MILF: IPs Peace Summit held in Teduray Mass Based

From the MILF Website (Mar 3): IPs Peace Summit held in Teduray Mass Based



This morning an Indigenous People (IP)peace summit held in South Upi, one of the mass based municipality of Teduray Lambangian and Dulangan Manobo, all Mamalu descendant, the brother of Tabunaway.

The summit attended hundreds IPs leaders which organized and sponsored by local government unit of South Upi under leadership of South Upi Mayor Abdullah Campong, a Muslim Teduray.

The summit was meant to educate the area’s indigenous people (IPs) on the importance of the Framework Agreement of the Bangsamoro (FAB), which the government and the MILF crafted Oct. 15, 2012 in Malacañang.

Teduray communities are key stakeholders to the Southern peace process. Mamalu and Tabunaway settled in the Bangsamoro proposed area even before the coming to Mindanao of foreign missionaries Sheik Karimul Makdum and Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan in the Majority of Teduray and Lambingan tribes are non-Muslims and have their own customary laws their leaders use as guides in managing the socio-economic, political and religious affairs of their communities.

Timuay Melanio Ulama, MILF peace panel consultants for IPs issues and now member of Transition Commission (TransCom) nominated by MILF, explained the rights of the IPs included in the FAB.

The TransCom, to be comprised of eight representatives from the MILF and seven from the national government, will oversee the implementation of the FAB and the drafting of the law creating the Bangsamoro region.

Aside from drafting the Bangsamoro Basic Law, the TransCom is also tasked to work on proposals to amend the Constitution “for purposes of accommodating and entrenching in the Constitution the agreements of the Parties whenever necessary without derogating from any prior peace agreements” and to coordinate, when necessary, development programs in the Bangsamoro communities in conjunction with the MILF’s Bangsamoro Development Agency and the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute and other agencies.

According to the FAB, the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, which will include the creation of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), will be certified as an urgent bill by the President and upon promulgation and ratification, “the ARMM is deemed abolished” and the BTA takes over until it is replaced in 2016 “upon the election and assumption of the members of the Bangsamoro legislative assembly and the formation of the Bangsamoro goverment.”

The FAB cites indigenous peoples’ rights thrice.

It provides under Article I Section 5 on the Establishment of the Bangsamoro, that “freedom of choice of other indigenous peoples shall be respected.”

Artcile III, Section 6 on Powers, provides that the “customary rights and traditions of indigenous peoples shall be taken into consideration in the formation of the Bangsamoro’s justice system” and that “this may include the recognition of indigenous processes as alternative modes of dispute resolution.”

Article VI, Section 3 on Basic Rights, provides that “indigenous peoples’ rights shall be respected.”

Timuay Atonio Batitao a Teduray leader said he are now convinced that the ongoing peace overture between the government and the MILF will never leave Mindanao's tribal non-Moro folks out.

"We are confident that the government and the MILF will focus attention on the plight of Teduray in the proposed Bangsamoro area and I am optimistic that a final peace agreement are underway," Batitao said.

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