In anticipation of Tuesday's resumption of Congress,
Government of the Philippines
“Prior to recess, our Congress has been plagued by a lack of
quorum and absenteeism. I call on our lawmakers, under the leadership of House
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and Senate President Franklin Drilon, to
collectively work together in passing this landmark legislation,” Ferrer said.
“Passing the basic law that will establish the Bangsamoro region
this Congress will allow the next president of the Republic and the next
Congress to focus on other measures and bills. Let us act with wisdom and with
full appreciation of the pressing and immediate need to correct this historical
disunity,” the chief negotiator urged.
After the Office of the President has officially transmitted
to both Houses of Congress the original draft of the BBL last year, the two
chambers have conducted separate public hearings which were headed by Cagayan
de Oro City Representative Rufus B. Rodriguez, the chairman of the House ad hoc
committee on the BBL and Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., the head of
the Senate committee on local government.
The hearings culminated in the endorsement of substitute
bills known as the Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Regions (BLBAR). It
is these substitute bills, and not the original draft, that are being tackled
at the plenary level.
However, deliberations at the House of Representatives have
been slowed down due to the lack of quorum and warm bodies on the plenary floor
while the Senate encountered the same.
“I reiterate the appeal of the GPH negotiating panel, of the
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), and the rest
of the proponents of the Bangsamoro peace process to our lawmakers to be
present in the remaining sessions of Congress and finish what they've began,”
said Ferrer.
MILF ready to continue decommissioning process.
Ferrer also noted that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) is ready to undertake the continued decommissioning process of its
weapons and combatants upon the passage of the basic law.
The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), signed
between the Philippine government and the MILF, dictates that the
decommissioning process will be done gradually and in sync with identified
milestones in the legislative timetable of the BBL.
Accordingly, the next phase of decommissioning which will
involve 30 percent of the MILF’s combatants and weapons will occur after the
passage of the BBL and before its ratification through a plebiscite.
“As soon as the law is passed, thousands of MILF weapons and
combatants will be decommissioned. Our mechanisms are ready to undertake this,
especially the IDB (Independent Decommissioning Body) and the Joint Task Force
on Decommissioned Combatants and Their Communities," Ferrer said.
The IDB was established by the GPH and MILF negotiating
panels to oversee the decommissioning of MILF weaponry and combatants. The Task
Force ensures the proper documentation and monitoring of decommissioned
combatants.
BBL passage a showcase for APEC meet.
The chief negotiator stressed that passing the BBL will
prove to the world that the Philippines, as one nation, has come a long way
from the initial attempt of the Republic in 1957 to integrate Muslim Filipinos
into mainstream society.
“Sixty years have passed since we passed the law that
created the Commission on National Integration. It has been, for lack of a
better term, a failure as evidenced by the persistent disparity between the
socio-economic and political footing of Muslim Filipinos and other
ethno-linguistic groups and the mainstream Filipino. It is high time we show
the wisdom we’ve acquired throughout the decades by passing a new law that
provides for meaningful political and fiscal autonomy for the Bangsamoro within
the framework of the Republic of the Philippines
In 1954, the Philippine congress established a special
committee to study the economic effects of the Christian migration on Muslim
Filipinos and indigenous peoples to the Philippine south. The committee
recommended the creation of the Commission on National Integration to “to
foster, accelerate and accomplish by all adequate means and in a systematic,
rapid and complete manner the moral, material, economic, social and political
advancement of the Non-Christian Filipinos” and “to render real, complete and
permanent the integration of all… into the body politic.”
Indigenous peoples, including Muslim Filipino, regarded the
commission with suspicion and believed that its true objective was the
destruction of their identity under the guise of national integration. The
commission, aside from providing scholarships to Muslim students, achieved
little until it was abolished in 1975. In the late 1960s, moreover, violence
erupted and the Marcos government waged war against the Moro liberation front.
"One of the reasons cited by then President Ferdinand
Marcos for declaring martial law was the Moro insurgency," Ferrer
recalled. This consequently justified the militarization in the Muslim areas
leading to thousands of deaths and untold suffering to community women, men and
children as well as to Filipino foot soldiers who merely obeyed orders.
Focusing on the APEC, Ferrer commented that the Philippines should "send a clear signal to
our neighbors that we can achieve peace and stability in Mindanao
on our own accord." She noted how the Bangsamoro peace process had become
a model solution for other countries in conflict such as Thailand and Myanmar
“Nothing can be taken away from all our gains in the peace
process with the Moro fronts in Mindanao . We
have proven to the world that we can put aside our differences, sit down, and
actually attempt to reach consensus and compromise on how to effectively put
armed conflict behind us.”
“All of those will be for naught, however, if we don’t see
through this process that will institutionalize those gains and entrench in our
democratic systems the genuine autonomy of the Bangsamoro people which has been
guaranteed by the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” added Ferrer.
Founded in 1989, the APEC is an international organization
seeking to promote economic prosperity and partnerships among its 21 member
countries namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China,
Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand,
Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea,
Thailand, the United States of America, and Vietnam. For 2015, the country is
hosting the year-long APEC meetings which will culminate with the APEC Economic
Leaders’ forum on 18-19 November.
Many of these countries expressed their support for the CAB
and the passage of the BBL in various statements.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=822372
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