Brush up on history first before giving your opinion, actor and Muslim convert Robin Padilla admonished lawmakers on Friday during a forum marking the first anniversary of the framework peace agreement signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“I encourage our hot-headed countrymen, especially our leaders in the Senate and Congress, to study the Bangsamoro history first before giving their opinion,” Padilla said. “(Sen. Alan) Cayetano should have been here,” he added.
READ: Robin Padilla: Hot-headed senators should study history of Bangsamoro
On several occasions, Cayetano took to the Senate floor to warn his colleagues against signing the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), citing the Mamasapano incident that left 44 police commandos dead as proof that the MILF were not to be trusted as they were coddling international terrorists, including Malaysian bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan.”
Cayetano also called for the replacement of members of the government’s peace panel, whom he accused of lawyering for the MILF.
READ: Cayetano against BBL, says MILF to boost army that can threaten Republic
“We shouldn’t judge the long process of peace negotiations just because of what happened in Mamasapano,” Padilla said in an interview during the Bangsamoro in National History forum organized by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
The Inquirer tried but failed to get a comment from Cayetano.
14th-century Mindanao
Among the topics discussed by history professors during the forum were the economic activities in 14th-century Mindanao, the spread of Islam, the Moro resistance to Spanish and American rule, as well as contemporary Moro groups.
The actor expressed support for the passage of the BBL, which was delayed following the Mamasapano clash between Moro rebels and the government’s Special Action Force who were pursuing Marwan.
The BBL “is an opportunity for peace,” said Padilla, who came wearing a shirt with the image of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. The feisty official was believed to be among the presidential hopefuls in 2016.
“I believe in Duterte because I believe in federalism,” the actor said. “I believe in a time when the rest of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao will no longer have to rely on the so-called Imperial Manila,” he added.
READ: Robin Padilla backs Duterte for President
Padilla cited the case of Tacloban post-Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” “Do we have to wait for someone in Manila to make the decisions? Same with the Bangsamoro problem. Must decisions come from Manila? We have diverse cultures and traditions,” he said.
But an Islamic studies professor on Friday warned against the establishment of a new Bangsamoro entity, saying this would only give birth to new armed groups as the “flawed” peace negotiation had little regard for cultural diversity in Mindanao.
“There is a weakness in the process when we look at negotiating with only one armed group… We should continue the peace process but make it more inclusive,” said Renato Oliveros, PhD, during the same forum.
“After you establish the law, you will deal with new armed groups. Because you’re sending the wrong message that you negotiate only with armed groups,” Oliveros said of the draft BBL.
The Mamasapano fiasco was a painful experience but also an opportunity to highlight that other ethnic communities have been excluded from the peace negotiations, the professor said. “You do not put all your eggs in one basket,” he added.
The lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University and executive vice president of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, identified himself as an “absentee Mindanaoan, a Moro and, ethnically speaking, a Tausug.”
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