Expansion of Sharia justice system in ARMM mulled
Members of the assembly, led by Speaker Paisalin Tago, and the staff of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) began last Monday a joint study on how to expand the Sharia justice system in the autonomous region.
The MNLF has been ranting about the seeming weakness of Sharia in the country.
The Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) has confirmed that all of the five Sharia district courts in the country are inactive and less than 20 of the 51 existing Sharia circuit courts are functional.
OMA, in keeping with Presidential Decree 1081, has been handling the implementation of the government’s Islamic Sharia judicial program since the time of President Marcos.
But the coverage of the Sharia jurisprudence, as recognized by the government, is limited only to Muslim family laws.
The Sharia issue is one of the five areas – among them education, political representation, natural resources, and regional security force – which the MNLF, the Organization of Islamic Conference and Malacañang jointly set as the parameters in resolving misunderstandings on the implementation of the 1996 peace pact.
Dubbed as the ARMM’s “little Congress,” the Regional Assembly, composed of three assemblymen from each of the seven congressional districts in the autonomous region, is empowered to enact laws for regional application.
Tago said members of the assembly and OPAPP representatives have agreed to mutually cooperate on the strengthening of Sharia in the ARMM to complement the three-way effort in improving the peace pact with the MNLF.
Representatives of the MNLF, the OIC and Malacañang will hold another tripartite meeting on Jan. 14 to further discuss the outcome of their initial studies on how to improve the peace accord by addressing the five concerns set by the three parties during the Nov. 10-12 tripartite meeting in
Tago and ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, who both attended the Jeddah meeting as government representatives, organized five technical working groups last week to study solutions to the five concerns the three parties agreed to iron out on the MNLF’s behest.
Tago said the OPAPP and the ARMM legislature have agreed to come up with a regional law expanding the coverage of the Sharia justice system in the region by March next year.
“We aim to include criminal and more comprehensive civil laws in our concept of a well-upgraded and sensible Sharia justice system,” Tago said.
Tago said Ampatuan has given assurance that the ARMM legislature would support initiatives complementing the tripartite effort.
Although not a member of the MNLF, the 40-year-old Ampatuan enjoyed the political support of many leaders of the front when he ran for ARMM governor in August 2005.
The MNLF’s secretary-general, Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, said they are elated with the cooperation of the ARMM and the OPAPP in helping resolve all off the perceived kinks in the peace agreement.
“We in the MNLF want these problems resolved amicably by the MNLF, the government and the OIC,” Sema said.
The OIC, a pan-Islamic bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including Arab petroleum-exporting countries, helped craft, as mediator, the government-MNLF peace agreement.
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