COTABATO CITY - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF said it managed to strike out many amendments by law makers in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law or BBL which they said is the aspiration of the Muslims in southern Philippines.
Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF vice chairman for political affairs, said the House of Representatives had over 300 amendments to the original version of the BBL and claimed to have brought this down to about 20, while the Senate had dozens of amendments to the draft law and they also got this down to 9.
“We are happy by this development,” Jaafar said, but he was quick to say that they face a bigger challenge ahead and that is to convince Islamic militants fighting for a separate homeland to put a stop to war and embrace peace for the sake of the Muslims in the restive region.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved their own BBL draft laws and lawmakers are set to meet in a bicameral conference committee to reconcile their versions of the bill and to ratify it in July during the opening of the 3rd regular session before this could be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte for his approval and signature.
Duterte is likely to sign the BBL, which he had certified as an urgent measure, into law before his State of the Nation Address in July also.
ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman said it has taken more than a decade of negotiations that led to the BBL. And he praised Duterte for certifying the BBL as urgent, saying it came at an important time, not just in Congress' legislative calendar, but in “our people's long history of working towards peace.”
Hataman said the BBL should bring forth an institution that is capable of responding to the challenge of the times and to the aspirations of the Bangsamoro, unimpaired and free of the maladies that have afflicted the ARMM.
He said the BBL is envisioned to codify not only a law, but a history of struggle and sacrifice—by countless mujahideen, their families, and fellow Moros, as well as all of the Filipino people who were unwavering in their hope and their actions for peace, social justice, inclusiveness, and progress.”
Muslims had repeatedly urged Duterte to consult all different tribes in southern Philippines on the BBL. There are over a dozen Muslim tribes in the region, mostly in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao that comprise the Autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM; and also in Palawan province.
There are an estimated 11 million Muslims or approximately 11 percent of the Philippine population, but their leaders are not well represented in the Bangsamoro Transition Commission or BTC the government has put up to draft the BBL. Majority of the Muslims do not even know the provisions in the BBL and previous consultations during the time of the Aquino administration were mostly staged with Muslim leaders saying they were not consulted.
Even provincial governors of the Muslim provinces were not part of the BTC which was chaired by Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, which signed an interim peace deal with Manila in 2014. The MILF - whose influence is concentrated only in Maguindanao - now wanted to rule over the proposed new Bangsamoro homeland that would replace the ARMM.
Muslims in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and Palawan belong to two ethnic tribes – the Yakan (in Basilan); and the Tausug (of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan) – and they do not want to be ruled by the MILF, of majority of its tribe and members. They wanted a separate autonomous region with Tausug as their leader; and for the revival of the Sultanate of Sulu and give political powers to their sultans.
Representative Shernee Tan, of the party list group Kusug Tausug, said there are still unconstitutional provisions in the BBL. Tan said she is not against the proposed Muslim law, but was concerned about Section 3(a), Article XV of House Bill Number 6475 which states that once the majority of the people in the ARMM vote in favor of BBL, the Bangsamoro will be established and all ARMM provinces, cities and areas will be part of the Bangsamoro territory.
Tan said this is unconstitutional and cited Section 18, Article X of the Constitution “which provides that only those geographic areas voting favourably in a plebiscite for the creation of the autonomous region shall be included.”
She also said that Muslims in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi wanted to be part of the Zamboanga Peninsula as it was originally in the past. The three neighboring provinces were originally part of Region 9 in Western Mindanao which comprised of Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte, and now the addition of Zamboanga Sibugay.
Muslim leaders and various stakeholders in Mindanao are now pushing for the separation of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi from the ARMM and include the provinces in Zamboanga Peninsula to form a federated state should Congress approve the proposed federalism government which Duterte is strongly advocating.
In a consensus held this month in Zamboanga City, stakeholders from Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Maguindanao trooped there to read their manifesto as a show of strong support to the proposal for the creation of ‘Federal State of ZamBaSulTa’.
Among the valid justifications for the proposed Federal State of ZamBaSulTa are Economic Viability and to ensure this is to group together Zamboanga Peninsula with Zamboanga City as the center, and Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi; Historical Reality as the shared history of the area and proposed federal state is a strong argument for its unity as one federal state. This history stems from the once dominant force exerted by the Sulu Sultanate over these areas, including Southern Palawan and the islands of Sulu and South China Seas, but the consensus also maintained that this is not to say the Sultanate of Sulu will again lay claim to these areas, instead, the region is now witness to different operative local government units that wield the real power and that cannot be changed.
