Ferrer: GPH-MILF peace process not a violation of Constitution

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 11): Ferrer: GPH-MILF peace process not a violation of Constitution

The government peace panel chair in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Wednesday said there is no truth to claims by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that a ministerial form of government is unconstitutional.

Speaking over a local radio station here, chief government negotiator Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, stressed that the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro did not violate any provisions of the Philippine Constitution.

Muslimin Sema, chair of a bigger and politically active faction of the MNLF, has said that the FAB clearly violates the Constitution because it is unitary while the FAB is trying to establish a ministerial form of government in Mindanao.

Ferrer stressed that the government peace panel was certain that any agreement it entered into with the MILF does not in anyway violate the Constitution.

"That is why any agreement we can agreed upon will be subjected to democratic process and must pass the Philippine Congress," she explained.

The MNLF under Nur Misuari faction has been rattling against the Framework Agreement because of its belief that the government has abandoned the 1996 GPH-MNLF Final Peace Agreement.

While Misuari, who is wanted by Philippine authorities after the recent siege of Zamboanga City, was publicly against the FAB agreement, the MNLF under Sema faction welcomes it.

"We welcome the annex on power sharing, we welcome whatever agreement both sides could agree on," Sema was quoted as saying. He maintained that the government should also consider the MNLF in the peace talks with the MILF.

Both sides have the same objective of exercising its rights to self determination in southern Philippines.

In expressing his opinion that the FAB is a violation to the Constitution, Sema said the idea of establishing ministerial form of government in Muslim Mindanao was first presented and discussed during the 1976 peace talks between the MNLF and Manila "but we learned it was against the law."

But Ferrer explained that Republic Act 9054 have so many loopholes that the FAB is addressing clearly and in accordance with existing Philippine laws.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=595708