resident Arroyo
bewailed yesterday that the more government negotiators seem to get nearer to a
peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation front, the farther the goal
seems to get.
She said negotiators are now turning the corner on the
discussions on two key issues. One is the proposed carving out of an ancestral
domain for the Muslim community while the other is the setting of a
self-governing body for Muslims under a federal set-up.
So what’s the problem? Arroyo didn’t say when she announced
that peace with the MILF appears to be tantalizingly close at hand during a
meeting with leaders of the Chinese-Filipino community.
A few weeks ago, officials said the 1987 Constitution needs
to be amended to accommodate a final political settlement with the Muslim
secessionists. Critics immediately pounced upon the charter change proposal as
another pretext to push the administration’s campaign to introduce amendments
that would allow Arroyo to stay beyond 2010. The officials, including members of
the government negotiating panel, immediately clammed up.
That, more or less, is how things now stand. Nobody knows
what the government has promised the MILF. And the people are not about give the
administration a blank check in the peace negotiations.
For example, what does the carving out of an ancestral
homeland for the Muslims entail? Which areas outside those currently under the
Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao are sought to be included in the coverage
of the ancestral domain?
The questions are crying for an answer. Christians and other
indigenous cultural minorities make up the bulk of the residents of Mindanao and
Sulu. Their fundamental liberties and rights to life and property certainly have
to be secured and protected.
The ARMM as constituted already enjoys wide autonomy from the
central government. The law creating the ARMM reserves to the national
government only national defense, conduct of foreign affairs and minting of
money. The government has not deigned to inform the people about the additional
powers sought to be transferred to the proposed Bangsa Moro entity.
Certainly, a measure of secrecy has to be maintained over the
official negotiations in Kuala Lumpur and the back-channel talks. No one can
negotiate under the glare of publicity and the resulting Monday morning
quarterbacking.
Trust, however, is precisely what the people are not prepared to grant the
Arroyo administration. For this reason, a peace agreement with the MILF is
unlikely to be struck until Arroyo exits the scene.
