A meeting of minds (and hearts)

Asked if, after the passage of the planned “basic law” defining the Bangsamoro of which he will be the prime drafter, Mohagher Iqbal will retire from public life, the chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front panel in the peace talks with the government grimaces a bit.

“You see, I am basically a fighter,” he explains. “And a fighter never retires.”

The thought of dropping his responsibilities and walking away from the fight, even if only in the arena of politics and governance, seems somewhat dismaying to “Brother” Iqbal, but he admits that “to my wife and children, it is a welcome idea.” “I haven’t spent that much time with them,” says Iqbal, who, by accounts of friends in Mindanao, was quite a capable fighter and leader of MILF forces. “Now they want me to stay home more.”

Iqbal, who largely keeps his counsel and speaks only when asked a question directly, admits to being a “political scientist” although not a lawyer. “He has also written several books on the issues of Mindanao and peace,” interjects peace adviser Ging Deles when she overhears our conversation. “But you will not find them under his name.”

Slot Iqbal then as a reluctant public figure. One who, because of the responsibility given to him by the MILF Central Committee chaired by Al Haj Murad, has been thrust into the limelight, articulating and explaining the contents of the Framework Agreement and the various annexes that together will make up the basis for the planned basic law creating the Bangsamoro entity.

In fact, at the dinner and exchange with Inquirer editors and reporters (and this lone columnist), Iqbal confesses to being surprised to find his counterparts in the government panel in the same room. “It is our first time to appear together outside of the negotiations,” he explains. But he is not taking offense. “This is not personal. We are hard on issues but soft on people.” Indeed, as the final talks on the final annex came to an end, he and his counterparts “embraced each other,” he reveals.

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To be sure, hard questions and uncomfortable facts remain. Inquirer publisher Raul Pangalangan, former UP Law dean and professor of government panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, raises a question about a provision in the agreement on the “territorial waters” of the Bangsamoro area. Doesn’t this encroach upon the territory of the Philippines? he wants to know.

It is Coronel-Ferrer who explains that designating the waters as belonging to the Bangsamoro territory does not necessarily mean that the waters are no longer part of Philippine territory. “Just like we have waters designated as the territory of one province or the other, so can we designate regional waters without ceding them to another state.”

Lawyer Raissa Jajurie, an MILF panel member who has been designated chair of the Transition Committee’s panel on wealth-sharing, says they have invited “experts” to look into plans for Bangsamoro’s “economy and patrimony” which will be under the charge of the Bangsamoro Development Agency.

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In the view of Iqbal, the success of wealth-sharing arrangements within the Bangsamoro depends on the goodwill of all interested parties. And at this time, he adds, “the level of trust and confidence is at its highest.” As for possible “spoilers” who might want to throw up barriers to the success of the Bangsamoro, Iqbal says the prime spoiler will be “if agreements arrived at at the negotiating table are not implemented.”

Another hurdle the agreement will have to pass is the need for a Supreme Court ruling on its

constitutionality, although Justice Marvic Leonen, former chair of the government panel in the peace talks, as well as other lawyers they consulted, “don’t see any need for amending the Constitution” to accommodate the agreement’s provisions.

“Only two points were raised by the Supreme Court when it declared the MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, the predecessor of the current agreement) unconstitutional,” notes Coronel-Ferrer. “First, the lack of consultations with all the stakeholders. Second, that the executive encroached on the territory of Congress when [the government panel] promised amendments in the Constitution to accommodate the Bangsamoro.”

Jajurie likewise reminds everyone that consultations are still ongoing and questions about the implications of Muslim law applied in Mindanao will need to be settled by, first, the Transition Commission, and then by the Bangsamoro people themselves when the agreement goes under a plebiscite.

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One example, again raised by Pangalangan, is the future status of women within the Bangsamoro, bringing up laws meant to curtail the rights and behavior of women in Aceh, the region in Indonesia dominated by conservative Muslims which has gained a measure of autonomy.

“It is up to the women in Bangsamoro to decide for themselves the nature and extent of the laws and what these  mean to their lives,” Jajurie replies.

It is Iqbal who expresses the final, most optimistic scenario regarding the future of the Bangsamoro. “I believe that once the law is passed and declared constitutional,” he says, “then the other rebel groups will not have anything to fight over. They will be irrelevant. All the issues we have raised will have been addressed.”

Is it just a wish on my part, or does the fighter Iqbal’s voice carry with it a hint of relief and hope?