‘Alarming’ provision in Bangsamoro peace deal

We will be the last to spoil the euphoria over prospects of peace in Mindanao. But there is still one more concern about the Bangsamoro peace agreement that in our view needs attention. We cannot erase it from our minds because it is the most alarming.

This has to do with the conferment in the Framework Agreement of exclusive powers to the Bangsamoro. The concept of exclusive powers for a local government is alien to the Constitution. Section 20 of Article X states that the grant of powers to the autonomous region shall be subject to the provisions of the Constitution and national laws. Legislation in an autonomous region is, therefore, subject to the reserved powers of the national government to repeal, amend, or modify. This is what makes us a unitary government. Granting exclusive powers to the autonomous region changes our system into a federal one, contrary to the Constitution.

Let us temper our expectations and settle our differences within the ambit of the

Constitution.

—MARIO GUARIÑA III,

former associate justice,

Court of Appeals, Parañaque City