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Retrograde: “directed or moving backward; reverting to
an earlier and inferior condition.”
Retrofit: “an act of adding a component or accessory to
something that did not have it when manufactured.”
— New Oxford American Dictionary
At his
media briefing last week, Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita assured everyone that a final peace agreement
with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will be
under a “totality clause” that will say, “[A]ny conflict
in the interpretation of this agreement shall be within
the light of the Constitution of the Philippines and
existing laws.”
He meant
he hopes our Constitution will be retrofitted to
accommodate a new type of state, one with two central
banks, two armed forces, two police forces, two
Commissions on Elections (Comelec) and two Supreme
Courts, among other symptoms of national schizophrenia.
Ermita’s hope will realize Gloria Arroyo’s nightmare
vision of two Philippineses.
Well, we
do have the right to tinker with our Constitution, as
often as we want and for whatever reason we choose, be
it to extend Gloria Arroyo’s term, to appease a band of
rebels or to dismember our country without regard to its
cost. Stupidity is still not illegal in this country.
Remember
when the Supreme Court said there are some “$840 billion
worth of mineral wealth lying hidden in the ground” that
should be mined for the benefit of all Filipinos,
present and future?
A map of
the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE)
highlighting all the potential minerals lying hidden in
the ground will show how much of the Filipino people’s
wealth will be transferred by the Arroyo administration
to the MILF.
Another
map, with all the agricultural lands within the BJE,
will show how the Arroyo administration is placing the
Philippines at the mercy of the MILF.
“To meet
the challenges of tomorrow, we must become more
self-reliant, self-sufficient and independent, relying
on ourselves more than on the world,” said Gloria Arroyo
in her 2008 State of the Nation Address (Sona).
If the
BJE comes to pass, we will be buying rice and other food
from the MILF. Importing would be a better word because
the BJE will become a part of “the world” and the MILF
will have yet another tool for the expansion of Moroland
back to its pre-Spanish boundaries.
Why did
the Arroyo administration agree to the MILF’s
self-serving historical timeline?
Islam is
no more indigenous than Christianity. The Spaniards were
not our first colonizers. Luwaran, the MILF web
site, does not deny that Moros are products of an
earlier colonization:
“Ameen
[secretary general of the MILF Central Committee]
recalled that the history of the Moros and IPs
[indigenous peoples] is one and inseparable, but noted
that the former were always the ‘bigger brother’ while
the latter [was] the ‘younger brother.’” Moros “have
developed a higher plane of political existence” than
lumads because they converted to Islam and adopted
the sultanate system.
In that
same Sona, Gloria Arroyo lamented that although Mindanao
was a food basket, “it has some of the highest hunger in
our nation.” For this sad state of affairs, she blamed
“the endless Mindanao conflict.” Her solution to ending
the endless conflict was to capitulate to the MILF.
Arroyo
knows the BJE does not fit into the 1987 Constitution,
so she asked Congress “to act on the legislative and
political reforms that will lead to a just and lasting
peace during our term of office.”
Unfortunately, a “just and lasting peace” through a
refitting of the BJE into our Constitution won’t be
possible during or after her term of office.
There
will be conflicts between the lumads and the MILF,
between Christians and the MILF, between Manila and the
MILF over jurisdiction, ownership of lands, mineral
rights, natural resources and a host of other irritants
that come from drawing lines on a map without regard for
its inhabitants.
There
will be power struggles among self-appointed Moro
leaders—the Maranao-dominated MILF, the Tausog-dominated
MNLF and the traditional politicians of Mindanao—over
control of the BJE.
“Better
talk than fight, if nothing of sovereign value is anyway
lost,” counseled Gloria Arroyo in her Sona.
Unfortunately, talking nonsense will lead to loss not
only of sovereign value but also, and more important, of
property. And for that, most people will fight to the
death.
Buencamino is a fellow of Action for Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph). |
