GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Now it is settled: Submitting HB 4832 to the plenary is a desperate act of the House defying a looming impossibility to pass a law postponing the August 11 ARMM election in order to remove a perceived stumbling block – which in reality is not — to the peace process. The election will continue on schedule, said Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo (INQUIRER.net, July 31).

Why did the MILF petition for the postponement only to state lately, to the effect, that election and the peace process are unrelated? Did peace groups not study the matter closely before asking for postponement? Why did the House leadership change its no-postponement stance when President Arroyo endorsed the petitions to postpone? These are the vagaries of concern, thinking and politics behind the peace process.
The fact is: The ARMM election is not a stumbling block; but the ARMM is.

Clarification

Let us distinguish ARMM, the political institution or government of the autonomous region, from ARMM, the territorial area. The first is the stumbling block of the present GRP-MILF peace negotiation as a peace process; the second is the core area of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity together with six municipalities of Lanao del Norte: Baloi, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar, Tagoloan and Tangkal.

This may also help clarify a puzzle: The MILF does not recognize the ARMM, the organic act RA 6734 that created it, the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996 and RA 9054 embodying it. Yet, RA 6734, the 1996 FPA and RA 9054 are among the terms of references (TORs) in the negotiation of the ancestral domain to create BJE.

ARMM, the territorial area, is the Bangsamoro ancestral domain. Without it, BJE can not be realized. But ARMM, the political institution, is another matter: it poses legal and political problems to the entrenchment of BJE.

Problems

Upon the entrenchment of the BJE, the MILF will form the Transition Executive Council to run the BJE during the transition period. While BJE will absorb ARMM, the territorial area, ARMM, the political institution, will – very most certainly – be left out. Will it lose its legal existence as a consequence? Most probably, not – as long as the law that created it exists.

The most desirable condition is to abolish the Autonomous Regional Government upon the entrenchment of the BJE. But only Congress – not the GRP-MILF final peace agreement or the Comprehensive Compact – can do this since this will entail the repeal of RA 9054.

What can repeal RA 9054 and abolish the ARG? I stand to be corrected if I’m wrong. But I think it will be another law, the charter of BJE.

However, according to a very reliable source, the MILF wants to form a commission to write the BJE charter. What is not clear from the source is whether the MILF will submit to Congress the draft of the charter for enactment into an organic law.

If not, the BJE charter will be a source of legal controversy. Can the Comprehensive Compact vest it with legality to abolish the ARG? Again, this is just my lay opinion: Without another law repealing – not amending — RA 9054, the ARG will remain the legal government of ARMM, the territorial area.

Complications

Repealing RA 9054 will have its own complications. As the enabling law of the 1996 FPA, repealing it will amount to abrogating the GRP-MNLF agreement. Will the MNLF take this lying down? One reason for the MNLF unrest in Sulu is their dissatisfaction with the implementation of the FPA.

Such an act of Congress will have an international repercussion. The FPA, born out of the four-year negotiation hosted by Indonesia at Jakarta, was the baby of the Organization of Islamic Conference. What will the OIC think and do if the GRP-MNLF FPA is junked in favor of the GRP-MILF Comprehensive Compact?

The MNLF, not the MILF, is recognized by the OIC as the lone representative of the Bangsamoro, by virtue of which representation the OIC-ICFM (International Conference of Foreign Ministers) adopts during its yearly meetings resolutions urging the Philippines to attend to the Bangsamoro problems.

Right now, on the complaints of the MNLF, the OIC is facilitating the tripartite meeting (GRP- MNLF- OIC) to review the implementation of the 1996 FPA so that the Agreement can be implemented as envisioned – to bring prosperity and lasting peace, especially to Muslim Mindanao. Will the repeal of RA 9054 not insult and anger the OIC?

Solutions

Like the GRP-MILF peace negotiation, that of the GRP and the MNLF was pursuant to the peace process. It will be a big boost to the peace process if the MNLF and the MILF can agree to reconcile the FPA and the future Comprehensive Compact to come up with only one instrument to realize the Bangsamoro right to self-determination.

This solution, however, is in itself a knotty problem. This will mean another negotiation that can be contentious and will take time. Besides, to unite the Bangsamoro leaders, the traditional leaders cannot be ignored and must have part in the negotiation. If this happens, Manila and the OIC will surely welcome it. But, can it happen?

Another solution is to amend the 1987 Constitution to change our political system from the presidential to the federal and create a Bangsamoro federal state. Will Congress as the constituent assembly rubber stamp with approval the GRP-MILF Comprehensive Compact and create a Bangsamoro federal state according to it?

And, with the Bangsamoro federal state so created, will the traditional, MNLF and MILF leaders bury their political and other partisan interests and biases to attain the ends of the peace process? However, this cannot be ruled out: partisan strife for the domination of the federal state government, like the by then defunct ARG, can frustrate the peace process.

To restate, ARMM, the political institution – not the August 11 election – is one stumbling block of the peace process. There are more.

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