Done deal?

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

08/06/2008

Despite the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order on the signing of the memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain issue granted by the Gloria Arroyo government to the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the MILF claimed that a TRO from the SC has no bearing on the MoA, since it is already a “done deal” after the government panel members, plus the presidential adviser on the peace process, already initialed the draft MoA in the presence of foreign witnesses.

And just what is in the MoA that makes it a done deal? The initials of the government panel members and Hermogenes Esperon Jr? That still does not mean anything under Philippine laws. There is still no agreement on the ancestral domain, as mentioned in the MoA, since that initialed MoA is still a draft, and not yet official, any which way it is cut.

Does the done deal mean that the Bangsa Moro People’s Juridical Entity (BJE) is now established and that all the 726 barangays plus the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, calculated to be 25 percent of Mindanano, now ceded to the MILF? Can the MILF now enter into trade and investment agreements with foreign governments and establish its own government and state?

Not even a plebiscite can be held because this has not even passed the Congress, and until it does, and until the Constitution is changed to tailor fit the creation of the BJE vesting it with all those powers of an independent state, that can’t ever be deemed a done deal.

But what this display of arrogance on the part of the MILF shows is that this rebel group does not, and will not bow to any ruling by the Supreme Court, or for that matter, even bow to the results of a plebiscite that does not favor the MILF, should it come to that.

Given the rebels’ attitude, why should government bother with this group that, this early, shows it does not recognize the country’s high court’s ruling?

If this early, the MILF refuses to bow to the SC, think of how this secessionist group will be rejecting any and all laws and the Constitution once it becomes a state. If it does not respect the law today, what makes anybody think that once these armed rebels have their territories and their own security forces and their state within a state, they wouldn’t invade the other territories bordering their so-called “ancestral domain” and declare independence for the whole of Mindanao and even Palawan that would now be under MILF’s Islamic control? They can always go for invasion. They have already an army, and as they will have become a juridical entity that can moreover, on their own, enter into agreements with foreign governments and the presumption is that they have been recognized by foreign governments — and as an independent state.

The Islamic countries, given a warlike situation in Mindanao, will no doubt pour in money and arms for the MILF to achieve its independence from the republic. As for the United States and other western powers, it, too, will be favoring the MILF fight since it will be easier for them to deal with an MILF-controlled government than the chaotic Philippine government that flip-flops on policies, agreements and treaties in relation to rich natural resources, oil, mines, fisheries and even air rights and, no doubt, it will be easier to build American bases in MILF territories.

The US government has been known to push the balkanization of republics, such as what had occurred in the Soviet republic, as well as what was known as Yugoslavia. It wants to do the same to the Philippines, and this will still be the US policy whether it is John McCain or Barack Obama who becomes the White House dweller in January 2009.

Under the Philippine Constitution, on the matter of natural resources, it is clear that such cannot be under the majority ownership of a foreign entity, and in some cases, foreigners are excluded from getting into this type of business.

Already, shortly after the SC issued a TRO on the MoA, the firefight was started by the MILF, and no doubt, there would be the official MILF claiming that this is either a breakaway group or that it is the MILF members whom the MILF cannot control. This is a pretty stupid reason, because if the MILF claims it cannot control its members today, what guarantee is there that there will be no armed invasion from the MILF once it becomes a state?

What is clear is that the MoA, which is a step toward the MILF’s statehood, is going to present more problems not just to Mindanao but to the entire country since that will, in the end, so dismember the Philippines.

And the war is just starting to take root in Mindanao. Blame Gloria and her greed for it.

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