Gov't enticing MILF to join ARMM polls

One of the whistleblowers of the 2004 presidential election scam died of heart failure last Saturday, MindaNews reported. Hadji Abdullah “Lacs” Dalidig, whose exposés in Lanao presaged the “Hello Garci” tapes, suffered lingering ailments; he was 63.

Lacs headed the National Movement for Free Elections in Lanao del Sur when he detected massive fraud for President Gloria Arroyo. Allegedly voters were bribed to stay home on Election Day, and bogus returns were counted. Later, wiretaps turned up of Arroyo and election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano plotting ways to make her win in Mindanao by shady means. Those included transferring honest military officers and kidnapping an election field supervisor. Arroyo ruled for six more scandal-ridden years.

A year ago Lacs was reported to be preparing to file charges against Garcillano. He also lobbied for postponement of the elections till next year in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

A reformer for decades, Lacs advocated the cleanup of the election system consequently to improve governance. The high cost of ballot rigging, he said, tempts local officials to recoup their spending by stealing from the government.

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The government is hoping that Moro separatists will participate in any form in next year’s ARMM election. Such involvement can enable the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to advance its causes through peaceful means. These aims include: generating revenues, strengthening Shari’ah courts, and replacing the ARMM itself with a new autonomous entity with expanded powers.

“The election matters a lot to the Government of the Philippines (GPH), we hope it does to them (MILF),” Dean Marvic Leonen told newsmen recently. Leonen heads the GPH panel in peace negotiations with the Moro rebels.

Making Muslim autonomy work is a priority of the Aquino administration, Leonen said. Presently autonomy operates through the ARMM. But the GPH and MILF agreed in their “Decision Points on Principles” last April 24, 2012, on the need for an improved political entity. It would entail passage by Congress of a new autonomous region law, additional funding, and direct participation by MILF members.

MILF participation would have to deal with the issue of arms. All Philippine elections are marked by total ban on carrying firearms, even by off-duty policemen. MILF forces during past ceasefires confined themselves to camps, to allow free campaigning. Another concern would be security guarantees for MILF participants.

The government need not wait for a formal settlement of the Moro secession before the MILF can join in the election, Leonen indicated. Malacañang has tasked ARMM acting governor Mujiv Hataman to curb private armies and rido (clan wars) that decimate communities. The Commission on Elections is purging the padded voter registry.

Both measures are in preparation for clean and orderly voting in May 2013. Leonen said the MILF leaders believe in the sincerity of the Aquino administration to settle the secession and other reforms. He said the MILF watched closely and were impressed with the televised impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Twenty-six ARMM posts will be up for grabs next year: regional governor, vice governor, and 24 legislative assemblymen (three from each district). All have three-year tenures, and are allowed to sit three consecutive terms. The governor appoints three deputy governors (representing Muslims, Christians, and Lumad ethnic tribes), plus ten Cabinet members. All appointees are subject to confirmation by the Assembly.

Coinciding with the ARMM election is the balloting in the provinces under its scope: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi. This is for governor, vice governor, provincial board members, city and municipal mayors, vice mayors, and councilors.

There are also eight seats in the national House of Representatives.

The MILF must hurdle time constraints with the GPH in relation to electoral participation. Either the MILF joins in any form next year, or wait till the next election in 2016, perhaps under the revamped entity. If it opts for 2013, it must file certificates of candidacy from October 1 to 5, 2012, under tight Comelec deadlines to print automated ballots.

MILF leaders reportedly are seeking advice on whether to join, and to what extent, whether only in the ARMM or the local and congressional positions as well. National political parties are said to be mulling formal or loose alliances, since the MILF has softened its stand from secession to autonomy.

The ARMM election was previously set for this September. Congress postponed it to May 2013, synchronized with the congressional election and local voting.

More than 120,000 people have died since the Moro secession erupted in 1970. The government signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996, and began separate talks with the MILF soon afterwards. Those talks have collapsed and resumed several times in the past 14 years. The present ceasefire is holding, Leonen said, despite the MILF ambush killing of 19 Army troopers in Al-Barka, Basilan, last year. Since then, he said, there have been ten ceasefire violations, all swiftly prevented from escalating.

Leonen’s signing of the “Decision Points” with MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal in April was followed by the brief resumption of talks on May 28. Since then, the GPH has been waiting for the MILF to decide whether to push its agenda through electoral involvement.

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