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Friday, November 11, 2005
Mindanao lawmakers alarmed over land division claims
By Lino dela Cruz
Iligan correspondent
AROUND 19 Mindanao administration congressmen expressed apprehensions over the reported partition of Mindanao island after the Government of the Republic of the Philippines-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (GRP-MILF) agreed to designate ancestral lands and homelands to be independently governed by the MILF under the term "BangsaMoro People".
After the just-concluded 2-day Mindanao Congressmen Forum held at the Pearlmont Hotel in the city the congressmen demanded that they be consulted on the terms stipulated in the peace agreement between the government and the MILF since this will affect their respective congressional districts, according to Representative Antonio Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur.
"We might wake up one day and find ourselves already being ruled as BangsaMoro People," said Palawan representative Antonio Alvarez.
According to excerpts of the agreement to partition Mindanao obtained by Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro from a Lanao del Norte-based non-government organization Pakigdait, the Mindanao provinces and areas to be given to the MILF encompass the following: Sulu, Zamboanga, Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Bukidnon and Agusan, apart from the pinpointed territories in the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan (Minsupala) areas.
These areas were designated as ancestral lands and homelands to be independently governed by the MILF under the term "BangsaMoro People" which will have a juridical personality and sovereign executive, legislative and judicial powers and it will have its own taxing powers and a military and police force.
The non-Muslims, i.e. Christians and indigenous people, will be categorized as the "BangsaMoro People, according to the document.
Cerilles said that many of the provisions in the agreement have been kept from them (congressmen) and "it is time to bring these to public scrutiny".
"This will affect all of us and we do not even know who were the people who signed the document during the exploratory talks." Cerilles said.
The congressmen agreed to endorse their position to the House of Representatives Committee on Mindanao Affairs headed by Representative Manuel Zamora of Compostela Valley, for further deliberation.
(November 11, 2005 issue)
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