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Onboard
the BRP Charter Change, a crew man admitted the seas
were looking choppy.
“Definitely, it will not be smooth sailing but rough
sailing,” said Gunners Mate 3rd Class Sergio Apostol.
Crew men
who sailed the ship a year ago were concerned not only
about their own safety but, more important, over the
wisdom of embarking on a similar voyage at this time.
Deck
hand Ed Zialcita, still recovering from last year’s
shipwreck, said, “Even if we had pure intentions, we
were portrayed as devils.”
Former
navigator Prospero Nograles warned, “If we push it now,
we will again be accused of hidden agenda.”
Captain
Jose de Venecia Jr. refused to pilot the ship again.
“[T]here are more important measures pending in Congress
and there are those who will criticize me. . . . Let
others take the lead,” he said.
However,
one can never underestimate the persuasive powers of a
wealthy ship owner.
The BRP
Charter Change will have more deck hands than it needs
when sailing time comes. Everyone will be onboard.
Everyone, that is, except the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF). They have their own ship, MV Bangsa Moro,
and they’re sailing toward a different port.
“The
government can undertake all the constitutional
processes it wants, provided that they do not derogate
what the parties have jointly ‘crafted, agreed and
signed’ in the negotiations with third-party [Malaysia]
facilitations,” said Muhammad Ameen, chair of the MILF
Central Committee Secretariat.
He
explains:
1.
“1.
All negotiations to resolve sovereignty-based conflicts
all over the world such as those in Kosovo, Ireland,
Bougainville, Aceh, Sudan, Western Sahara and many
others are extraconstitutional in character. The one
with the MILF is not an exception;
2.
The MILF
is a revolutionary organization, or in plain words, a
rebel, which necessarily does not recognize the
Philippine Constitution; otherwise, to do so would be
tantamount to agreeing to become and considered
‘criminals’;
3.
The
Philippine Constitution represents the interests of the
majority, who are Christians, shortchanging or
undermining that of the Moros and other indigenous
tribes. The Constitution always favors the greatest
majority, because they were the framers, interpreters
and implementers;
4.
To allow
itself to be bound by constitutional process, aside from
the forgoing reasons, the MILF virtually allows itself
to be under the tyranny of the Philippine government in
the matter of interpretation and implementation of any
peace deal;
5.
The MILF
will not and will never repeat the blunders committed by
the MNLF and chairman Nur Misuari of negotiating within
the framework of the Philippine Constitution. After more
than 10 years since the signing of the GRP-MNLF
[Government of the Republic of the Philippines-Moro
National Liberation Front] final agreement in 1996, the
MNLF and Misuari are back to square one as far as the
genuine resolution of the Moro problem is concerned.
Instead of giving genuine self-governance to the
Bangsamoro people, they are being integrated into the
national body politic, reminiscent of the government
approach in the 1950s and 1960s; and
6.
Today,
there are enough models of resolving sovereignty-based
conflicts which the government and the MILF can study
and possibly adopt the appropriate model to the
satisfaction of the parties and other stakeholders. The
international community must play an active role in this
undertaking.”
In case
there’s any doubt about where the MV Bangsa Moro plans
to dock, here’s Ameen’s navigation chart:
“[T]he
days of integration and ‘autonomy’ as in the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM] are over, and it [MILF]
will only sign an agreement with the government if it
establishes genuine governance for them either in the
form of ‘state’ or ‘substate’.”
Gloria
Arroyo is smart enough to tell the difference between
peace and appeasement. She will not indulge in
self-mutilation; cutting away the juiciest parts of a
country she plans to dominate for as long as she can.
That’s why I’m certain she has something else in mind
when she talks about amending the Charter.
Senator
Joker Arroyo, who knows Gloria better than I would ever
want to, puts it this way:
“It’s a
palusot. . . . We have been in this game for so
long that the deception is so easily transparent. . . .
They will use the Muslim problem and related issues as
the excuse, the opening gambit, for the need to change
the Constitution. Just to open the door a little bit so
debates follow, and before you know it the door is
thrown wide open and a whole slew of amendments will
follow.”
Joker is
on the mark. But palusot is the wrong word. The
correct term is pasulot, a middle finger salute
from someone who does not give a rat’s ass whether her
deception is so easily transparent or not.
Buencamino writes political commentary for Action for
Economic Reforms (ww.aer.ph). |
