CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, March 16, 2011—The next round of formal negotiations between the government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has been moved to next month instead of at the end of the current month, the government’s chief peace negotiator said.
Dean Marvic Leonen said the talks, originally scheduled on March 29-30, 2011, moved because of the request of the Malaysian facilitator.
On top of the agenda for the April 27-28, 2011 negotiations are clarification of some points raised in the MILF’s 26-page draft Comprehensive Compact and concerns relating to Commander Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, he said.
Kato, commander of the 105th Base Command of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), allegedly broke away from the MILF and formed his own group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The BIAF is the MILF’s armed wing.
Leonen had earlier said that Kato’s departure from the MILF and organizing another armed group raises serious concerns in the MILF’s ability to deliver on any commitment that it will be able to negotiate with the government, said government chief peace negotiator Marvic Leonen.
It will also “endanger the ceasefire mechanisms” of both the government and the MILF, he added.
He, however, said that the Kato issue is an “internal problem” that the MILF is dealing with.
“The MILF is now conducting its own negotiations inside the group,” he said.
The draft Comprehensive Compact contains the MILF’s positions on substantive issues, which according to Leonen, is “an articulation of their positions, not as a working draft for the negotiations.”
Mohaqher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, said that Comprehensive Compactwhich contains eleven general features “is a formula of peace through the exhaustion of all democratic remedies to solve a home-grown
sovereignty-based conflict, which, following the same approach, other similar global sovereignty-based conflicts have also been successfully resolved, such as in South Sudan and Northern Ireland.”
The Compact is also a “win-win formula that benefits not only Moros and the indigenous peoples, but also the Filipinos and the government in Manila. The dividends of peace – and the lack of war itself – will reach every home not only in the conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, but Mindanao as whole and the Philippines in general. Besides refugees from Mindanao will no longer go to Sabah and therefore ceases to be a recurring problem to the Government of Malaysia.” (Bong D. Fabe)
Showing posts with label Bangsamoro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bangsamoro. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2011
Calls ARMM poll postponement snowball; DOJ says no legal infirmities to move polls
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| Justice Sec. Leila de Lima |
national elections in 2013.
This as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that there are no legal infirmities to the postponement proposal.
“I am here to witness democracy and transparency in action, in my capacity as the secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and therefore the attorney general and principal legal adviser of the President,” she said.
“Based on research and careful analysis, I tell you that I find no legal infirmity on the proposal,” she added.
De Lima made the statement Saturday (March 12) during the public consultation on House Bill No. 4146 that calls for the synchronization of the ARMM elections with the national and local elections in 2013.
HB 4146 seeks the postponement of the August 2011 ARMM elections to May 2013 and authorizes President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III to appoint officers-in-charge (OIC) as caretakers during the interim period.
“HB 4146 is a reform bill as it addresses electoral reform and I am very happy that the President placed it as one of the priority measures which clearly indicates that ARMM is a priority concern of Malacanang,” said the
bill’s author, Rep. Bai Sandra A. Sema of Maguindanao.
The Kabnar (Human Rights) Advocates Inc., issued a resolution strongly recommending and supporting the postponement of the ARMM elections to give way for reforms in the attainment of just and sustainable development in the region.
Also throwing its support to the synchronization of ARMM elections with the local and national elections in 2013, the Bangsamoro Successors’ Generation Network–Ranaw Youth for Peace and Sustainable Development issued a paper that said that the postponement is “the proper move to initiate reforms in the autonomous region.”
The postponement will also “provide synergies for the peace process by making ARMM an effective mechanism for basic service delivery,” said the Reform ARMM Now (RAN) in a statement.
RAN also said the postponement can arrest the declining peace and order situation brought about by the proliferation of arms and increasing incidence of political violence, kidnappings and narco-criminal syndicates and rationalize government expenditure related to elections and focus fiscal priorities for electoral reforms.
The group also said that the 1987 Constitution provides that all elections for national and local elections shall be synchronized, except for barangays.
Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo underscored the need to postpone the elections and for the President to appoint OICs citing that ARMM was created to improve the lives of the people in the region.
Robredo also noted that after 21 years of autonomy, four out of ARMM’s five provinces are among the poorest in the country.
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Chair Luwalhati Antonino also said that the President is determined to make reforms in the region.
The Islamic Movement for Electoral Reform and Good Governance (IMERGG), headed by Hadji Abdullah “Lacs” Dalidig and Dimapuno “Pangnal” Datu-Ramos, also threw its support to HB 4146.
Dalidig said that the Bangsamoro people need more good governance, real reforms, and public service than numerous elections marred with vote-buying, fraud, manipulations and violence which can only be facilitated by putting in OIC officials to manage the affairs of the region and move the elections to 2013.
But another group, the Alliance of Regional Coalitions Against People’s Poverty (ARCAPP) and its Coalitions of Non-Government Organizations and Civil Society, issued a manifesto strongly opposing the postponement of the ARMM elections.