It also cited other justification for the union such as Geographical Proximity because the provinces and Zamboanga City is contiguous to each other by land, and Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi are situated next to each other like a chain of island south of the Zamboanga Peninsula. And Demographic and Cultural Identity because of similarity in culture and peoples – Muslim and Christian relationship, education and interfaith engagements have strengthened this identity in the region.
At least 5 influential Sulu sultans, Ibrahim Bahjin, Muizuddin Jainal Bahjin, Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram, Mohammad Venizar Julkarnain Jainal Abirin and Phugdalun Kiram who are part of the Royal Council of the Sulu Sultanate, also attended the event dubbed - “The Bangsa Sug Consensus – ZamBaSulTa. A People of Significance.” - and threw their all-out support for the proposal along with Muslim religious leaders led by the Grand Mufti, His Eminence Abdulbaqi Abubakar.
Zamboanga City Vice Mayor Cesar Iturralde, who represented Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar, read a message in front of some 1,500 people. Christian and Muslim political leaders, among them former Sulu governor and a strong ally of Duterte, Dr. Sakur Tan - also called Datu ShahBandar – and his son, Totoh Tan, the current governor of Sulu, spoke in the event.
The Tan patriarch, in a position paper he read before the huge crowd, enumerated several concerns and reaction of Muslims to the proposed Bangsamoro Bill and federalism. He said the main objections of the people of Sulu through its Sultanate to the proposed Bangsamoro law center on the provisions on Territory that would change the historical name of the Sulu Sea to “Bangsamoro Waters.” He said Sulu Sea should retain its name.
Tan said the constituents in the provinces under the ARMM (including Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao) should be given the option to vote against inclusion in the new Bangsamoro entity. “The position is anchored on the principle of democratic consultation which is an essential element of plebiscites and a basic concept in Islam, as embodied by the principle of Shura (or consultation) in the Holy Qur’an.”
“The method of plebiscite and the counting of votes should be based on real democratic consultation and should not be hampered by what may be considered as the tyranny of the majority,” the elder Tan said.
He said the present version of the bill provides that the establishment of the Bangsamoro and the determination of the Bangsamoro territory shall take effect upon ratification of the Basic Law by majority votes cast in plebiscite. The present bill, Tan said, takes for granted that all five constituent provinces favor inclusion in the new Bangsamoro entity.
“This should never be presumed because presumption destroys the democratic essence of plebiscites. Precisely for the reason that the Bangsamoro entity is new, and is not just an amended version of the ARMM, the consent and option of the ARMM constituent provinces should be respected,” he said.
Tan said when the constituent provinces voted for inclusion to the ARMM in past plebiscites, they consented to be included in the ARMM, and not in the Bangsamoro which is completely new legal entity. “Ratification therefore should be on the basis of the majority votes of each constituent province and not of the entire geographical area of the present ARMM,” he said.
He said the territorial lines of federalization should not be dictated by religious dogma for this would be limiting, counter-productive and contrary to the spirit of nationhood.
“The federal territorial divide is not a divide of peoples and religions; it is a realistic and practical divide of administration and governance, so that the people get the best and most viable governance that befits their needs and circumstances,” Tan said, adding, a copy of the consensus was submitted to Duterte by the Kusug Tausug party list, the House of Representatives and Senate. (Mindanao Examiner)
Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF vice chairman for political affairs, said the House of Representatives had over 300 amendments to the original version of the BBL and claimed to have brought this down to about 20, while the Senate had dozens of amendments to the draft law and they also got this down to 9.
“We are happy by this development,” Jaafar said, but he was quick to say that they face a bigger challenge ahead and that is to convince Islamic militants fighting for a separate homeland to put a stop to war and embrace peace for the sake of the Muslims in the restive region.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved their own BBL draft laws and lawmakers are set to meet in a bicameral conference committee to reconcile their versions of the bill and to ratify it in July during the opening of the 3rd regular session before this could be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte for his approval and signature.
Duterte is likely to sign the BBL, which he had certified as an urgent measure, into law before his State of the Nation Address in July also.
ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman said it has taken more than a decade of negotiations that led to the BBL. And he praised Duterte for certifying the BBL as urgent, saying it came at an important time, not just in Congress' legislative calendar, but in “our people's long history of working towards peace.”
Hataman said the BBL should bring forth an institution that is capable of responding to the challenge of the times and to the aspirations of the Bangsamoro, unimpaired and free of the maladies that have afflicted the ARMM.
He said the BBL is envisioned to codify not only a law, but a history of struggle and sacrifice—by countless mujahideen, their families, and fellow Moros, as well as all of the Filipino people who were unwavering in their hope and their actions for peace, social justice, inclusiveness, and progress.”
