Gov’t, MILF to finalize self-rule law
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiators began a new round of meetings Friday to draft a Muslim self-rule law after falling behind a timetable laid out in a peace treaty, officials said.
A peace pact signed in March committed President Benigno Aquino III and MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group, to pass a law creating an autonomous Muslim region by mid-2016, when his six-year presidency ends.
In return, the 12,000-member MILF would disarm and help the national government to improve the lot of Filipino Muslims, who are among the poorest and most marginalized in the mainly Catholic nation of 100 million.
However, Mr. Aquino failed to submit the bill to Congress on Monday, with the MILF suggesting the government was seeking to renege on its peace treaty commitments by diluting the wording of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.
“(The) government intends to see through the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” Teresita Deles, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, said in a statement as the two sides met in Davao City.
Article continues after this advertisementChief government negotiator Miriam Ferrer said the two sides were expected to meet over the next 10 days, by which time they would have produced a version of the bill that was acceptable to both sides.
Article continues after this advertisementMuslim rebels have been battling for independence or autonomy in Mindanao since the 1970s, with the conflict claiming tens of thousands of lives.
A commission made up of MILF and government representatives drafted a version of the planned bill and submitted it to Mr. Aquino for review in April, but the president said in June that its language needed further refinement.
An MILF statement last month alleged that President Aquino’s version of the bill “dilutes” the law and would have “departed from the letter and spirit” of the peace pact.
A fresh statement released by the MILF on its website on Friday struck a more conciliatory tone, saying the delay was “no reason to give up.”
“The road ahead still offers some promises…. All (that) is needed is a little more time, and more importantly both sides must be truthful and faithful to the framework agreement on the Bangsamoro,” it said.
“It is better for the government and the MILF to continue the path of peace… rather than go back to where they started, which is not only practical but also laden with dangers and uncertainties,” it added.
The MILF believes President Aquino wants to make peace in Mindanao part of his legacy, despite having less than two years in office.
On its official website, luwaran.com, the MILF placed credence on the President’s meeting with the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) to thresh out the issues with the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law and his reference, albeit sparse, to the proposed bill in his State of the Nation Address (Sona).
“One can safely say that he (President) is still fully committed to make peace with the MILF as his legacy. His limited reference to the BBL [in the Sona] is simply an economy of words appropriate to the true state of the current discussion of the BBL,” the MILF said.
Ferrer said the two peace panels want to submit the proposed BBL to Congress within this month, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) said in its website on Friday.
“This August, the draft BBL should be submitted to Congress because if it takes longer, Congress will also have a hard time to fast-track its passage. We know that a plebiscite will be conducted first prior to the transition to the Bangsamoro,” Coronel said in a TV interview, quoted in the Opapp statement.
Ferrer also said that Congress would be “confident” that the proposed bill that would be submitted to it “was thoroughly reviewed.”
Deles also gave the assurance that “processes and mechanisms are in place to meet the goal of having the law passed before the end of the year, including coordination between the executive and the legislature.”
“We continue to move forward in this crucial political undertaking and the GPH-MILF joint ceasefire committee continues to monitor and ensure stability on the ground,” Deles said.
Yesterday, the government and MILF peace panels began to review the 18 Articles of the draft bill to come up with an agreed version to submit to Congress.
The MILF attributed the “difficulty” encountered in the draft bill submitted by the BTC to “the conservative or restrictive interpretation of the Constitution adopted by the Review Team of the Office of the President (OP) and the resort to the use of ‘concepts, words and terms’ that are clearly alien to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes.”
“While we do not question intention, but the truth is that we do not know the wisdom either,” the MILF said. AFP with a report from Nikko Dizon
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