Friday, August 22, 2008 Mañalac writes PGMA on Mindanao problem
HE ONCE asked the court for a shoot-to-kill order against a man who jumped bail to escape a prison term for murder.
Now, government lawyer Vicente Mañalac is advocating peace in the parts of Mindanao held by separitists.
The incumbent Assistant Regional State Prosecutor yesterday circulated copies of a letter that he supposedly sent to Malacañang and bears 14 suggestions for peace in the land of promise.
Childhood
He said Armed Forces of the Philippine Chief Hermogenes Esperon cannot resolve the conflict because he “does not have a legal mind and he never grew up with Muslim childhood friends and classmates.”
Mañalac is a native of Zamboanga City.
And with the way the Peace Panel is constituted, Mañalac also doesn’t believe they can broker a peace pact.
He said it needs a member that follows the Muslim faith and who has “the genuine voice of the Muslim aspiration and dreams of a better and prosperous life for all
Muslims and Christians as one people and brother to one another.”
Among his suggestions is the equitable distribution of land to the landless in Mindanao, that the entire Mindanao be declared an economic zone.
Institutions
One suggestion, which might find favor with many people, Muslim and Christians alike, is the “phase out” of “all politicians” from Mindanao.
The corollary recommendation is a bit far fetched - that foreign or local economic managers replace them and govern Mindanao like a corporation.
He suggests that college education for Muslims and Christians be for free and that it should include the Arabic language.
He also recommends that employment in government institutions be 50 percent Christian and 50 percent Muslim.
Mañalac wants Min–danao excluded from the enforcement of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, adding that an organization of Bang–samoro and Christian lawyers should draft their own.
Even the Philippine flag wasn’t spared.
He said the three-starred banner shouldn’t be hoisted alone and suggested that it should “always fly together with the Bangsamoro Flag.”
Assimilation
But, he said all Muslims and Christians should undergo “indoctrination and education” that they are “brothers under one Philippine Flag.”
“They must be assimilated and re-cultured to trust each other and embrace each other as one race in United Mindanao.”
And on the debated-over Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, Mañalac said it should be established.
However, he said it must not be seen as a separate entity.
“It is already 2008 but it’s never too late to love each other and prosper together,” he said. (KNR)
