Bangsamoro deal: No peace without the MNLF!

The million-peso question of the week is whether or not the so-called normalization annex slated to be signed by President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would ultimately bring peace in troubled Mindanao? Well, when news reporters asked the President what his thoughts were… his reply was not really oozing with confidence when he said, “Knock on wood!”  Gads! If the President relied on luck on this supposedly historic peace deal, this only means it’s still a 50/50 proposition!

I’m sure that P-Noy knows too well that no peace deal can be hatched with the MILF for as long as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is not together with the MILF on the peace table in Kuala Lumpur. As North Cotabato Rep. Jesus Sacdalan said, “The 1996 Peace Agreement with the MNLF should be incorporated into the Bangsamoro Law as abrogating it would be tantamount to a violation of the earlier deal.”

This is exactly what I’ve been saying all along… that both the MNLF and MILF must sign this peace agreement and most important of all, they must surrender their firearms if they want this deal to succeed. Peace means, no more high-powered firearms. Again, what’s going on in KL sounds too simplistic that it could still stymie this deal as there’s just too many stumbling blocks along the way and aside from their surrendering their high-powered firearms…one of them is the question on the sovereignty of Sabah.

It is for this very reason why I believe that it was totally wrong for the Philippine Government to accept Kuala Lumpur as the broker of this peace deal because Malaysia and the Philippines have to formally settle the Sabah question in an international court. Meanwhile, let me warn P-Noy that he is treading on very dangerous grounds, especially when his negotiators agreed to giving the MILF 80% of revenues in their natural resources.

This brings us to the question… is the Philippines a real nation or are we nothing but a bunch of disgruntled small nations lumped together by our Spanish and American colonizers who later gave us independence, but under the baton of the ethnic Tagalog nation…who want the Filipino to be Tagalog speakers? Are we in the Visayas to always be paying tribute to Imperial Manila, while those that wage a terror war against Imperial Manila gets their Bangsamoro deal? My advice to the President is… be very careful! Abangan!

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Last weekend, my wife and I flew to Bacolod City with her cousin Mrs. Inda Manuel Gage for a short visit with her classmates. It was the first time I landed in the new Bacolod City Airport and this is one airport that the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) moved from the old Bacolod Airport to the new site in Silay very successfully. Quite timely, Cebu Pacific Air was inaugurating its Bacolod-Davao flights. With this new airport, we can expect a stronger economy for Bacolod and its environs.

On hand to meet us was Mrs. Patching Fuentebella, wife and First Lady of Mayor Monico Fuentebella of Bacolod City, an old friend. The Mayor joined us for lunch at where else; Chicken Bacolod and this was one Mayor who didn’t have any bodyguards with him and only wore a T-shirt. One of our topics was about traffic, which in Bacolod wasn’t even as bad as what we have in Cebu. No doubt, Mayor Monico is thinking of tomorrow and that means, he must be miles ahead before traffic gets worse. Good thinking!

Saturday evening, Mrs. Patching toured us to Bacolod’s iconic “The Ruins.” The First Lady of Bacolod City paid as we entered the gate, while other Mayors would demand “Respect.” The Ruins was built by Don Mariano Lacson in the 1920 and was purposely burned so that it won’t fall in Japanese hands. But only the wooden parts burned, while the entire cement shell still stood. This was opened to the public by heir Ramon Javellana in 2008 and has become Bacolod City’s must see tourist attraction. The Ruin’s tour guide Roger Lucero is himself a tourist attraction, which makes your trip truly worthwhile. We also met owner Mr. Raymond Javellana there.

Sunday morning after Holy Mass at the Redemptorist Church officiated by Fr. Quijano, we went to the ancestral home of Mrs. Patching Dizon Fuentebella, which has been turned into the Dizon-Ramos Museum, where the collections of her family, including her late brother, Bro. Rolly Dizon Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is displayed.

A few houses away is the Daku Balay, the Classical Art Deco home of Don Generoso Villanueva. This house was built in 1933 and finished in 1938 but it is still beautiful today. Generoso conceptualized this house and built by Cebuano engineer Salvador Cinco. One would think that the entire house is made of marble, but it is not. It is made of stone and done exquisitely. It is the office of GV Realty and granddaughter Lilia and hubby Craig Scharlin decided to leave New York to live in Bacolod and develop this edifice that should be studied by architectural students from all over the country.

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