Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Editorials: Controversy over peace pact
ANCESTRAL domain is a sensitive issue and is a concern not only of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Arroyo administration but of an entire people.
Any agreement to resolve this issue needs to be handled well.
It is not surprising therefore that the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) hatched by MILF and the Arroyo government is being criticized by Muslims and Christians alike.
Worries expressed on the ramifications of the MOA stem from the peace panel’s failure to allow a wider discussion of its provisions before going to the signing phase.
Eye-opener
One point is basic: the Arroyo administration is supposed to be talking in behalf of the Filipino people while the MILF is supposedly representing the Bangsamoro group.
It is thus important that both the MILF and the Arroyo administration go to the signing phase carrying the assent of the very peoples they are supposed to be representing.
That other Christians, specifically local officials of North Cotabato, have gone to the Supreme Court for relief and that other Muslim groups are fretting is an eye opener.
The MOA, like what MILF’s Eid Kabalu describes it, may be “the best available solution” to the conflict in Mindanao, but lack of transparency muddles its acceptance.
Consultation
And it is wrong to use the “there will be a plebiscite” argument as escape hatch, like what National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon did, to defend the pact signing.
It is the moral obligation of the MILF and the Arroyo government to enlighten the Bangsamoro people and the rest of the country, respectively, of the MOA provisions. Consultation is not only a matter of counting the votes in a plebiscite; it is also about ensuring that an important historic document is well thought-of before it is signed.
To say that the MOA is the “best available solution” and that it passed through the best legal scrutiny is to be arrogant—meaning, how can they be sure about it?
Even now, legal experts who were not party to the discussion of the MOA, are raising valid legal and constitutional questions that the High Court will have to resolve.
The peace panel is obviously to blame if ever the MOA gets scuttled in the end.
