ILIGAN CITY -- Presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza is eyeing the creation of a new Bangsamoro autonomy ahead of the shift to a federal form of government, which is among the priorities of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Speaking to reporters in Manila before flying to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, August 12, Dureza said he is hoping the effort to draft and eventually enact the new autonomy law will precede the ripening of the federalism effort.
“We hope to entrench the Bangsamoro ahead of federalism (because) we want it to be a pilot federal state,” Dureza stressed.
The writing of a fresh proposal for an autonomy law will be up for talks when government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) renew their formal engagement through the re-launch Saturday of the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in Kuala Lumpur.
Dureza said a high-level delegation will represent the government in the ceremonies.
Apart from Dureza, the government delegation includes Secretaries Perfecto Yasay of Foreign Affairs and Mike Sueno of Interior and Local Governments, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) Governor Mujiv Hataman.
According to Dureza, the re-launch of CAB implementation in Kuala Lumpur is to “give due recognition to the assistance of Malaysia during the negotiation stage.”
In an earlier statement, Dureza cited that “the Malaysians have contributed enormously in the negotiation stage.”
“Therefore, we thought it’s fitting to give them that due recognition for their contributions to our peace efforts by launching the implementation stage in Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
Malaysia facilitated negotiations between the government and the MILF since 2001 when talks resumed a year following an all-out war waged by then President Joseph Estrada in March 2000. The process has resulted to the forging of the CAB on March 27, 2014, ending a 17-year political negotiation that began in January 1997.
Principally, the CAB seeks the creation of a new autonomous entity that will have wider powers than and replace the current ARMM. In exchange, the MILF ends its rebellion against the Philippine state as indicated by the gradual decommissioning of its fighting force.
CAB implementation has stalled following the failure by the 16th Congress to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that could have given birth to the new autonomy setup and began the substantive decommissioning process.
After the launching rites, Dureza said the implementing panels from both parties will meet. The government panel is composed of Irene Santiago as chair, Undersecretaries Nabil Tan and Diosita Andot, and Assistant secretaries Dickson Hermoso and Rolando Asuncion, as members.
Although the MILF made no prior announcement, its panel is expectedly headed by Mohagher Iqbal, the rebel group’s information chief and old hand in the peace process with government. Despite the stalled CAB implementation toward the end of President Benigno Aquino’s administration, the MILF has never disbanded its peace panel.
The meeting of the panels will be the first formal one under the Duterte administration. Prior to this schedule, there have been about three informal meetings between government and the MILF.
This includes one between Mr. Duterte and MILF chief Murad Ebrahim in Davao City, and between Dureza and Murad inside the rebel group administrative base, Camp Darapanan, in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
In Mr. Duterte’s Bangsamoro peace roadmap, government seeks the convergence of the peace processes with the MILF and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the main group that first waged the Moro rebellion in 1972 that later split up into factions.
The MNLF inked the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with government on Sept. 2, 1996.
Before flying to Kuala Lumpur, Dureza held a meeting in Davao City on Tuesday with former Cotabato City mayor Muslimin Sema who heads the largest of the MNLF factions called the Council of 15.
Sema has earlier joined hands with the MILF in finding ways to harmonize the respective peace pacts of the government with the MNLF and MILF.
Under the said roadmap, all Bangsamoro peace agreements—the MILF’s CAB, MNLF’s FPA—as well the key results of the 10-year-old GPH-Organization of Islamic Cooperation-MNLF Tripartite Review Process on FPA implementation, will be integrated into the new enabling law that will create the new Bangsamoro autonomy replacing the Armm.
BTC expansion
According to Dureza, up for discussion among the panels will be the reconstitution of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) that will draft the proposed charter of the new autonomy.
He hinted that government is inclined to propose that the BTC be expanded beyond 15 members as spelled out in the CAB.
By expanding the BTC membership, Dureza said it will be able to “include leaders of the MNLF, officials of the ARMM, and other sectors in Mindanao for it to be inclusive.”
Dureza explained that in crafting the enabling law, “all sectors in the Bangsamoro must be adequately represented” and “come together.”
During his meeting with Dureza, Sema “expressed his commitment to join the BTC,” said a news release of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
Currently, the BTC is composed of eight members nominated by the MILF and seven by the government. All 15 are appointed by the President.
Apart from the composition of the BTC, the meeting of the panels will also discuss key provisions in the CAB that can already be implemented, including the delivery of socio-economic development programs in Mindanao, Dureza added.
“The people must feel the peace dividends while the political track, which is concerned with legislating the enabling law, is ongoing,” Santiago said.
Dureza said that while in Kuala Lumpur, the government delegation will brief the Malaysian government about the peace and development roadmap of the Duterte administration which will be capped by a call on Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday, August 14.