By Manuel T. Cayon / Mindanao Bureau Chief
Conclusion
DAVAO CITY—With the 2016 election campaign set to start rolling by the first day of November, political pundits proferred to explain the sudden rush of the House of Representatives committee to pass the amended Bangsamoro basic law (BBL).
“Apparently, the lawmakers would not want to displease President Aquino at this time of the homestretch going to the filing of candidacy in October, and risking the needed financial backing of their campaign,” said a male lawyer, who occasionally do legal counseling jobs during elections.
“My take is that these lawmakers may have sensed that there are more political pogi [handsome] points to pass the BBL, and inherit a reputation of helping lay out a legacy for the Moro population, than fighting it and losing clout among the Moro voters,” he added.
There would be no constitutional backlash or personal criticism from their colleagues of like persuasion on the BBL, he said, “because they would just leave it to the Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of the entire document, or its provisions.”
He warned, however, that any succeeding delay in the courts would increase the tension among peace advocates and administration allies and their rush for the deadline, “uncertain of the complexion, sentiment and persuasions of the next administration to a political settlement with the MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation Front].”
The MILF has not made any noticeable move that may reconfigure the political heat already generated by the passage of the BBL at the House committee.
Iqbal: 90-percent OK
A MindaNews dispatch on comments to the BBL passage quoted MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal as saying that the “Congress committee-approved version is 90-percent okay,” but expressed deep concern “about those in the CAB [Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro] and the FAB [Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro] that were deleted or transferred or superimposed.”
“Very hard to describe,” MindaNews quoted Iqbal as saying. He headed the Bangsamoro Transition Commission that drafted the BBL.
“Asked to elaborate on his ‘90-percent okay’ statement, Iqbal replied: ‘Quantitatively, 90 percent, but qualitatively, baka 50 percent lang,“‘ the MindaNews dispatch said.
Iqbal said the MILF was “still making an accounting of the provisions won and lost.”
Strong reactions
At the communities, the reactions to the passage of the law could be strong enough to fire up sentiments on the contrary situation, said Salic Ibrahim of the Maradeka, a non-governmental organization group based in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur.
In an education and training session among the Lanao lakeside communities in October last year, it was found out that many residents have heard of the law and that it was supposed to benefit them.
“But as to how deep was their understanding about the BBL may be deduced from the same biases among tribes and settlers that they hold against each other for decades,” he said. “There are questions about what the law has to say on the lands bought or occupied by settlers, of how would haram, or forbidden acts under Islamic laws, would treat the current practices among non-Muslims.”
Antonio de la Cruz, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who grew up in Zamboanga City, said he would agree with national political leaders “that an acceptable BBL would be one that has consulted all other groups, such as the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF] and other stakeholders, like the business sector.”
Those who disagree with the BBL may not necessarily be at odds with each others’ opinions.
Former MNLF leader and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Executive Secretary Muslimin Sema, for example, told a MindaNews dispatch that “the strength stipulated in the 42 consensus points and comanagement of strategic minerals and the 50-50 [percent] sharing were even lost. Appropriate discussion or consultation has to be done if the intention is to go back or even connect the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro/BBL with the mother agreement or the use of the products of the Tripartite Review [government-MNLF and the OIC, or Organization of the Islamic Cooperation].”
Sema was the secretary-general of the MNLF when it entered into a political settlement with the government in September 1996, accepting the ARMM and the Southern Philippines Zone of Peace and Development as a major consensus.
The MNLF and the MILF are currently being brought together by the OIC to harmonize their separate peace settlements with the government.
Lawyer Randolph Parcasio, spokesman of the Nur Misuari-led MNLF, told the same news dispatch that he has “yet to read the bill in its entirety but, from initial reading, it seems not adequate to address remaining issues in the Tripartite Review on strategic minerals, territory and provisional government.”
On the same opposing side is Zamboanga City Rep. Celso L. Lobregat Jr., “who raised the most number of questions
during the section-by-section deliberations [and who] said, ‘I am not antipeace but we need a BBL that is just, fair, acceptable and feasible and, most important, consistent with the Constitution and the existing laws.”
