Give Bangsamoro a chance, peace advocate says

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- The proposed Bangsamoro government in Mindanao should be given a chance in resolving the decades-old Southern Moro issue, a prominent Tausog peace advocate in Sulu said.

Octavio Dinampo, executive director of the Tulung Lupah Sug Inc., said the Moro problem has never been addressed squarely by the self-governing entities created during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, the Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook for Regions 9 and 12, and subsequently, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was established through a plebiscite in 1990, under President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino.

The ARMM, which originally covered only Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, was expanded through Basilan, and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan via another referendum in August 2001.

The 2001 expansion of ARMM also led to the change of its charter, from Republic Act 6734, to the R.A. 9054, also known as the Organic Act for the Muslim Mindanao region.

“The ARMM Organic Act did not serve its purpose because Congress created ARMM so bad and  [they watered it down] to contain many provisions, but without genuine autonomy,” Dinampo said.

A number of non-government entities and caused-oriented groups in Sulu and Taw-Tawi have expressed support to the on-going peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The two island provinces are known bailiwicks of a big faction in the Moro National Liberation Front under Nur Misuari. The once monolithic MNLF signed a final peace deal with government on September 2, 1996 and. Three years later, the group split into three factions.

The GPH and MILF panels aim to establish the Bangsamoro political entity to replace the ARMM before the term of incumbent regional officials, led by Gov. Mujiv Hataman, ends on June 30, 2016.

“The abolition of the ARMM and its replacement by a ministerial government is more appropriate and fitting to the ideals and right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro,” Dinampo said.

Dinampo is an active peace advocate, and a senior political science professor at the Mindanao State University in Sulu.

Dinampo and his staff had earlier lauded the government and the MILF for completing in January the fourth and last annex -- on normalization -- to the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB), the basis for the crafting of the Basic Bangsamoro Law (BBL) needed to enable the deactivation of ARMM and legitimize its replacement with a new Bangsamoro political entity.

The FAB contains four annexes -- transitional arrangements and modalities, power-sharing, wealth-sharing, and normalization --- that are to guide the government and the MILF in establishing a Bangsamoro political entity.

“This time it took us 17 long years, 43 meetings and in the course of four Presidents before we can finally have the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro,” Dinampo said, referring to the GPH-MILF talks, which started January 7, 1997.

Tausog Islamic clerics and Dinampo’s group had earlier called on voters in the ARMM provinces to support the GPH-MILF peace effort by voting in favor of the Bangsamoro entity’s creation in a plebiscite possibly by 2015.

Local executives in Sulu identified with the Liberal Party have also assured of their support to the FAB and the creation of the Bangsamoro entity.

Sulu local officials and members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, led by  MILF chief negotiator Muhaquer Iqbal, held last week a dialogue on the gains and prospects of the peace talks in Jolo, capital town of the island province.