The “projected” territory referred to as the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity is the “current” Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which may be expanded to include 712 barangays (villages) in five provinces in Central Mindanao, Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Thursday.

He said the five provinces were Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga-Sibugay and Palawan.

“The MILF has agreed that additions to the present ARMM will be subject to the conduct of a plebiscite... We promised to cause the [conduct] of the plebiscite six months after the signing of the MOA (memorandum of agreement),” Esperon told reporters.

He said the two panels would meet on July 24 to determine the formal signing date of the MOA, and the formal peace talks—which had stalled on the issue of ancestral domain—would resume after that.

“Whether it will take one month or one year, we don’t know. But we would like to build on the goodwill that has been built,” said Esperon, a former Armed Forces chief of staff.

But Fr. Eliseo Mercado, OMI, a former member of the government panel in peace talks with Moro rebel groups, said he was “90 percent” certain that a final peace agreement with the MILF would be signed this year.

75-25 sharing

Esperon said the two panels had also agreed that the jurisdiction and control of resources found within 15 kilometers from the shoreline would be with the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

“Beyond that, there will be joint control in the sharing of these critical resources, primarily fuel, oil and other such critical minerals,” he said.

The sharing will be 75 percent for the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity and 25 percent for the government, he said.

As for land resources, Esperon said there were “existing arrangements,” and pointed out that the ARMM had its own Department of Natural and Environment Resources.

Esperon said there should be “some unification” between the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) regarding the issue on ancestral domain.

He declined to comment on how this could be attained.

The ARMM, composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Shariff Kabunsuan, was created after the Philippine government entered into a peace agreement with the MNLF.

Breakthrough

At informal talks in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, the government and the MILF reached a breakthrough in efforts to resume the peace talks.

The two panels agreed to drop the word “freedom” in reaching a deal to create an ancestral homeland for Muslims in Mindanao, and settled for the phrase “aspiration of the Bangsamoro people.”

In the earlier wording of the agreement, the MILF sought to “permanently address the aspirations of the Bangsamoro for freedom.”

The unofficial, draft agreement will thus read: “The recognition and peaceful resolution of the conflict must involve consultations with the Bangsamoro people free of any imposition in order to provide chances of success and open new formulas that permanently respond to the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people.”

Esperon said the wording on ancestral domain would be negotiated once the peace talks resume.

He said the word “freedom,” which basically was about governance, was one of four contentious issues between the government and MILF panels in the peace talks.

He said the three other issues were jurisdiction and control of natural resources, the kind of organization to be established to “enable” the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity “to function efficiently,” and “the matter of providing for a clause proposed by the Philippine side that all these agreements must conform with the Constitution ... or with the legal framework of the Philippines.”

Big difference

Father Mercado, who now heads the peace advocacy group Kusog Mindanao, told radio station dxND in Kidapawan City that the agreement on the choice of words could spell a big difference in the peace talks.

But he warned that the agreement did not automatically resolve all the issues hounding the peace process with the MILF.

“The MOA on ancestral domain is not the comprehensive agreement, as what others [think]. It will only pave the way for the resumption of formal peace talks,” Mercado said.

MILF civil-military affairs chief Eid Kabalu told Inquirer Mindanao on the phone that the separatist group was also optimistic about the signing of a final peace deal.

But he said this would depend on how fast the panels could agree on the issues pending resolution.

Still, Kabalu admitted that the Kuala Lumpur agreement resolved some of the stickiest issues that had been stalling the peace talks.

Possible federal state

Esperon said the new territory would cover a “considerable” land area.

If the residents agree to be included in the new territory through the plebiscite, their barangays or towns will comprise an expanded ARMM.

Esperon said the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity “would take a form more advanced than that of an autonomous region, and this could take the form of a federal state.”

An amendment in the 1987 Constitution may also be necessary depending on “the provisions of the peace agreement,” he said, adding:

“A federal state is not allowed within our current legal framework, and so if we go through that, then the agreement will not be executory until we have the enabling act which could come in the form of a constitution.”

Interviewed over dzBB in Manila, President Arroyo gave thanks for the agreement made by the two panels in Kuala Lumpur.

“Yes, praise God, yes, praise God,” she said.

She added that a peace deal could be concluded soon because the clashing views on ancestral domain had been resolved.

Ms Arroyo also said that “once a lasting peace is achieved in Mindanao, a speedy and lasting ... development will ensue.”

She said that while certain areas in Mindanao were “very, very productive,” some parts were “very, very deprived” because these were “torn by armed conflicts.”

Resistance

In Kidapawan City, the provincial board of North Cotabato passed a resolution opposing the inclusion of the province in the proposed expanded ARMM.

In the resolution, the provincial board also authorized North Cotabato Gov. Jesus Sacdalan to file a case with the Supreme Court in the event the province is identified as part of the projected Moro territory.

“The people of North Cotabato already spoke in 2001 when they opposed the inclusion of the province in the ARMM,” Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said.

Piñol said North Cotabato’s opposition was based on documents indicating that the province was one of the areas being considered for inclusion in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

Moro assignment

Esperon said another important development in the peace process with the MILF was the appointment of a Moro as head of the government team in the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), a body formed by the government and the MILF to address the prevalence of organized crime in Mindanao.

Brig. Gen. Muhammad Nur Askalani replaced Brig. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, the Marine Corps chief, in the AHJAG.

“I know he can handle this job well, knowing his experience,” Dolorfino said of his successor, who is also deputy commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.

Said Esperon: “Askalani is the first Tausug to become a general in the Philippine Army, and with his vast experience in Mindanao, I have no doubt that he can perform well for the Bangsamoro people.”

Askalani hails from the fishing village of Lugus Island in Sulu, a depressed province in the ARMM, which is always known as the hotbed of the Moro rebellion. With reports from Julie S. Alipala, Edwin O. Fernandez and Dennis Jay C. Santos, Inquirer Mindanao; Michael Lim Ubac in Manila

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