PRESIDENT Aquino, in an unprecedented move, meets with leaders of the MILF in Tokyo in August, paving the way for the peace talks to move at a much faster pace. PHOTO FROM OPAPP
The peace panels of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) failed to agree during their last meeting on December 8 a deal pertaining to Bangsamoro waters and considered it as an addendum alongside completing the annex on normalization. In a meeting scheduled this month at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, both panels must hurdle the issue on territorial waters, agree and sign it together with the annex on normalization should there be no hassles or hitches along the way.
In their joint statement issued after the signing of the Annex on Power-Sharing, the GPH and MILF peace panels said they will be working on “an addendum on the matter of Bangsamoro waters” alongside completing the annex on normalization next month in order to pave the way for a comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) to be hammered out by the two sides.
The CPA will consist of the FAB plus its four annexes on transitional modalities signed in February 2013, wealth sharing signed in July 2013, power sharing signed last December 8 and normalization. The addendum on Bangsamoro waters is an issue important to the MILF that the two panels must hurdle in their upcoming talks to complete the peace process, said a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on its issue dated December 28.
The concept of Bangsamoro waters is proposed by the MILF to provide political connectivity to the future autonomous entity’s territories, which are in mainland Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago.
According to MILF peace panel member Maulana Alonto, such political connectivity would be important in developing further the psychology of the Moro nationhood.
The MILF’s proposed concept goes beyond the current notion of municipal waters, which is defined by the Philippine Fisheries Code as “marine waters 15 kilometers from the coastline, including streams, rivers, public forest, timberland, forest reserve or fishery reserve within the municipality” except those subject to the provisions of the law on protected areas.
Such maritime territory will primarily involve parts of Yllana Bay, the Moro Gulf and the Sulu Sea.
Delineating Bangsamoro waters and defining jurisdiction over these will definitely have an implication on sharing the wealth that will eventually be found therein.
In the PDI report it said that based on various studies, the Moro Gulf and Sulu Sea are endowed with a rich diversity of fishery resources that command high economic value. In addition, the Sulu Sea also hosts several known blocks of oil and gas deposits. In mid-2011, the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 4 offered interested investors 15 blocks throughout the country covering a total of some 100,339 square kilometers that are “mainly located in frontier regions.”
One energy exploration block offered is onshore, in the Cotabato Basin Liguasan Marsh), covering around 456,000 hectares straddling the provinces of South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat. Native fishes like Mudfish, Cat fish, Carps, etc. and numerous bird species are found in these marshy areas.
A document from the Department of Energy (DOE) said “the estimated volume of the total risked recoverable resources, excluding the speculative (unmapped) resources, is around 202 million barrels of oil and 821 billion cubic feet of gas”, the PDI report further said.
Another energy block offered is offshore in the Sulu Sea covering around 432,000 has, with water depths ranging from 1,500 to 5,000 meters, according to the DOE.
Of the eight wells drilled within the Sulu Sea block, “five of these have significant oil and gas shows.” This block, the DOE said, holds around 209 million barrels of oil and 716 billion cubic feet of gas.
The DOE also said that three of four additional wells drilled adjacent to the block “have been declared as gas discoveries” with an estimated deposit of some 775 billion cubic feet.
Prior to their 42nd exploratory meeting on Dec. 4 to 8, the parties held executive sessions in November in Kuala Lumpur to thresh out the issues hounding a power-sharing consensus.
In these meetings, according to MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, they maintained that a resolution on the question of Bangsamoro waters would be a deal breaker for them.
That a power-sharing annex was clinched even as the issue of Bangsamoro waters was still unresolved showed the creativity of the government and MILF peace panels; they refused to be stuck on the issue of waters, pushing the peace process closer to conclusion.
By agreeing to create a separate document to contain the consensus on Bangsamoro waters, the negotiators kept true to their record of innovative approaches toward finding a mutually acceptable political formula to end the four-decade Moro rebellion in Mindanao.
The parties’ decision to break the consensus-building exercise into sets of major documents, beginning with the 10 Decision Points of Principles, was the principal driver of the succession of strides in the negotiation, which is entering its 17th year next month.
The signed Power-Sharing annex is considered the “heart of the peace process” and the MILF panel described it as “hard-earned” victory in more than a decade of peace negotiations. According to the PDI, the group (MILF peace panel) also described it as a “product of struggle (hence) it resonates with justice . . .”
Through this strategy, the parties were able to classify agreements on principles from differences with details, and isolate unresolved points from the growing body of consensus on issues and it took the parties 18 months to hammer out the details of the document, beginning in July 2012, just before the parties concluded the FAB.
As of press time, an executive session is being held in Kuala Lumpur between the GPH and MILF Peace Panels chairs with selected members of the two peace panels.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/753-peace-talks’-next-hurdle-territorial-waters
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