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FILIPINO
businessmen believe the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on
ancestral domain is not the answer to peace and progress
in Mindanao, and indirectly the entire country, and hope
the Supreme Court will trash it.
Donald
Dee, chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (PCCI), said “this early, it has become very
apparent that the MOA failed to bring stability to
affected areas in Mindanao. . . .The MOA is obviously
not the answer because of the numerous objections it
encountered from the people in Mindanao and the negative
effects it created now.”
Armed
men believed to be members of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front have been raiding numerous towns in
Central Mindanao after objections to the agreement piled
up all over the country, and after the Supreme Court
held in abeyance its signing by the parties on August 5
while it decides on its constitutionality.
The SC
is scheduled to hear the oral arguments on the validity
of the MOA on Friday, August 22.
Dee said
even the PCCI-affiliated chambers in Mindanao have
agreed to the decision of the national leaders of the
organization that they should let the judicial process
take its course first and hold off taking any formal
position until the SC has decided. “We agreed to let the
SC decide first, otherwise we will be divided.”
Earlier,
different business chambers in Mindanao expressed their
opposition to the MOA because they fear it will only
create a cloud of uncertainty and turn off investors
they have been trying hard to entice to come to the
region.
Dee said there is anyway “a very slim chance” the SC would
decide in favor of the MOA because of the many
infirmities that it contains and surely, the SC “will
protect the territorial rights of the country, as well
as the rights of the people in Mindanao.”
Dee said the “major prerequisites” for investors in picking an
area is the peace and order situation and the clear
policies on investments, “and the MOA will not establish
those fundamentals in the region.”
Still,
Dee said the PCCI remains behind the government in
continuing with the peace process with the MILF even if
the agreement is scrapped.
Meanwhile, the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA)
plans to continue allowing flights to Mindanao, and the
regional director of the Department of Tourism is also
asking the media not to hype up the conflict, saying
these are just “pocket incidents” that are not even
affecting most parts of Mindanao.
“This is
not yet a war; these are just pocket incidents. We
should be clear on that,” regional director Patria Roa
said. “There is nothing happening in Cagayan de Oro, or
Caraga region.”
Roa was
worried alarming news reports would jeopardize tourism
as Cebu guns to beat the one million foreign tourist
arrivals for the first time this year.
The Cebu
airport is also trying to position itself as a hub for
various destinations to northern Mindanao for arrivals
on international flights that land in Cebu.
Airport
manager Danilo Francia said they are continuously
receiving intelligence reports from the national
government regarding the situation in Mindanao. “Right
now the situation is still normal but we are
continuously monitoring the situation.” (With Willy
Rodolfo III) |
