Viewpoint
Beating plowshares into swords
By Juan Mercado
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:31:00 08/12/2008
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be what her rabid critics insist she is. But the lady is not dumb. She knew the draft proposing the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) was fatally flawed. Then why did she shuffle this proposal to dismember Mindanao even to the brink?
A quarter-to-midnight Supreme Court temporary restraining order derailed the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). By then, diplomats were in Kuala Lumpur to witness the ceremony. Was this what John Kenneth Galbraith called “the ingenuity of larceny”?
Malacañang never officially released the MOA, claiming “executive privilege.” This blindfolded citizens en masse. But what the leaked texts indicate, as former Sen. Franklin Drilon claims, could be the “impeachable ‘chop-chop’ of the country.”
Without even a by-your-leave, eight of every 10 residents in Iligan City, Ms Arroyo’s old hometown, for example, would be swept into the BJE—and come under Sharia law. Some 712 villages, from Palawan to the Zamboanga Peninsula, are in a similar fix.
The plan expands “the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to places whose inhabitants never had any inkling that they could be part of a virtually new state,” an equally startled Inquirer noted. The backlash to this grab-one-take-one has been understandably furious.
Three scholars (all columnists of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, coincidentally) skewer patently unconstitutional proposals to gift powers reserved only for sovereign states on BJE.
The University of the Philippines’ Raul Pangalangan notes in his column that the conduct of foreign relations, a separate financial system and even sovereign control over “territorial sea” (the band of water within 12 nautical miles of the coastlines) would be given away.
The MOA accepts the “Bangsamoro as a separate state, with full and expressed preference in their favor in case of conflict,” notes former Supreme Court justice Isagani Cruz in his column. He also points out that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is only a rebel group. Like local communists, they haven’t won recognition as a “belligerent community.”
The MOA seeks to overhaul the Organic Act, which established the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Ateneo de Manila University’s Joaquin Bernas notes in his column. “These cannot be achieved by a mere MOA. Implementation involves amending the Organic Act, even the Constitution.” But the document’s terms of reference ignore the Constitution
So what? snaps Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs. “We don’t recognize the Constitution.”
Beyond that sound byte, the historical fact is that 21,118,209 electors cast their ballots in the Feb. 2, 1987 referendum on the Constitution. The “yes” votes swamped the “no” votes three-to-one. Of this total, 17,059,495 voted “yes” and 5,058,714 cast a “no” vote. Over 800,000 of those votes came from Muslim provinces. Thus, the Constitution came into effect on Feb. 11 of that year.
The BJE hasn’t even bothered with a Bill of Rights, leaving women open to abuse, Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati City has noted. But Filipinos take the Constitution seriously. Horacio Morales and local communists belatedly discovered that when they tried to peddle junta (a politburo, really) rule for 1,000 days. They were snickered into silence.
“In peace, sons bury their fathers,” Croesus once warned. “But in war, fathers bury their sons.”
The over 120,000 lives lost in Mindanao conflicts attest to this truth. Violence is unpredictable. Mindanao is not a war movie. Happy endings cannot be written into it. Muslims, Christian, “lumad” [indigenous peoples] or Buddhists and atheists welcome giving the fragile peace process a chance to take root.
The late Pope John Paul II urged use of the negotiating table for the Mindanao problem. This commitment to non-violence resonates in the call of Mindanao leaders like Archbishops Orlando Quevedo and Antonio Ledesma, S.J., for continued dialogue, both on legitimate Muslim grievances and equally valid rights of non-Muslims.
But ignoring people’s aspirations, whether expressed in constitutions or negotiations, and keeping stakeholders in the dark, as the Arroyo regime has done, invite the violence it claims to abhor. This will beat plowshares into swords.
“Ms Arroyo’s support … of this ploy seeks to consolidate her own hold on power,” writes Johns Hopkins University professor Brett Decker in a Wall Street Journal analysis. Expanding Muslim autonomy requires constitutional changes. And while the MOA would flunk the exercise, it opens a door to extending presidential terms or federalism. This is a “Trojan horse” for her drive to cling to power.
Filipinos abroad are reacting. “Ms Arroyo really has her hands tied because there are more than one million Filipino hostages in OFWs in Muslim countries,” emails Michael Avila from Australia. “Any drastic move could threaten their vital remittances.”
“Malaysia sees her interest in Moros carving out an Islamic state in Mindanao. A strong Philippines would be a base. This makes neighbors nervous. To prevent this, they will weaken us any way they can,” he adds.
The Arroyo regime led us down the garden path by fracturing Section 7 of the Bill of Rights, which says, “The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized.” To prevent a repetition of this BJE fiasco, Congress should approve as soon as possible a freedom of information law.
“I’ve not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire,” Winston Churchill declared in 1930. In 2008, can President Arroyo say, “I’m not president to oversee the dismemberment of what Rizal called ‘nuestro perdido Eden’ [our damned Eded]”?
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Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com
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