Philippine peace panel head Miriam Ferrer statement at the closing of the 42nd Formal Exploratory Talks in KL

Posted to the Mindanao Examiner blog site (Dec 9): Philippine peace panel head Miriam Ferrer statement at the closing of the 42nd Formal Exploratory Talks in KL

TODAY THE ANNEX ON POWER SHARING IS BORN.

It has 4 major parts; 3,807 words; a set of principles of intergovernmental relations; a section that provides a level of detail on the structure of government of the future BMG; and three lists of powers, 9 reserved to Central Government, 14 concurrent or joint powers of the Central Government and the Bangsamoro Government, and 58 exclusive or devolved powers to the Bangsamoro, not to mention 4 items relating to jurisdiction in a section on “Other Matters”.

Such a laborious document as this Powersharing Annex is consistent with the fact that this Annex has many mothers and fathers. Certainly it was not a result of immaculate conception (which is celebrated today in the Catholic world).

There are of course the negotiating panels and their principals and the constituents behind them. On the GPH side, one would trace its lineage to the President certainly and the different Cabinet secretaries in all the Cabinet clusters (security, justice and peace; good governance and anticorruption; economic development and finance; human development and poverty reduction; environment and climate change adaptation), including the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Office of the Presidential Counsel for Legal Concerns, and especially the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, down to their undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, heads of special offices, bureaus and agencies; to the different CSOs that have kept watch with their respective advocacies. We have talked to and consulted with all of them.

After the labor pains, we have heaved our big, collective sigh of relief. After all, we carried this draft in our wombs (although the men here do not exactly have this facility) for 16 months. It was a mere zygote when the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Powersharing was convened for the first time. This was in our 30th Round of Formal Exploratory Talks that was held in August 2012. The GPH Panel was then chaired by now Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, and I was then assigned the adviser of the TWG.

Since then, TWG chairship moved from former panel member Upi Mayor Ramon Piang to Undersecretary Jose Luis Martin “Chito” Gascon. TWG members have included OPAPP Usec Jose Lorena and Secrtary Mehol Sadain of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos. All throughout the process, the only other surviving original member of the Panel (other than myself) under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, former secretary Senen Bacani, provided the anchor, supported by the next oldest member of this panel (in terms of length of time in this panel) Usec Yasmin Busran Lao.

In between we have met with and even brought over consultants from the Departments of Transportation and Communication, National Defense, DILG, DOJ and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource. We were ably supported by our legal staff, Atty Armi Bayot from the Office of the Solicitor General and Atty Anna Tarhata Basman, and before that, by the former head of the legal team, Atty Johaira Wahab. Technical support was provided by our secretariat headed by Iona Jalijali.

Aside from the parents, aunts and uncles, this rather difficult pregnancy was accompanied by its many godparents (ninong and ninang) – the third party to this process, Malaysian Facilitator Tengku Ghafar and the members of the ICG, all of whom contributed immensely at one point in time during the long wait for the birthing of the Annex. We thank them and especially the ICG members who survived this round – Emma Leslie of Conciliation Resources, Ali Saleem of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and Ahmet Doğan of the Government of Turkey, also the most handsome member of the ICG.

Now this newborn baby will have to be introduced to the world. We expect that a good number out there would be eager to see it, scrutinize its different parts and get to know about it more. We of course tried our damnedest best to ensure that it will be a healthy baby, with all the parts in the right places, with the complete sets of toes and fingers, and not an unnecessary piece less or more.

In all, it will represent all the good intentions, wise counsel, and difficult sacrifices all the parents had to make in order to bring a healthy baby in this world. In its genes, the shape of the future Bangsamoro political entity is encoded. But we know that all these will have to be translated into the Bangsamoro Basic Law – one that will put in place a strong, viable autonomous governance for the Bangsamoro in Mindanao, and connect with its siblings and cousins who came before and will come after.

There remain many challenges ahead. We know that and we are ready for that even as we remain focused on the immediate task on hand, which is to finish once and for all the Annex on Normalization and an addendum on Bangsamoro Waters and put in place the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. These will be our new year’s gift to each other.

Thank you.

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