AMID the spin to divert the people’s attention away from the high-level irresponsibility surrounding the Mamasapano encounter, we find the news that a Bangsamoro Transformation Council (BTC) is offering an alternative to the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) hopeful and encouraging.
It is reported that Eid Kabalu, former spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), representing the BTC, with the support of Mindanao professionals, finds the BBL unacceptable, because it was forged by the government only with a single minority group in Mindanao, the MILF. The BBL is, therefore, noninclusive. On the other hand, the BTC represents all the people of Mindanao, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. For another reason, the BTC proposal is achievable through the ways of peace, not through threats of war.
Kabalu is quoted as saying that “they are not into war,” that “they will take action through peaceful means with the involvement of all sectors,” …and that “they are proposing amendments to the Constitution” to make the necessary devolution of power possible.
This is the way the majority of Filipinos want to proceed in the search for peace in Mindanao.
Unfortunately, this is not the way followed in the formation of the BBL. The government, indeed, as the BTC charges, dealt unilaterally with the MILF, to the exclusion of everybody else. The result is dubious. As credible analysts and commentators say, the BBL is riddled with constitutional infirmities. It reduces the national government to a powerless spectator to whatever the MILF pleases to do once it takes over. It lays down bases for secession, the dismemberment of the Republic.
In the wake of the investigations into the loss of the SAF 44, many of our legislators lost enthusiasm for the BBL. There is now mounting conviction that the MILF knew of the presence in its midst of the international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, but made no effort to inform the authorities about it. Also, that the MILF allowed its members to waylay the policemen, after these had served the purpose of their mission. After the event, that it refuses to surrender to the justice system those of its members who participated in the criminal act.
With all these issues, problems and questions swirling around the BBL, Malacañang is pressuring Congress to pass it. Why this insistence in the face of what is clearly hostile sentiment from the national public, only Malacañang knows.
We hope that Congress resists the intimidation. If it succumbs, we hope sincerely that the Supreme Court declares the BBL unconstitutional.
The government peace panel counseled those angered by the Mamasapano brutality “to give peace a chance.” That was the beginning of the spin. Now they have been shown up: They were negotiating for the MILF, never for the government, from the very beginning.
The way to peace offered by the BTC represents a fair and square treatment of our brothers and sisters in Mindanao. It is respectful of their culture, religion, language and traditions, while keeping all of us bound together as one nation. Let’s give peace a chance. Let’s explore this alternative.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano