Monday, August 18, 2008 Mayor sneers at gov't execs for 'stupid' comments By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte branded officials of the government, who claimed that the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) is just a piece of paper, as stupid.
In his television program "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" on Sunday, Duterte said that if the MOA-AD is indeed just a scrap of paper then why go to so much trouble in traveling to Malaysia to have the MOA-AD signed.
The city mayor said that if this is true, then the government is simply making a fool of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for treating the agreement as nothing but a piece of paper.
Duterte said the entry of the issue on Charter change on the implementation of the MOA-AD is also creating more confusion and trouble.
He said one could not simply tinker with the Constitution without expecting any ramifications not just on the Mindanao issue but also on other aspects.
"Once you tinker with the Constitution, it could ramble on to so many things. Yung self-interests ng tao, I'm sure those behind the Charter change will ask for more time, thus they'll now ask to remove the limits of their terms," Duterte said.
He said the extension of terms of the incumbent officials is what makes the Charter change effort suspicious, adding that though he is definite that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is no longer interested on extending her term as President of the Republic, he could not say the same of the other elected officials.
"PGMA (President Arroyo) is tired. Just like me, ayoko din ma-extend ang term ko dahil pagod na rin ako. I should be happy (with the extension of terms), but I'm not. Charter change is fraught with danger, kasi sila ang magcoconvene ng constituent assembly at sila din ang uupo dun," said Duterte.
The mayor said that even if the constituent assembly is successful in amending the constitution for the benefit of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), such amendments will still have to be submitted to a plebiscite for the people from all over the country, not just Mindanao, to vote whether they are in favor of it or not.
He said that with Luzon and Visayas outnumbering Mindanao voters, the Charter change proposal would not be 100 percent certain. Duterte said many sectors in Mindanao are also against the BJE, thus it will be facing tough challenges ahead.
Duterte said all these troubles could have been avoided had the National Government been opened to their dealing s with the MILF regarding the creation of the MILF territory in the very beginning.
On the other hand, the MILF reminded some senators opposed to the MOA-AD that right at the start of the GRP-MILF Peace Talks in 1997, the negotiation was already extra-constitutional.
"When you talk to rebels, it is understood that you suspend your laws over them or they will not talk to you and let their guns speak," Muhammad Ameen, chairperson of the MILF Secretariat, said in a report posted at www.luwaran.com.
The MILF officials cited the cases of Machakus Agreement between Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the Good Friday Agreement between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, the Bougainville Agreement in Bougainville, Northern Sahara Agreement, the Aceh Agreement between Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, and the Kosovo Formula.
"It is regrettable that still many senators, who are supposed to be national leaders, are ignorant of these models of conflict resolutions around the globe. They showed their biases, prejudices, and hatred in recent days, and ganged up on the MILF and the Moro people as if they are toughies on the streets," he said.
"Are you not aware of the fact that when a senator files a resolution in the Senate, that resolution is not constitutional until it is passed by both Houses and signed into law by the president," Ameen added.
He informed the senators that the government and the MILF when they signed the Tripoli Agreement on Peace of June 22, 2001 agreed to open "new formulas" that would "permanently address" the centuries-old Moro Problem in Mindanao.
They also agreed in principle that the government will not raise the issue of constitution, territorial integrity, and national sovereignty, and the MILF not to raise the issue of independence.
Ameen described "new formulas" as some form of self-governance for the Bangsamoro People that the Parties, with third party facilitation, will search and negotiate as they move the peace process forward, as distinguished from the "old formulas" tried by the government but failed miserably to address the Moro problem.
