The great sellout

The Philippine government has signed a 50-50 wealth sharing agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front covering fossil fuels and other patrimonial riches. While welcoming the agreement as a step forward in the peace negotiations, MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar said the Moros should have gotten more from the deal.

The funny thing is that nobody can blame Jaafar for wanting more. In fact, I was surprised why he and the Moros did not aim for the moon. It took almost a lifetime for the Moros to get to this point. Now that they are here, it should have been the sky's the limit for them.

Not that there is any realistic chance from them to get whatever they ask for. But the rule of thumb in any negotiation, especially one that is very hard to come by and initiate, is that if you want, say the moon, then ask for something so much bigger, say the solar system.

That way, in case the other side of the negotiating table finds your demand for the solar system out of this world and preposterous, there is still the chance the other side will shoot for a compromise and offer the moon, which is just fine since that is precisely what you wanted in the first place.

That is why no matter how galling I find Jaafar in wanting even more than the 50-50 wealth sharing pact the MILF managed to wrangle from the Philippine government, I cannot find any cause to blame him. If I was in his position, I would have certainly done the same.

My feelings are not the same, however, with regard to the Philippine government. If there is one word I can find to appropriately describe what just happened, it is “SELLOUT” in big huge letters. The government of all Filipino citizens and the generations after them has just sold out the patrimony of the land to the Moros.

Just because the Philippine government is locked in a decades old insurgency in the south with Moro separatists, of which the MILF is just one faction, it doesn't mean that to buy peace, especially with just one faction, the patrimonial riches of the land have to be dangled as a bribe.

Jaafar is correct in saying that the Moros in the south are wallowing in poverty and neglect. But that does not necessarily mean the Philippine government is to blame for the poverty and neglect. On the contrary, the poverty and neglect is a direct result of the insurgency the Moros have waged relentlessly.

It only seems that the Moro lands have been neglected but the truth is, any well-meaning desired by the Philippine government to help gets forestalled and frustrated because of the war waged by the Moros. In fact, the history is long about development projects getting attacked and hijacked by Moro insurgents.

As to poverty, one can only question the sincerity of Jaafar's statement, considering that a great many Moro landlords and warlords are actually wallowing in immense wealth. Just check the headlines. After the reign of one powerful Moro family got cut short, another takes over. The only change was in the name.

Yes, many Moros are wallowing in poverty, but not because of neglect but rather, all the riches have been amassed by a few powerful families. And Jaafar cannot go on pretending that he does not know what is truly happening in his homeland.

If Jaafar can assure the safety of government development projects and the security and integrity of government funds poured into the region, I am pretty certain the south will develop just like the rest of the nation and there would be no need for any ridiculous arrangement such as wealth-sharing within one country.

Why should the wealth of an entire nation be shared 50-50 with a faction of a rebellion whose ultimate goal is in fact the dismemberment of that nation? Even if we set aside and ignore the rebellion and pretend it doesn't exist, what right has one sector of the population to claim half of what belongs to the entire nation?

Again, while I am incensed by the demands of Jaafar, I cannot blame him for charging as much as what he believes this government is willing to give. But I cannot say the same for the Philippine government under President Noynoy Aquino for selling out the country to the Moros. The patrimony of the nation is for everyone.