et’s stop heaping
on the national plate serv-ings of raw and possibly indigestible propos-als in
our knee-jerk reaction to the flare-up of hostilities in the South.
The main item on the agenda is how to pursue the peace
process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The proposed ancestral domain
for Muslims is stalled after the Supreme Court restraining order against its
signing. The SC conceivably could lift the TRO soon, but more hurdles to its
implementation stand in the way.
One is the plebiscite to be called in the 700 barangays
sought to be covered by an expanded autonomous government. The exercise requires
congressional action. Gloria Arroyo can depend on her allies in the House to
railroad such a bill. But the Senate, given the overwhelming sentiment against
the ancestral domain agreement, is sure to shoot down such a measure.
Then we have the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Since
it seeks to expand the powers of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to the
diminution of the powers of the central government, the proposed changes
probably requires an amendment to the 1987 Constitution.
These are the main two issues that need to be sorted out.
There is no more time to carry this out under the Arroyo administration. And,
more important, a national consensus is unlikely to be reached on any
undertaking originating from a highly distrusted administration.
Prudence requires that we not rush into taking precipitate
actions that could probably lead to far worse consequences.
Gloria Arroyo, however, is like a losing gambler who seems
bent on betting the whole house on the last throw of the dice. Instead of
re-assessing where she went wrong in the negotiations with the MILF, she is
raising the ante with her proposed shift to federalism to accommodate the MNLF’s
demand for expanded autonomy.
We have no position on the proposed federalism one way or the
other. Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the primary author of decentralization, could
be right. We have had our sorry experiences with an uncaring, irresponsible and
abusive central authority. Perhaps giving local units of governance a bigger
hand in managing their affairs is the way to moving the country forward.
On the other hand, there are very real problems associated
with strong local governments and a weak central authority. Even as we speak,
warlordism is on the rise. Do we really welcome the birth of region-based states
controlled by unreconstructed traditional politicians?
What about the fate of the poorest regions? The Ilocanos, the
Tagalogs, the Kapamgpangans and the Visayans will certainly continue to flourish
as they are flourishing now. Without a central government handling the
redistribution of national wealth through its taxation and spending powers, the
poorest regions, we fear, will be left farther behind. This is the logic of
uneven development at work.
Let us not be stampeded into grabbing at the first set of proposed solutions
that comes into our minds. We need time to soberly weigh alternatives. That time
is here as we muddle along while waiting to install a legitimate, competent and
trusted president two years from now.
