Op/Ed: Trade-offs in the Bangsamoro pact

Op/Ed piece by Amando Doronila in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Oct 31): Trade-offs in the Bangsamoro pact

.... The Moro wars in the Philippines have been a protracted guerrilla war stalemate that produced no decisive victory for either side. The outcome of the negotiations between the government and the MILF—the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro—was determined more by the costs of the conflict on the people of Mindanao, the economic costs to the nation, and the dislocation wrought on political stability than by the toll on the lives of combatants. From this context, we are able to make sense of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro when examining the concessions made by either side in the negotiations....The government panel was confounded by “a novel feature” of the MILF proposal for a ministerial form of government for the Bangsamoro entity under which the chief minister would be elected by the Assembly.... This departure from the existing electoral practices in electing officials from top to bottom, except during the Marcos dictatorship, is unexplored territory full of land mines that can explode in the face of Mr. Aquino’s experiment on a political settlement to buy peace with the MILF. This arrangement opened the way for possible challenges to its constitutionality before the Supreme Court, the jealous guardian of the nation’s sovereignty.....

http://opinion.inquirer.net/39800/trade-offs-in-the-bangsamoro-pact