PLACING the Filipino people in a perpetual state of anger is the hallmark of the regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA). Aside from raiding the national coffers, inflicting national irritation is one of its expertise. The latest sadistic move of the administration is the memorandum of agreement (MOA) it initialed with the Moro National Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

As the previous week closes, the nation was stunned and inflamed when presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon distributed to retired generals in a forum copies of the MOA with the MILF the people came to be aware of for the first time. Unknown to the Filipino people the Arroyo regime had bargained the birthright of the nation and had not the vigilant media got a wind of it, the deal would have been consummated.

The MOA with the MILF the Arroyo regime almost signed in Malaysia had not the Supreme Court moved swiftly and decisively, provides for the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (JBE) in Mindanao and Palawan. Superimposing itself over the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the new body expanded the ARMM to include areas like the Zamboanga peninsula, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, portions of Palawan, South Cotabato, and as far Davao, and Compostela Valley.

BJE is also empowered under the MOA to create its own police and internal security, have its own basic laws, its own education, legislature, banking and finance, civil service, electoral institutions as well as full authority to develop its own mineral and natural resources. BJE is also allowed to send trade and diplomatic missions and enter agreements with international bodies like the ASEAN and the UN.

Any first year student of political science knows the scope and power granted to BJE had the functions and attributes of a sovereign state. BJE is not just a mere autonomous region within the Philippines, it is a state within the country if one carefully reads the contents of the MOA (already published by the Inquirer).

There was no mention or reference to the Philippine Constitution in the MOA. In fact many provisions of the MOA contradict the Constitution. The MOA gives the MILF legal and moral framework to do what Kosovo early did this year. In short, the MOA provides for the dismemberment or the Balkanization of the Philippines.

It is understandable the disclosure of the secret deal with the MILF is inflaming national passion and stirs anger and disgust especially among residents included in the BJE. Local officials and the people in the affected areas are up in arms, crying foul, betrayal, and sell-out. What the Arroyo administration did is treason of the highest order.

The question pestering the Filipino people is, why did the Arroyo regime push for something that is certain to sow national division, conflict, trouble and renew hostilities in the South? There is something sinister in this move of the administration.

Political and social reality is clear. There is no way the Arroyo regime can deliver what is promised the MILF in the MOA. There are many hurdles that make it virtually impossible for the MOA to take flesh and blood. For one, the Supreme Court TRO and the deliberations that will follow it could take eternity. Congressional action, a plebiscite plus opposition from the majority of the people in Mindanao makes MOA a mere scrap of paper.

Why give the MILF a doomed promise? It appears, what the administration really intends through the MOA is to push the MILF to the cliff and force it to cry double-cross. Now this is a perfect recipe for the resumption of war. Why does the Arroyo regime so desire war in Mindanao that might expand nationally?

Crystal clear, the purpose is to justify declaration of national emergency and martial law. Without war, there can be no martial law. If there is war and martial law, PGMA can stay in Malacañang to eternity.

Implementing the MOA with MILF also requires Constitutional alteration and many are suspicious the agreement is nothing but a ploy to change the Constitution. What might be changed in the Constitution are not portions that would accommodate the MILF but provisions lifting term limits and perpetuate PGMA in power for life.

This is not original of PGMA but she had been frantically trying to clone the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She may be nothing but a second rate, trying hard copy cat but desperate people are no longer lucid in their thinking. Isn’t it ominous that the principal figure in this sinister move is Hermogenes Esperon of the “Hello Garci” fame one of the generals mentioned who have stolen the votes in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu?

The clock is ticking towards 2010, the constitutionally-mandated time for PGMA to step down. In panic mode, she is doing everything, testing all possibilities to cling to the presidency. The poor MILF is just the President’s pawn in this game of power. She is willing to risk everything – the lives of innocent people, plunge the country into a vicious war and even destroy the nation just to secure power forever.

This is biggest calamity that has befallen upon the Filipino people today.

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