The Memorandum of Agreemment on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that was supposed to be signed by the GRP and the MILF has a trap laid by the U.S. for the Moro revolutionary group, a progressive legislator said.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat.com
Vol. VIII, No. 28, August 17-23, 2008
The Memorandum of Agreemment on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that was supposed to be signed by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has a trap laid by the U.S. for the Moro revolutionary group, a progressive legislator has said. Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna (People First) said the MOA-AD’s provisions on exploitation of resources in the areas that are to comprise the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) as part of the deal could lead to U.S. economic control over the region.
Ocampo expressed this view in an Aug. 14 media dialogue on the MOA-AD jointly organized by the Center for Community Journalism and Devopment (CCJD), Mindanao Peoples Caucus, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), and the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project in Quezon City. He was among the speakers in the forum, together with Prof. Rudy Rodil, vice chairman of the GRP Peace Panel in the negotiations with the MILF; Atty. Musib Buat, MILF Peace Panel member; Atty. Mary Ann Arnado of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus; and Froilan Gallardo, editor-in-chief of Sunstar Cagayan de Oro.
The Bayan Muna representative was referring specifically to the portion of the MOA-AD that states:
“Jurisdiction and control over, and the right of exploring for, exploiting, producing and obtaining all potential sources of energy, petroleum, in situ, fossil fuel, mineral oil and natural gas, whether onshore or offshore, is vested in the BJE as the party having control within its territorial jurisdiction, provided that in times of national emergency, when public interest so requires, the Central Government may, during the emergency, for a fixed period and under reasonable terms as may be agreed by both Parties, temporarily assume or direct the operations of such strategic
resources.”
The MOA-AD, of which copies were distributed during the Aug. 5 forum, was to be signed by the GRP and the MILF last Aug. 5, but the Supreme Court on Aug. 4 issued a temporary restraining order on its signing following a petition by North Cotabato Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, supported by another petition filed by Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat and two congressmen.
The MILF, which originated from a faction that broke away from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1978, has been engaged in peace negotiations with the GRP since 1996 – the same year that the MNLF inked a Final Peace Agreement with the GRP.
Most contentious issue
The ancestral domain issue, which was first discussed only in 2004 or some eight years after the talks started, has turned out to be the most contentious issue in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations.
The MILF last year was proposing a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) that would be based on an ancestral domain claim of the Bangsa Moro over Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan.
The GRP had insisted that areas to be covered by the BJE other than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should be subjected to a plebiscite. This repeatedly led to an impasse in the peace negotiations with the group.
The impasse was broken only in November last year, when the GRP and the MILF reached an agreement defining the land and maritime areas to be covered by the proposed BJE.
Things seemed to be looking up after that, prompting lawyer Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesperson, to make media statements to the effect that they expected a final agreement to be signed by mid-2008.
But all hopes for forging a peace pact between the GRP and the MILF were dashed last December, when the peace talks hit a snag following the government’s insistence that the ancestral domain issue be settled through “constitutional processes” – a phrase which, according to MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, had been inserted into the agreement without their consent.
The December deadlock on ancestral domain was followed by a series of clashes between government troops and the MILF, as well as a partial pullout of the Malaysian contingent from the International Monitoring Team (IMT) which is tasked with monitoring the implementation of agreements related to the peace talks, as well as development projects in the areas of conflict.
Even as the GRP-MILF conflict showed signs of re-escalation, however, both sides were talking about the possibility of signing an agreement on ancestral domain sometime this year.
On Aug. 5 both parties were to sign the MOA-AD, which seeks to establish a BJE encompassing areas predominantly inhabited by Moros – including the ARMM, which was to serve as the core of the new region. The residents of the areas sought to be covered by the BJE were to vote in a plebiscite sometime in 2009.
But the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the signing of the MOA, following petitions filed by Piñol, Lobregat and other local politicians.
“We were wondering why the GRP allowed (in the MOA-AD) provisions on changing the (country’s) legal framework to make possible the establishment of the BJE,” Ocampo said.
U.S. role
The Bayan Muna representative then made reference to the U.S. role in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations. “The U.S. has had a big role in the GRP-MILF peace talks since 2003,” he pointed out.
This statement by Ocampo is confirmed by no less than a report of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a U.S. quasi-government group, on the peace talks. A report written by G. Eugene Martin, executive director of the USIP’s Philippine Facilitation Project (PFP), and Astrid S. Tuminez, the project’s senior research associate, titled “Toward Peace in the Southern Philippines: A Summary and Assessment of the Philippine Facilitation Project, 2003-2007” – states that:
“In 2003, the U.S. State Department, seeking to prevent international terrorist groups from exploiting the conflict in the Philippines, engaged the (USIP) to facilitate a peace agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF. The State Department felt that the Institute’s status as a quasi-governmental, ‘track one-and-a-half’ player would allow it to engage the parties more broadly than an official government entity could. To accomplish its mandate, USIP launched the Philippine Facilitation Project…”
The report by Martin and Tuminez contains references to a May 2003 exchange of letters between then MILF chairman Salamat Hashim (who died July 2003) and U.S. President George W. Bush.
When Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited the U.S. in May 2003, Bush declared that “the United States will provide diplomatic and financial support to a renewed peace process if the MILF will “abandon the path of violence . . . and addresses its grievances through peaceful negotiations.” (The MILF was then resisting government offensives that were part of an all-out war declared by the Arroyo administration.) U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage added that while “the United States absolutely supports the territorial integrity of the Philippines…we also recognize that the people of Mindanao have legitimate aspirations and some grievances.”
