unity with different constituent parties, at the same time recognizing distinct characteristics of a portion in the part of Mindanao where we find majority of the population as Muslim,” she said.

On the statement that the executive branch alone did not represent the Government of the Philippines (GPH), Ferrer said that it was very clear that the President, as the head of government, could enter into a peace agreement being the one representing the Philippines as a secular state.

“It is actually the obligation of the President to address peace and order issues in the country as commander-in-chief and chief executive,” she said.

CAB is not just an agreement between GPH and MILF but a comprehensive agreement for the whole Bangsamoro, according to Ferrer.

She added that nothing in the process would take away the power of the legislature and “it had been stated in the roadmap that it will pass through legislative process which only Congress could do.”

Ferrer said the agreement could not produce the Bangsamoro simply by signing but it has to go through the legislative process.

Anna Tarhata Basman, head of the legal panel dealing with the MILF, and Senen Bacani, member of the peace panel, shared with forum participants developments in the peace process after the signing of the peace deal on March 27.

The forum was attended by representatives from the local government units in the municipalities of Bula, Pamplona, Bombon, Pasacao, Sipocot, Calabanga, Cabusao and Naga City.

Also in attendance were Camarines Sur’s Provincial Board representative, civil society groups, religious orders, Naga College Foundation, Dominican School in Calabanga and a representative from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

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