THERE is great symbolism in the fact that the ceremonial signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and Philippine Identification System Act both occurred in the same event in Malacañang last August 6, 2018. These new legislation represent the attempts of the Duterte administration to define anew the Philippine body-politic, particularly which elements are included and excluded, in what has been a never ending process of policing who should part of the Filipino nation.
If there is ever going to be a political legacy of this administration, it could be this: that in the time of great political and economic crisis, the response of this administration, instead of safeguarding the interest of the weak and excluded, has been to shrewdly allocate the national patrimony and political power to a select few. This includes apparently erstwhile Moro revolutionaries, convicted plunderers and human rights violators, and the usual generals of the military establishment. It is a playbook straight from the traditional politician’s manual about how to keep one’s self and family in power, no doubt learned, practiced, and perfected in the political wild west of Mindanao.
So much for the pined-for change; what the electoral public got instead was a mere switch in the figurehead upholding the same old interests of the oligarchic elite and the landed class in Congress. The technocrats and scions may no longer be apparent in the public eye because a foul-mouthed thug is now front and center. But make no mistake about it, they still call the shots that define the legislative and economic program of the State.
It took a long time coming but this newest version of legislation for the Bangsamoro cause is but the latest iteration in a series of attempts to get the formula right. One hopes that this time it will succeed in finally addressing the historical injustice brought by the Philippine State to the Moro nation and not merely a concession to the same elitist interests that is also present in the Bangsamoro nation. The recourse to a parliamentary form of government to govern the ARMM region composed of 80 members seems to be an indication of the latter.
It is no secret that Muslim Mindanao is composed of fractious political clans where the MILF is but one among many armed formations. One wonders how the interests of the lowly Muslim peasant and farmer would be protected and promoted if the same Muslim landed elites are the ones calling the shots just the same. A more cynical reading would be is that the new move is just like transplanting the same political ills of the larger Philippine body-politic to the new territory to be carved by the new Bangsamoro Organic Law. Still excluded from the political and economic life are the lowly Moro peasant who comprise the nation’s poorest of the poor and not the members of the Moro elite and royal families who are already integrated to the body-politic as national or local politicians and power-brokers.
It should be noted that if the design is to curb extremism, the recruits do not come from established political clans but among the disenfranchised who are attracted to the cash incentives. One persistent theory about why the siege took place was the dislodgement of the Maute clan from the established circles of political power and they took extremism as an alternative route to power and influence. When these Moro political clans jostle for power in the new parliament and some would be excluded from the political largesse, what assurances can this new set up provide in preventing a new Marawi incident all over again?
The National ID system further empowers the Duterte State to define even further the limits and boundaries of those it considers to be part of or excluded from the body-politic. It is a prescient and strong albeit veiled warning actually to the Bangsamoro nation that the signing of the BOL should be shared jointly with the National ID System Act in that fateful Monday afternoon. The message seems to be that: you will be given the autonomy that you aspire for with the caveat that if in case the experiment fails again anew, it will be easy to exclude you once more from the national body-politic to join the other pariahs and enemies of the Philippine nation-state: the terrorists, subversives, drug addicts and other undesirables that should be eliminated.