“The Bangsamoro masses, and the Filipino people, need to be vigilant as there is a wide sea to cross between text and action, between signing a pact and translating it into building the mechanisms to actualize the Moro people’s right to autonomous governance,” says peace advocacy group Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace) convener Bishop Felixberto Calang.
By DANILDA L. FUSILERO
Davao Today
KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato – As October 15 draws near for signing of the Peace Framework Agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), local officials, Moro groups and peace advocates in Mindanao share mixed views on this agreement.
Officials in North Cotabato expressed support to the agreement through a resolution. The province has barangays in six municipalities covered in the Bangsamoro Political Entity crafted by the agreement.
The municipalities include Aleosan, Pikit, Midsayap and Pigkawayan in the province’s first district and Carmen and Kabacan of the newly-reconstituted third district of North Cotabato.
Vice Governor Gregorio Ipong said their resolution is their “gesture of support to the joint efforts of the national government and the MILF”.
Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza explained that their support to the agreement is still subject to the acceptability of the final law through a plebiscite in identified barangays.
Mendoza added that the plebiscite of the final law will be limited to some barangays of six municipalities who favorably voted for inclusion in the expanded coverage of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 2001.
“We gave our full trust and confidence to the national government peace panel,” said Mendoza.
Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema also welcomed the agreement, saying “Ito na ang tamang hakbang tungo sa kapayapaan (This is the right step towards peace).”
Cotabato City served as the temporary host of the regional offices of ARMM. Since 1989, the city has been proposed to be included in the coverage of ARMM. However, city residents consistently rejected their inclusion during the plebiscites in 1989, 1996 and 2001.
Rear Admiral Jose Rodriguez, deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Military Operations said in a radio interview that the agreement is “part of the Internal Peace and Security Plan Oplan Bayanihan” which aimed to facilitate peace and development in conflict areas. He said the agreement will provide Mindanao peace and development, it long deserves.
Meanwhile, the peace advocacy group Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace) said they see the signing with “vigilant optimism. “The Bangsamoro masses, and the Filipino people, need to be vigilant as there is a wide sea to cross between text and action, between signing a pact and translating it into building the mechanisms to actualize the Moro people’s right to autonomous governance,” says InPeace convener Bishop Felixberto Calang.
InPeace warns that already “This peace rhetoric is already being betrayed by the Aquino government’s attacks on civil liberties with the passage of the Cybercrime Law and the unabated killing of indigenous peoples, environmentalists, and activists.”
The Moro Human Rights group Kawagib said the agreement is more likely limited to the proposed political structure and system. It failed to mention clear parameters on economy and social justice, among others.
“The framework which will serve as guidelines in the formulation of the basic law does not even consider a grave fact of landlessness among the grassroots Moro farmers,” said Bai Ali Indayla, secretary general of Kawagib.
Indayla challenged the Aquino government of showing sincerity through inclusion of issues affecting the majority of the Bangsamoro.
“Ang totoong usaping pangkapayapaan ay di dapat hiwalay sa totoong kalagayan ng mga nakakaraming Bangsamoro (Genuine peace negotiations are not separated from the conditions of the many Bangsamoro people),” she said.
Indayla also scored the national government of being a “schemer” on its approach of taking peacetalk agreements with MILF without considering the existing groups like the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). She said these groups could be among the potential disgruntled sectors should the government failed to address their respective issues accordingly.
“Magpakita muna ang gobyerno ni Pnoy ng sinseridad at confidence-building, kasi nga di naman naging maganda ang itinakbo ng mga previous agreements like that of the MNLF. (The government of Pnoy should show sincerity and build confidence first because previous agreements proved to be not going well, like that of the MNLF,)” Indayla stressed.
Though Kawagib welcomed the agreement and the possible enactment of the basic law, it maintains that it is too early to consider it as “the genuine solution to the decades-long problems of the Bangsamoro.”
Moreover, Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat also raised doubts over the “real intention” of the national government on the agreement. Lobregat was quoted by local radio station here to have said that the signing of the agreement should not be done in haste.
“Consult first the people before signing it. Pag pinirmahan muna bago konsultasyon, then isa na iyang imposition by the national government to the concerned LGUs and the people (Consult first the people before signing it. If it is signed before consultation is done, then that is going to be an imposition by the national government on the concerned LGUs and the people),” Lobregat added. (Danilda L. Fusilero/davaotoday.com)
Peace Process
