Mendoza: Publish all GPH-MILF agreements

A news story reported that on Feb. 27, 2013, one of the four annexes, particularly the Annex on Transitional Arrangements and Modalities, to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, has been agreed upon. I perhaps erroneously assumed that when the framework agreement was signed in celebratory ceremonies in Malacañang, the annexes had already been completed although their publication had been withheld. Apparently, that is not the case.

It seems rather unfair that an aggressive campaign for its support, led by no less than President Aquino, is being undertaken before the people are informed of the complete agreement. The validity and wisdom of the agreement cannot be judged on the basis of incomplete information on the entire text of the framework agreement, including all annexes, ancillary or supplemental agreements. Anticipating that its approval will be submitted to a plebiscite among the affected regions rather than to the entire electorate of the country is also premature.

May I suggest, taking into account the importance of the agreement involving as it does the exercise of the sovereign prerogatives of the Republic, that at this time the government make available and that media publicize all agreements thus far concluded between representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government (GPH). Both should tell the public what other agreements are still being negotiated and need to be concluded.

Parenthetically, there has been no response to the question I raised in a letter to the editor, which was published in the Oct. 17, 2012, issue of the Inquirer: Should there be a failure to ratify necessary proposals to amend the Philippine Constitution for the purpose of “accommodating and entrenching in the Constitution the agreements of the Parties…,” would the Philippine government be considered to have violated the agreement?

—ESTELITO P. MENDOZA,

emram@globelines.com.ph