The year 2008 was supposed to have marked a milestone in the 11-year history of on-and-off peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Yet this year, the dream of peace in Mindanao has only become more elusive.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
YEAREND REPORT – THE MINDANAO CONFLICT
Bulatlat
The year 2008 was supposed to have marked a milestone in the 11-year history of on-and-off peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Yet this year, the dream of peace in Mindanao has only become more elusive.
The ancestral domain issue has thus far been one of the most contentious issues between the two parties – leading the peace negotiations to bog down several times.
The matter of ancestral domain was first discussed only in 2004, or some seven years after the Government of the Republic of the Philippines began peace negotiations with the MILF. In 2006, the MILF proposed the establishment of a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) that would be based on an ancestral domain claim of the Moro people 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, causing lawyer Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesperson, to make media statements to the effect that they expected a final agreement to be signed by mid-2008.
A Moro woman calls for a stop to US war in Iraq.
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 snag in the peace talks was followed by several skirmishes, which appeared to forebode a renewed escalation of the armed conflict in Mindanao.
Ancestral domain pact
Even as the fighting continued and seemed to be intensifying, the MILF announced in July the possibility of signing a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) with the GRP, under which the coverage of the BJE is defined. Iqbal expressed optimism that the agreement could be signed by August.
The MoA-AD seeks the establishment of autonomous rule by the Bangsamoro over the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan (Minsupala) area, with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM, composed of Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, Basilan [except Isabela City], and the Islamic City of Marawi) serving as the core of the new region. As regards governance, the MoA-AD provides among other things that:
The relationship between the Central Government and the BJE shall be associative characterized by shared authority and responsibility with a structure of governance based on executive, legislative, judicial and administrative institutions with defined powers and functions in the Comprehensive Compact. A period of transition shall be established in a Comprehensive Compact specifying the relationship between the Central Government and the BJE.
The areas to be covered by the BJE would have been subject to a plebiscite following the signing of the MoA-AD.
Around the end of July, both parties announced that they were to sign the MoA-AD on Aug. 5. The scheduled signing of the agreement was anticipated as a forthcoming big step in the quest for peace in Mindanao.
Pingback: YEARENDER: Of Aborted Agreements and Dashed Hopes for Peace : The Philippine Reporter