MILF: MNLF lawyer files petition versus Framework Agreement

From the MILF Website (Dec 8): MNLF lawyer files petition versus Framework Agreement

The lawyer of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has filed a petition before the Philippine Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the GPH-MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) signed between the MILF and Government of the Philippines (GPH) on October 15. Lawyer Eli Pamatong, a lawyer of the MNLF and a consistent losing candidate for the presidency, filed the petition in his behalf, hoping that the Supreme Court would thumb down as it did with the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in 2008. However, it was not learned whether Pamatong’s action has something to do with the consistent opposition of MNLF chairman Nur Misuari, Pamatong’s boss and bosom buddy.

Misuari continued to lambaste MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim, President Benigno Aquino III, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Pamatong said the government peace panel allegedly committed grave abuse of discretion, saying the Constitution only provides for Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the creation of a “Bangsamoro” is nowhere cited. He claimed that the government peace panel, as a result, “has usurped the power of Congress to enact, amend or repeal laws vested on it by the Constitution.” He said this is similar to the Bangsamoro juridical entity that was intended to be formed during the Arroyo administration but was struck down by the Supreme Court. By replacing the ARMM with Bangsamoro, Pamatong said, the government peace panel “acted without or in excess of its jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”

As this developed, the GPH is bullish the Framework Agreement signed by the government and the MILF will pass constitutional scrutiny. Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte, at a press briefing yesterday, said when the Framework Agreement was about to be signed by the former chairman of the government peace panel, now Supreme Court Justice Marvic Leonen, “the Framework Agreement was crafted with the Supreme Court decision on the MOA-AD in mind.”
“We are confident that it (Framework Agreement) will pass constitutional scrutiny,” he said.

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