(Editor’s note) This is a full text of Moro Christians Peoples Alliance (MCPA) statement on the current status of the peace process between the GPH and MILF Peace Panels re: BBL draft published in MindaNews on July 28, 2014)
The BS Aquino government’s peace negotiation with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is ‘insincere, dishonest, and deceptive. Pres. BS Aquino cannot flaunt in his 5th State of the Nation Address the success of the GPH-MILF peace talks.
Two months after the MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) submitted the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to Malacanang, Aquino failed to certify and submit the draft as an urgent bill to Congress. Instead, Aquino’s legal team mangled the BBL draft. The MILF declared as unacceptable the ‘diluted Malacanang version’ of the BBL.
The BBL was crafted based on the agreed and signed Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its four annexes, and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) by both the GPH and MILF panels. Both the FAB and CAB were signed in grand fashion and personally witnessed by Pres.BS Aquino and MILF chair Murad Ibrahim. These agreements were hailed as milestones in the GPH-MILF peace negotiations. After Pres. BS Aquino conjured the illusion that peace now reigns in the Bangsamoro homeland, now considers the BBL as unconstitutional that need major revisions.
The Aquino regime will not enter into any agreement that is contrary to the Philippine Constitution which guarantees and protects the current social system. More so, if the agreement concedes even limited power and benefit for the Moro people. Aquino’s rejection of the BBL is beyond the question of constitutionality. Aquino’s main objective is to preserve the interests of the ruling elite.
Until now, the people are kept blind to the contents of the BBL and Malacanang’s revisions. It is to Malacanang’s interests that the contents of the BBL remain confidential to conceal its deception, dishonesty and insincerity in negotiating peace.
BS Aquino also conducted his peace negotiation in bad faith. In the midst of the GPH-MILF peace negotiations, Pres. Aquino publicly declared the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) a failed experiment that has to be abolished and replaced with the Bangsamoro in 2016. In spite of this declaration, Pres. Aquino used more than Php8B from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) to resurrect the failed experiment.
The shameless admission of OPAPP Secretary Deles and ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman that the “much-awaited” reforms in the ARMM were made possible by the billions of stimulus fund from the highly criticized and Supreme Court-declared unconstitutional DAP, exposes Aquino’s hypocrisy and dishonesty in the GPH-MILF peace negotiation.
This is a political ploy. “Reforming” the ARMM is Aquino’s strategy to strengthen the central government’s control and influence in the region beyond its abolition in 2016. The move is to consolidate political patronage in the resource-rich and vote-rich Muslim Mindanao. Aquino is preparing the current local government officials and loyal allies to challenge the MILF leadership and candidates in the 2016 elections for the Bangsamoro National Assembly. This is the highest form of treachery against the Moro people.
It appears that the objective of the Aquino regime in entering the peace process is merely to pacify and quell the people’s armed resistance instead of addressing the root causes of the conflict. The MILF and the National Democratic Front share the same experience.
With the way BS Aquino conducts his peace initiative, genuine and lasting peace remains elusive in the Bangsamoro homeland and the nation.
Moro Christian People's Alliance
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1123-president-bs-aquino’s-peace-negotiation-with-the-milf-conducted-in-bad-faith
Luwaran, the MILF Website, is run by the MILF Central Committee on Information (i.e, propaganda committee) that is headed by Mohager Iqbal, who is also the head of the MILF negotiating committee as well as the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC).
ReplyDeleteSince the signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes, MILF anti-government propaganda has been muted. When the Information Committee really wants to criticize the Philippine government it has used statements from groups/organizations not directly affiliated with MILF to drive home key propaganda points.
In this instance, a statement from the Moro Christian People's Alliance (MCPA) that is highly critical of President Aquino and the governments actions with regard to the peace process with the MILF is posted to the group's Website. It criticizes Philippine government actions while allowing the MILF to disassociate itself from direct responsibility for the statement by attributing it to a group not affiliated with the MILF.
The Moro Christian People's Alliance (MCPA) is a small Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front organization active on Moro-related issues. It is one of several Moro-based CPP front organizations. Others include Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People), Kawagib (Rights) MoroHuman Rights Center, Liga ng Kabataang Moro (League of Moro Youth), and the Khadija Moro Women's Alliance.
Communist propaganda has been critical of the MILF-GPH peace negotiations/agreement. In large part this has been due to CPP fears that genuine peace between the MILF and the government would free up Philippine military units to undertake operations against the CPP's military wing, the New People's Army. There was a time in the recent past where almost 80% of the Philippine military's combat power was concentrated in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Elimination of the MILF as a combat threat would allow military leaders to realign its forces in Mindanao to engage the Maoist insurgency on a larger scale.