ARCAPP argued that ARMM was crafted as a mechanism for self-governance to answer the Bangsamoro people’s long decades of struggle. It also noted that ARMM was not handed in a silver platter but was achieved after decades of war where thousands of lives and million-peso properties were lost.
The group believed that postponing the August 2011 elections will only bring instability in the region and deny its people the right to self-determination while pointing out that the law upholding the Bangsamoro’s
rights to choose their leaders must be upheld.
“While we believe in the administration’s desire for peace in ARMM, such cannot compromise our right of suffrage to elect our leaders in a free and honest election,” they said.
ARCAPP found an ally in Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. and the province’s two congressional representatives who opposed the postponement.
“The postponement of the ARMM polls is a blatant violation of the constitution as it will take away the right of suffrage of the people in ARMM,” Adiong said, stressing that the right of suffrage is a privilege and a
human right that the people in the ARMM must enjoy.
Adiong said that Republic Act 9054 or the Organic Act for the ARMM rendered HB 4146 unconstitutional therefore elections should proceed as scheduled on August 2011.
Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Hussien Pangandaman said that replacing regularly elected officials with appointed ones is unconstitutional under the RA 9054.
The Organic Act also strongly provides that the President only has supervisory powers and not control over ARMM, and that PNoy’s putting his hand-picked OICs in the ARMM is a violation of the Act, he added.
“The postponement is not the penultimate answer to address major reforms in the ARMM. In the span of 21 years, there has been eight elections postponements in the region to suit political exigencies but problems persist,” argued Rep. Pangalian Balindong of the 2nd District of Lanao del Sur.
But De Lima explained that HB 4146 will not undermine the democracy and autonomy of ARMM but only strengthen it by putting the necessary electoral reforms.
She also stressed that the expressed constitutional intent or policy is to synchronize the national and local elections, stressing that the ARMM elections is a local elections.
She also said that HB 4146 will not amend the Organic Act but only RA 9333, an ordinary law that can be amended by another law. (Bong D. Fabe)
GPH-CCCH praise IMT for reducing AFP-BIAF clashes as MILF-CCCH filed complaints of uncoordinated AFP deployment
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Lumads urge for creation of independent panel for IPs in GPH-MILF talks
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GPH peace panel member urges lumads to take advantage of MILF consultations
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, March 6, 2011—The member of the government peace negotiating panel representing the indigenous peoples yesterday urged all the lumads to come out, join and make their stand known to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during its consultations with its constituencies in Mindanao, including the IPs.
Dr. Ronald Adamat, who is of Tiduray stock from North Upi, Maguindanao province and a commissioner in the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), said that the lumads should take advantage of the consultations “so that the true sentiments of the lumads will be unfolded re the peace talks. At the same time, the lumads could make some bargains in the process.”
Adamat said that while it is the MILF that is negotiating peace with the government, the lumads also play a very important role in the outcome of the talks as well as benefit from whatever good result both sides will agree on in the negotiations.
The MILF recently reported that it will be conducting a series of consultations with leaders of the indigenous peoples within the territory of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to update them about the negotiations.
Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF Secretariat, said that the consultation will be a venue for an “in-depth discussion of issues to concretize their understanding of the process and how they fit in to support it” as the
peace process also affects the lives and future of the lumads.
Adamat praised the MILF for such move. He, however, urged the MILF to make the consultation “honest-to-goodness.”
“That has always been the stand of the MILF. Again, at least they are consulting the IPs. It goes to show that they are also concern about the would-be effects of the peace process amonglumads particularly on the issue of ancestral domain,” Adamat told TIGBALITA during a “chat” on Facebook.
He also said that with the resumption of the peace negotiations and with the MILF taking the initiatives to consult the IPs, the challenge now is for the lumads “to mainstream their agenda in the MILF agenda.”
And one way of mainstreaming lumad agenda in the overall agenda of the MILF is for the lumads to “assert the gains we have reached in the last talks where the MILF agreed to respect the AD [ancestral domain] of lumads within or adjacent to the bigger AD of the Bangsamoro,” he said.
“Lumads must also assert the mandate of IPRA [Indigenous Peoples Rights Act] vis-a-vis Moro homeland claim,” he added.
However, Adamat acknowledged that there are some “purists” within the lumads who espoused that IPs should never be subservient to the Moros because historically, the lumads have never been conquered by the Muslim conquistadores in the same way that the Muslims in Mindanao have never been conquered by the Spanish colonizers nor by the Americans and other regimes.
The lumads are originally animists when Islam arrived in the Philippines through Sarip Kabungsuwan and Rajah Baginda in 1475 and Christianity in 1521 through Ferdinand Magellan. When these two great religions were introduced in the Philippines, some lumads chose to be converted to Islam while others to Christianity.