Appeals
There are an estimated 11 million Muslims or approximately 11 percent of the Philippine population, but their leaders are not well represented in the Bangsamoro Transition Commission or BTC the government has put up to draft the BBL. Majority of the Muslims do not even know the provisions in the BBL and previous consultations during the time of the Aquino administration were mostly staged with Muslim leaders saying they were not consulted.
Separate Region
Muslims in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and Palawan belong to two ethnic tribes – the Yakan (in Basilan); and the Tausug (of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan) – and they do not want to be ruled by the MILF, of majority of its tribe and members. They wanted a separate autonomous region with Tausug as their leader; and for the revival of the Sultanate of Sulu and give political powers to their sultans.
Representative Shernee Tan, of the party list group Kusug Tausug, said there are still unconstitutional provisions in the BBL. Tan said she is not against the proposed Muslim law, but was concerned about Section 3(a), Article XV of House Bill Number 6475 which states that once the majority of the people in the ARMM vote in favor of BBL, the Bangsamoro will be established and all ARMM provinces, cities and areas will be part of the Bangsamoro territory.
Tan said this is unconstitutional and cited Section 18, Article X of the Constitution “which provides that only those geographic areas voting favourably in a plebiscite for the creation of the autonomous region shall be included.”
She also said that Muslims in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi wanted to be part of the Zamboanga Peninsula as it was originally in the past. The three neighboring provinces were originally part of Region 9 in Western Mindanao which comprised of Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte, and now the addition of Zamboanga Sibugay.
Bangsa Sug Consensus
In a consensus held this month in Zamboanga City, stakeholders from Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Maguindanao trooped there to read their manifesto as a show of strong support to the proposal for the creation of ‘Federal State of ZamBaSulTa’.
Among the valid justifications for the proposed Federal State of ZamBaSulTa are Economic Viability and to ensure this is to group together Zamboanga Peninsula with Zamboanga City as the center, and Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi; Historical Reality as the shared history of the area and proposed federal state is a strong argument for its unity as one federal state. This history stems from the once dominant force exerted by the Sulu Sultanate over these areas, including Southern Palawan and the islands of Sulu and South China Seas, but the consensus also maintained that this is not to say the Sultanate of Sulu will again lay claim to these areas, instead, the region is now witness to different operative local government units that wield the real power and that cannot be changed.
It also cited other justification for the union such as Geographical Proximity because the provinces and Zamboanga City is contiguous to each other by land, and Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi are situated next to each other like a chain of island south of the Zamboanga Peninsula. And Demographic and Cultural Identity because of similarity in culture and peoples – Muslim and Christian relationship, education and interfaith engagements have strengthened this identity in the region.
Sultans of Sulu
Zamboanga City Vice Mayor Cesar Iturralde, who represented Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar, read a message in front of some 1,500 people. Christian and Muslim political leaders, among them former Sulu governor and a strong ally of Duterte, Dr. Sakur Tan - also called Datu ShahBandar – and his son, Totoh Tan, the current governor of Sulu, spoke in the event.
Position paper
Tan said the constituents in the provinces under the ARMM (including Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao) should be given the option to vote against inclusion in the new Bangsamoro entity. “The position is anchored on the principle of democratic consultation which is an essential element of plebiscites and a basic concept in Islam, as embodied by the principle of Shura (or consultation) in the Holy Qur’an.”
“The method of plebiscite and the counting of votes should be based on real democratic consultation and should not be hampered by what may be considered as the tyranny of the majority,” the elder Tan said.
He said the present version of the bill provides that the establishment of the Bangsamoro and the determination of the Bangsamoro territory shall take effect upon ratification of the Basic Law by majority votes cast in plebiscite. The present bill, Tan said, takes for granted that all five constituent provinces favor inclusion in the new Bangsamoro entity.
“This should never be presumed because presumption destroys the democratic essence of plebiscites. Precisely for the reason that the Bangsamoro entity is new, and is not just an amended version of the ARMM, the consent and option of the ARMM constituent provinces should be respected,” he said.
Tan said when the constituent provinces voted for inclusion to the ARMM in past plebiscites, they consented to be included in the ARMM, and not in the Bangsamoro which is completely new legal entity. “Ratification therefore should be on the basis of the majority votes of each constituent province and not of the entire geographical area of the present ARMM,” he said.
He said the territorial lines of federalization should not be dictated by religious dogma for this would be limiting, counter-productive and contrary to the spirit of nationhood.
“The federal territorial divide is not a divide of peoples and religions; it is a realistic and practical divide of administration and governance, so that the people get the best and most viable governance that befits their needs and circumstances,” Tan said, adding, a copy of the consensus was submitted to Duterte by the Kusug Tausug party list, the House of Representatives and Senate. (Mindanao Examiner)
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