In the land of Moro-moro

Moro-moro is a play that became popular in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period where the Moros were portrayed as perpetual villains who always lost to Christians in the end. It depicts battles, in a rather comedic way, between Christians and Moros as Muslims in the Philippines prefer to be called. Muslim secessionist rebel groups in the Philippines call themselves as either the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Nowadays, moro-moro is a term used to mean a situation being played from a given script. But reference to any moro-moro is by no means a pejorative of our Muslim brothers.

Administration critics have decried alleged attempts by the police and the military to do a moro-moro or stage-managed justification for the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao on Dec.4. For eight days until President Arroyo lifted it over the weekend, Maguindanao has been under martial law in the aftermath of the Nov.23 massacre of 57 people, including 30 members of media.

The President’s early lifting of martial law in the province has practically rendered moot and academic the seven petitions filed at the Supreme Court (SC) that sought to stop it. Nevertheless, the High Tribunal is scheduled tomorrow to hear these petitions. But it should not be a case of moro-moro because the government is compelled by the High Court to defend and justify the issuance in the first place of Proclamation 1959.

But even during the short-lived martial law in the province, police and military have reported incidents of alleged ambush attacks against them by armed men believed to be loyal supporters of the Ampatuan clan led by former Maguindanao Governor Andal Sr. Naturally, our brave soldiers and police authorities assigned to enforce martial law in that terror-stricken province decried the moro-moro accusations on them while facing certain death, if not injury to say the least.

The reported incidents of attacks against government forces in Maguindanao came while Palace officials led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita were under grilling by lawmakers who, by the mandate of our Constitution, could either revoke or stay the proclamation of martial law for 60 days.

Even Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago was already seeing moro-moro in the spate of major crimes taking place in Mindanao which she warned could be part supposedly of a plot to extend “creeping martial law” beyond Maguindanao. Santiago, who is up for re-election at the Senate, cited the recent major incidents in Mindanao from the abduction of 75 people in Agusan del Sur, to the latest beheading of a kidnap victim in Basilan, and the kidnapping of a Basilan college vice-president last Thursday.

The President invoked her Commander-in-Chief powers under our 1987 Constitution to impose martial law in Maguindanao, an act that prompted the convening of joint sessions of Congress. She issued Proclamation 1959 that imposed martial law in the entire Maguindanao, “except in areas identified as MILF,” the breakaway group of secessionist rebels who refused to be included in the 1996 GRP-MNLF peace pact.

The MNLF, headed then by its chairman Nur Misuari, has already entered into a peace agreement with the government in September 1996. On the other hand, the MILF is still holding peace talks with the government, in an on-and-off basis. Only last week, the MILF resumed negotiations with the government held in Kuala Lumpur under the auspices of Malaysia.

From the administration of former President Fidel Ramos to then President Joseph Estrada, and now President Arroyo, the government has been conducting peace negotiations with the MILF. Unfortunately, up to now there is nothing clear yet as to when these peace talks will end. With barely six months left in the administration of Mrs. Arroyo, a final peace settlement with the MILF still remains uncertain.

Acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales opted to fly all the way to Kuala Lumpur just to backstop the GRP panel in its peace talks last week with the MILF. Instead of attending the first day of the joint session of Congress where Gonzales — as the civilian head of the military establishment implementing martial law in Maguindanao — was summoned to shed light on the issuance of Proclamation 1959 as one of the national security advisers who recommended this to the President.

Since this was a historic, first-ever joint sessions of Congress to tackle a presidential declaration of a limited martial law imposition, it behooved upon lawmakers as well many of us why the Acting Defense chief did not give due importance to this more pressing national security concern. What kind of moro-moro is Gonzales up to again? He did show up the next day, though.

The last time Gonzales appeared before a highly-charged legislative inquiry led to his being rushed to hospital for supposedly suffering life-threatening condition of hypertension. Eating bananas saved the day for him. It was that incident that led to President Arroyo’s issuance of EO 464 that allowed Cabinet members like Gonzales to avoid congressional hearings by invoking the primacy of national security from being disclosed in public hearings. EO 464 even reached the SC where legislators questioned its constitutionality and legality.

By stroke of luck, Gonzales, along with Ermita and other top security officials would no longer need to undergo further congressional grilling again now that the President has cut short martial law in Maguindanao. Congress earlier set for tomorrow the voting on the decision whether or not to revoke Proclamation 1959.

Although martial law in Maguindanao is over, both Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles, however, deemed it fitting for them to still resume their joint congressional session this afternoon to bring it to a formal close.

Martial law opponents in Congress needed a simple majority, or 147 votes to revoke Proclamation 1959. At the outset, the largely pro-administration congressmen definitely outnumber those against it, including the 17 Senators opposed to Proclamation 1959. Ironically, the biggest moro-moro was the obvious grandstanding we heard and saw last week in Congress.