THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT THAT OUR GOVERNMENT is playing softball with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. A maximum of bluster but a minimum of genuine action is what our officials demonstrated after it became obvious that the MILF felt emboldened by its impending deal with our government. Had it been up to our government, the country would never have known that three weeks ago, MILF troops had begun occupying towns in Cotabato. It’s significant that official acknowledgement—tardy as it was—of the MILF’s aggrandizing territory came from Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, an old pro in bold—and bald—PR initiatives for administrations caught with their pants down.

And so what followed was posturing, which gave every appearance of official concern but assuredly without causing the MILF much distress or real inconvenience. The rebels, for their part, compared to government soldiers and our so-called statesmen, looked more iron-willed.

Four days ago, Agence France Presse reported that MILF troops “traded mortar fire” (firing off about a dozen rounds at army positions) with the AFP in Midsayap town (where the rebels had displaced around 300 families) even as MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar virtuously insisted the rebel group was adhering to existing ceasefire agreements.

MILF’s chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal for his part said his group possessed “moral ascendancy,” while warning: “Even if the government attempts to assuage the diplomatic and political faux pas caused by the last-minute cancellation of the ceremony, it is now clear to the international community, let alone the government of Malaysia, which is hosting the aborted historic event, and the Bangsamoro people that the Philippine government does not possess the capability of entering into a peace agreement.”

We should all be aware that what matters to foreign governments is not what a particular country’s constitution says, but what the representatives of government agree and signify their commitment to. As far as foreign governments are concerned, another nation’s constitution is at the level of how we, from a national perspective, might consider a municipal law: subordinate and inferior to international accords.

Our government knows this; other governments assume this; the MILF knows this, too. If the MILF deal with the government was official the moment it was initialed, as the MILF asserted, there would have been no need for the panoply of a signing in Malaysia. The intensity of the reactions by supporters of the RP-MILF deal points to just how they’re aware that the Supreme Court’s TRO, which tied the hands of President Macapagal-Arroyo, prevented the consummation of the agreement.

Let us underscore this sobering reality: US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney and Ambassador Sayed ElMasry, adviser to the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s secretary general, had gone to Malaysia, together with Ambassadors Makoto Katsura of Japan and Roderick Smith of Australia (as well as MILF’s domestic sympathizers from the National Democratic Front), to witness the signing of the RP-MILF agreement and thus give it the blessings of the international community.

When the Supreme Court stepped in and prevented the signing of the agreement, the Philippine, Malaysian, American, Japanese and Australian governments ended up red-faced in the company of the MILF (which neither recognizes nor has any loyalty to the Philippine Constitution). Opposite them are those against the deal because they believe it fundamentally subverts the existing provisions of the Philippine Constitution. Their voices reflect majority opinion in our country. They are waiting to see if the Supreme Court ends up deciding the case with dispatch merely to beat Malaysia’s announced Aug. 21 resumption of talks. The country is watching whether the Court will decide based on the real merits of the case, or on what the President wants. In a word: since no one, including the nations of the world, cares for our Constitution, then it remains for our Supreme Court to decide the matter with true integrity and the utmost fidelity to constitutional precepts. As Jose P. Laurel famously declared, “No one can love the Filipinos better than the Filipinos themselves.”