A STATEMENT...

Former House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao and Basilan Congressman Gerry Salapuddin on Bangsamoro homeland deal issue.

The signing that never was of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Ancestral Domain of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) could’ve been the necessary step to finally bring to an end the bloodshed in Mindanao which is not just costly in terms of material loss but more so of precious lives and the dislocations continually of Muslims and Christians alike who are unfortunately caught in the crossfire.

My experience as a former member of the Moro National Liberation front (MNLF) and later as a member of Congress in the House of Representatives gave me a realistic insight into the peace process. The Final Peace Agreement (FPA) signed between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1996 was only implementable after the Congress of the Philippines enacted a law, which became the Organic Law of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) prescribing among other things the holding of a plebiscite. The present territory of the ARMM comprising of the Provinces of Maguindanao without Cotabato City, Lanao del Sur, Basilan without Isabela City, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi was a result of the sovereign expression of the people in the areas where the plebiscite was conducted covering 14 provinces and 11 cities in Mindanao.

As a former member of Congress, I was a witness to the dramatic enactment into law of the amended Organic Act of the ARMM. After series of amendments on the floor of Congress, what I thought could have been a landmark law creating a genuine autonomy in answer to the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro People resulted in a watered down version of autonomy. That is why, during the plenary voting in the House of Representatives, though I was one of the principal authors of the measure, I walked out in frustration. I believe, for as long as the kind of autonomy is no genuine autonomy, it will never become a solution. It will just become a source of discontentment that may lead to the continuation of the Bangsamoro struggle which we want to be addressed once and for all.

As a stark indication of how less autonomous is the ARMM in comparison to the autonomy enjoyed by all the local government units (LGUs), despite it has its Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) to supposedly approve its regional annual budget of expenditures, every year, it has to come to Congress to get approval of their budget just like any agency of the national government. It can not even approve its own regional budget. In the case of the LGUs, whatever funds they received from the national government like their share from the revenue collections called the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) it takes only their respective Sanggunians to approved their proposed local annual budget of expenditures to spend their income. Financially, the LGUs are more autonomous than the ARMM.

In the plebiscite conducted to implement the GRP-MNLF Peace Agreement, it was done in provincial and city levels. The percentage of plurality of votes cast in the provinces and cities determine whether a province or city can become a part of the ARMM or not. So even if there were predominantly Muslim populated municipalities and barangays desirous to become part of the ARMM, they can not become part of it if the majority votes in the province or city are not in favor. That is why, in the GRP-MILF Peace Pact, they went down to the barangay levels so that those barangays wishing to become part of the new Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, which is actually an expansion of the present ARMM, can now become part of the region. In other words, ultimately, it will be the people concerned in the areas where the plebiscite will be conducted who will decide for their political destiny, not their leaders or any politicians.

But just like the GRP-MNLF FPA, any comprehensive peace settlement between the government and the MILF will be submitted to Congress for enactment into law. Congress will provide for the usual legal process of holding a plebiscite to determine the wish of the people to be conducted in the affected areas. And I am sure, not only us, but even foreign monitors from the OIC and even the United States, the EU and the UN will also send their representatives to witness that political exercise to ascertain that the true will of the people freely prevail.

After a plebiscite has been conducted and assuming additional areas will be included, thereby expanding the present ARMM area, the RLA must initiate, as provided in the Organic Act of the ARMM, to amend the law to include the new territories. Likewise, the RLA must examine and introduce the necessary amendment to strengthen the ARMM. The RLA by law has only the power to initiate amendment of the Organic Act. The power to amend the Organic Act is vested with Congress. Then submit it to Congress thru the House of Representatives which will enact the necessary amendments to the Organic Act of the ARMM consciously incorporating into it the salient provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Settlement between the Government and the MILF. After which, a plebiscite will be conducted in the present ARMM Region to determine the true will of the inhabitants. If approved by a majority of the electorates in the region, only then all the amendments will become an integral part of the Organic Act of the ARMM.

In Europe, when several states were granted independence from the USSR by the UN, the US and EU because they were annexed without the expressed free will of their people, there was no plebiscite. No constitutional or legal processes were involved. They were just granted their precious independence. The same is true with some republics within the Federation of Yugoslavia. When they have decided to go free after a civil war where ethnic cleansing was conducted by Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic, under the supervision of the UN, NATO and EU, they were just granted their independence. The latest edition was the declaration of independence of Kosovo from Serbia despite the protestation of Serbia after a plebiscite was conducted where the overwhelming sentiment of the inhabitants was to be free and independent. In Southeast Asia, when East Timor was annexed by Indonesia, after a UN supervised plebiscite was conducted, it was granted independence. That same treatment must have been true to the Bangsamoro Nation. But that is not the case. Despite this ordeal, the MNLF and now MILF oblige to abide by the legal processes even if they know they are at a great disadvantage.

Today, to determine the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) or simply put, expansion of the present ARMM, an agreement has to be forged, a law has to be enacted and later a plebiscite has to be conducted to determine the true will of the people. This is the highest democratic process where the true will of the people is heard. Before, when the Bangsamoro Homeland was integrated into the now Philippine territory, there was no agreement forged nor any plebiscite conducted among our people to determine the voices and true will of our people whether they wish to be part of or not. Despite the formal manifesto and/or protestations of the Muslim Sultanates from Mindanao and Sulu to the United States Congress for the inclusion of their homeland, they ignored it and unmindfully integrated the Bangsamoro Sultanates into the Philippine territory. That is why we have this problem. That is why we have this negotiation. And that is why the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is trying its best to address this historical blunder to correct the injustice caused upon the Bangsamoro Muslims in this country so that we remain a united in diversity as one people and one country.