The MILF claim that among all the IP tribes in Mindanao, the Tiduray has the biggest number of converts to Islam, followed by Subanen, then by B’laan, and Tiboli. The Front also claimed that many of the Moros in South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat have B’laan blood in their veins.
Adamat said that history also showed that while unconquered, the lumads “had lived side by side with the Moros and they have long determined their historical boundaries.”
“What the lumads should do is to assert these unwritten agreements. And I think the MILF is pretty much aware of these that’s why they agreed to respect the AD of thelumads during my presentation in the last talks,” he said.
A lumad leader of Higaonon stock said that it is only through proper consultations, whether by the MILF or by the government, that the true sentiments of the lumads will come to the fore in relation to the peace talks.
Jomorito “Datu Inbanwag” Goaynon, chairperson of the Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization based in Bukidnon said that through the peace negotiations, the lumads’ problems will be thoroughly discussed and solutions found.
Kalumbay counts as members hundreds of lumad peoples irregardless of tribe from the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte and even from the Davao provinces.
From January 25 to February 4, the MILF held a series of consultations with various sectors in Mindanao at its base in Camp Darapanan located in Barangay Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
The upcoming consultations with lumads that the MILFplanned to do soon will be its second such consultations this year and the first with the lumads. (Bong D. Fabe)
Dr. Ronald Adamat, who is of Tiduray stock from North Upi, Maguindanao province and a commissioner in the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), said that the lumads should take advantage of the consultations “so that the true sentiments of the lumads will be unfolded re the peace talks. At the same time, the lumads could make some bargains in the process.”
Adamat said that while it is the MILF that is negotiating peace with the government, the lumads also play a very important role in the outcome of the talks as well as benefit from whatever good result both sides will agree on in the negotiations.
The MILF recently reported that it will be conducting a series of consultations with leaders of the indigenous peoples within the territory of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to update them about the negotiations.
Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF Secretariat, said that the consultation will be a venue for an “in-depth discussion of issues to concretize their understanding of the process and how they fit in to support it” as the
peace process also affects the lives and future of the lumads.
Adamat praised the MILF for such move. He, however, urged the MILF to make the consultation “honest-to-goodness.”
“That has always been the stand of the MILF. Again, at least they are consulting the IPs. It goes to show that they are also concern about the would-be effects of the peace process amonglumads particularly on the issue of ancestral domain,” Adamat told TIGBALITA during a “chat” on Facebook.
He also said that with the resumption of the peace negotiations and with the MILF taking the initiatives to consult the IPs, the challenge now is for the lumads “to mainstream their agenda in the MILF agenda.”
And one way of mainstreaming lumad agenda in the overall agenda of the MILF is for the lumads to “assert the gains we have reached in the last talks where the MILF agreed to respect the AD [ancestral domain] of lumads within or adjacent to the bigger AD of the Bangsamoro,” he said.
“Lumads must also assert the mandate of IPRA [Indigenous Peoples Rights Act] vis-a-vis Moro homeland claim,” he added.
However, Adamat acknowledged that there are some “purists” within the lumads who espoused that IPs should never be subservient to the Moros because historically, the lumads have never been conquered by the Muslim conquistadores in the same way that the Muslims in Mindanao have never been conquered by the Spanish colonizers nor by the Americans and other regimes.
The lumads are originally animists when Islam arrived in the Philippines through Sarip Kabungsuwan and Rajah Baginda in 1475 and Christianity in 1521 through Ferdinand Magellan. When these two great religions were introduced in the Philippines, some lumads chose to be converted to Islam while others to Christianity.
The MILF claim that among all the IP tribes in Mindanao, the Tiduray has the biggest number of converts to Islam, followed by Subanen, then by B’laan, and Tiboli. The Front also claimed that many of the Moros in South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat have B’laan blood in their veins.
Adamat said that history also showed that while unconquered, the lumads “had lived side by side with the Moros and they have long determined their historical boundaries.”
“What the lumads should do is to assert these unwritten agreements. And I think the MILF is pretty much aware of these that’s why they agreed to respect the AD of thelumads during my presentation in the last talks,” he said.
A lumad leader of Higaonon stock said that it is only through proper consultations, whether by the MILF or by the government, that the true sentiments of the lumads will come to the fore in relation to the peace talks.
Jomorito “Datu Inbanwag” Goaynon, chairperson of the Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization based in Bukidnon said that through the peace negotiations, the lumads’ problems will be thoroughly discussed and solutions found.
Kalumbay counts as members hundreds of lumad peoples irregardless of tribe from the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte and even from the Davao provinces.
From January 25 to February 4, the MILF held a series of consultations with various sectors in Mindanao at its base in Camp Darapanan located in Barangay Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
The upcoming consultations with lumads that the MILFplanned to do soon will be its second such consultations this year and the first with the lumads. (Bong D. Fabe)
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