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SEN. Mar
Roxas railed against an “anomalous betrayal,” as he
asked the Supreme Court on Monday to permanently stop
the government from implementing the memorandum of
agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) it negotiated
with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This,
amid warnings that the peace deal ceding part of
Philippine territory in Mindanao without prior
consultation with the people “could spark war and
violence in the region.”
Roxas on
Monday filed a motion for intervention at the Supreme
Court, which earlier issued a temporary restraining
order preventing government negotiators from signing the
MOA-AD with the MILF in Malaysia last week.
“We are
for peace, but not for ‘peace at any price,’ not peace
with a gun to our heads. If there is a peace agreement,
it must go through the proper procedures and
consultations not just between the government and the
MILF but with the citizens of Mindanao,” he explained.
The
Roxas motion is separate from the earlier petitions
filed on behalf of the people of North Cotabato by Gov.
Jesus Sacdalan and Vice-Gov. Emmanuel Pińol, and the
people of Zamboanga City, represented by Mayor Celso
Lobregat and Reps. Isabelle Climaco and Erico Fabian.
“[The
legal actions] filed by the local government units asked
that they should not be included in the BJE [Bangsamoro
Juridical Entity]. In my case, being a national
government official, I see that almost one-third or 30
percent of our waters will be lost. The government panel
gave them away without us knowing that parts of our
natural resources are getting lost. We should be
involved [in the decision-making], not only the
communities in Mindanao. I am already preparing the
necessary documents for this,” he said in Filipino.
Roxas
argued that the people have spoken and they will not
allow the country to be chopped into pieces by the
MOA-AD with the MILF which the senator said was a
“product of deception.”
“The
people have spoken and they do not agree that the
country is divided by a MOA that was a product of
coercion and deception,” he said. “I want peace in
Mindanao, but I don’t want it achieved through treachery
like what the government negotiators did.”
He
pointed out that the MOA violated the Constitution
because it creates another “state” within the
Philippines.
“The
territorial limits are very clear in the first page of
the Constitution. It couldn’t be changed just by a say
so of the peace panel. The Constitution was not
mentioned even once in the MOA,” he added.
Roxas
warned that the country had so much to lose if the MOA
would be implemented. “We have been aspiring for peace.
But how could peace be achieved if the agreement itself
did not pass a process of consultation with the
stakeholders?” he asked. |