“I think I have made more than 150 amendments, principled amendments, logical amendments. There was basis in law and Constitution; I explained each and every amendment…. It is really a very, very sad day. I am for peace but I am not for appeasement at the expense of the Republic.”
Must withstand challenges
On the side of the debate on the amended BBL and the original version, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III on Wednesday called on fellow legislators “to ensure that the draft BBL must be able to withstand any and all challenge as to its constitutionality.”
“The Constitution is also the basis and the only reason we can even talk about the creation of autonomous regions in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country,” he said.
He warned of “serious challenges to the constitutionality of the proposed BBL [that] can only result in greater instability in the Mindanao region, and put at risk the people’s trust and confidence in the peace process.” “The proposed BBL is an instrument in the peace process aimed at improving the life of the people in the areas to be covered by it,” he said.
Business community’s concerns
The business community also said it earlier that a diluted BBL from the original draft may arouse suspicion and dismay among the Moro residents “that may, in turn, create conflict.”
“Currently, investors have the convenience of securing permits, licenses, approvals, administrative consents and regulatory framework from the regional government without having to go to Manila or regional administrative offices. They are concerned that if the BBL is less than what the Bangsamoro aspired for, it would lessen the regional government’s autonomy and degrade the ‘investment-friendly environment’ set by the current [administration],” ARMM Regional Board of Investments (RBOI) Chief Ishak Mastura said.
“These business-friendly mechanisms set by the ARMM must be maintained or improved. The only way to have stability of investment policy for private-sector development in the region is to make sure that the level of autonomy currently being experienced in the ARMM is not reduced by the proposed changes to the BBL,” said the Promotion of Investment Sustainability Organization, the group organized recently by the RBOI.
The business organization in Cotabato City, the premier centuries-old trading center in the south and central part of Mindanao, only has a stern warning to lawmakers against diluting or subverting the original content of the BBL, warning of a likely flight of investment out of the region.
International donors
This was also emphasized by the international community, including the donors’ group contributing to the multibillion-peso Mindanao Multidonor Trust Fund (MTF).
“There are projects that are frozen, where they simply said, ‘We are not going to touch them until the rules are clear,’” British Ambassador Asif Ahmad said. “There are others where they have already made an investment, ready to extract and suddenly the rules have changed. If it is a very expensive, extractive investment where there’s downstream investment, as well, you can’t suddenly change the rules, because these are global industries—they will simply decide that they have got other places to invest in.”
The United Kingdom is a member-state of the International Contact Group for the peace process.
The MTF is a multidonor fund that the World Bank created in 2006 to assist “conflict-affected communities in Mindanao.”
A World Bank web site said “The MTF supports economic and social recovery while promoting effective governance in conflict-affected areas in Southern Philippines.” The European Union, a major contributor to the MTF, said that it contributed €5 million for its “reconstruction and development program agreement with the World Bank” in the MTF. The amount was 40 percent of the total money in the MTF, between December 2007 and December 2013. Over the same period, it has put up 29 projects on governance, democracy, human rights and support to economic and institutional reforms, and 10 projects on prevention of conflict.
The World Bank said that as of January 2012 “over 300,000 people in 155 war-torn communities from 75 municipalities have benefited from the completion of classrooms, health stations, access roads, water-supply systems and community centers all over Mindanao.” This would be in contrast to the ARMM data that the 1970s genocidal conflict in Mindanao has caused a more conservative estimate of more than 60,000 deaths, destroyed 535 mosques, 200 schools and wrought other damages to 35 cities or towns damaged.
A data presented by ARMM Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia in one of her talks with local groups said the ARMM has estimated the displacement at 2 million residents. One single displacement occurred in 2008 covering three provinces has reached to more than 600,000 evacuees and placed the country as having the world’s biggest number of evacuees compared to Darfur of Sudan.
The government was also said to have spent P76 billion in the fighting in Mindanao between 1970 and 1996. Everybody is hoping that peace would finally reign in Mindanao so that its population would benefit from the much sought-after development it would bring.