Monthly Archives: April 2010

New National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) Replaces Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA)

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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act 9997 on February 18, 2010, creating the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) and abolishing the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) which took effect on March 6, 2010. Republic Act 9997 (or the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Act of2009) was approved last Feb 18, 2010 in the House of Congress, House of Senate and then the Office of the President.

This RA 9997 pertains to the creation of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) which then abolishes the name of Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) and will take over its powers, functions, responsibilities and appropriating funds. It replaced the 23-year-old Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA).

On Section 2 – Declaration of Policy:

It is henceforth the policy of the State to ensure the rights and well-being of Muslim Filipinos with due regard to their behefs, customs, traditons and institutions, as well as to further ensure their contribution to national goals and aspirations and to make them active participants in nation-building.

NCMF coverage shall be both local and national affairs involving Muslim Filipinos that include the implementation of economic, educational, cultural, and infrastructure programs for Muslim Filipino communities.

The Mandate of the Commission is to preserve and develop the culture, tradition, institutions, and well-being of Muslim Filipinos, in conformity with the country’s laws and in consonance with national unity and development. Continue reading →

GRP, MILF clash in drafts (1): The Agreed Guidelines

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By Patricio P. Diaz/MindaNews

(The series is an analysis of the draft peace pacts exchanged between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels on January 27, 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The MILF did not show up for discussion the next day claiming the GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] presented nothing new, that it offered “enhanced autonomy” again, an offer rejected in 2000 and 2003.

The two panels met again on March 4 in Kuala Lumpur for a Q and A session on the MILF’s draft Declaration of Principles on Interim Governance Arrangements, an 11-page extract from its proposed Comprehensive Compact. The GRP peace panel vowed to submit its counter-proposal but as of March 18, panel chair Rafael Seguis told MindaNews he has not submitted it because “I have to clear with the National Security Cabinet Group.”

Dialogue Mindanaw, a series of consultations organized by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), is supposed to “engage the people by informing them about the issues being discussed in the GRP-MILF peace talks, and by securing their honest feedback on these issues”

OPAPP Secretary Annabelle Abaya announced before Mindanao’s state university presidents who attended a peacebuilding conference in Penang, Malaysia in January that the Dialogue Mindanaw consultations will be specific as to the issues the government and MILF peace panels will be discussing at the negotiating table.

“The idea is to get back to the people on the issues they (panels) are discussing. What do they want?“ Abaya said.

But issues like “state-sub-state relationship” which was allegedly part of the proposal of the MILF in late January, has not been discussed in the consultations.

MindaNews’ Patricio P. Diaz got hold of copies of the draft peace agreements exchanged on January 27 from sources who asked not to be named.

This series is intended to help the readers understand the drafts and the issues being resolved now. Prof. Rudy Rodil has also written a separate commentary — MindaNews editor) Continue reading →

Reaction to the 'Warning' Resolution of the MNLF's 'BPNP'

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By Maulana Bobby Alonto

Last March 10, 2010, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Nur Misuari faction, held its 4th Bangsamoro People’s National Parliament (BPNP) in Lanao del Sur. I understand Prof. Nur Misuari was there himself. The BNP came out with a curious resolution, among others, that needs to be reacted upon.

Among the resolution is a warning – repeat, warning – to Malaysia not to block the implementation of the GRP-MNLF 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA). We find this curious, not to say outrageous, because we don’t see the relevance of this particular resolution which points an accusatory finger at Malaysia on the presupposition that the latter is blocking the FPA.

Our brothers in the MNLF, most of whom are, or became, Philippine government officials or employees are barking at the wrong tree. Is this “warning”, which is an open display of arrogance, an oblique reference to Malaysia’s facilitation of the MILF-GRP peace negotiations? The nuance seems to indicate so. Regardless of the reason, Malaysia, which is a member-state of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), has never blocked the implementation of the MNLF-GRP 1996 FPA. Continue reading →

THE BIG EXTRA CHALLENGE

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By Tommy Pangcoga

The term “right to self-determination” – more popularly known by its acronym, “RSD” – and particularly in the context of Mindanao and the centuries-old struggle of the Bangsamoro people, has been widely misunderstood, especially by the mainstream majority of Philippine society. It is because it is always associated with the armed struggle, waged by the two major Moro Fronts against national government.

The sharp and sometimes violent reactions of Non-Moros (and also some Moros) against the struggle of the Bangsamoro is borne out of their ignorance of the latter’s history as a people, their way of life, their present problems, and their present struggles and aspirations. It is also caused by their fear of how the Bangsamoro will treat them and their properties if the Bangsamoro will be restored of their RSD. These imaginary fears (sometimes real) are partly due to not only by how the Moro were portrayed by the colonizers – which was carried over to the neo-colonial times, as traitors, villains and untrustworthy people – but also because of past bad experiences against the Moro, thus the stereotyping. Continue reading →

Is there life for the Peace Process after Arroyo?

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By Maulana Bobby Alonto

As the Armed Forces of the Philippines intensifies its aerial and ground bombardment of Moro communities in Mindanao and starving of Moro refugees with military food blockades to collect the multi-million peso rewards on the heads of MILF commanders Ameril Ombra Kato and Abdurrahman ‘Bravo’ Macapaar, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been repeatedly announcing to the public the ‘new peace strategy’ of her regime in confronting the conflict in Mindanao. The President, says her spokesmen, has changed the rules of the game. No longer will she be holding peace talks with armed groups but directly with the communities. Also, any dealings with the MILF shall be in the context of DDR: demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (rehabilitation, as her spokesmen erringly put it).

From these pronouncements, it is clear that the Arroyo regime has abandoned the Mindanao peace process. After the aborted August 5 MOA-AD signing ceremony in Malaysia, the nationwide anti-Moro and anti-Muslim campaign, and the consequent fighting in Central Mindanao, Jesus Dureza, the presidential mouthpiece, informed all and sundry that the regime would no longer sign the MOA-AD “in its present form or in any other form”. Arroyo even followed this up by disbanding the government peace panel. Continue reading →