Ambassador Jaime S. Bautista,
Doctor of Laws
OF SCOTS, CATALANS AND BANGSAMORO
The Philippine
Ambassadors’ Association Inc. (PAFI) has been consistent in supporting the
peace process in Mindanao within the framework of the Philippine Constitution.
Accordingly, the peace process should respect the parameters provided by the
fundamental law of the land. I also share the view that the peace process
should involve consultation on a nation-wide basis because the proposed
Bangsamoro Basic Law will affect the lives of all Filipinos. Additionally, the
peace process must not contain the seeds of conflict and the destruction of the
Philippine Republic but should promote peace, national unity and
reconciliation.
Within
this context, the national consultation should take into account the historic national
setting as well as developments in the international horizon. The Philippine
Constitution mandated the creation of an autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao,
recognizing the rights of “cultural minorities” within the framework of
national unity and development. It does not recognize the creation of another
state within the Philippine Republic, which is a unitary state with a
presidential form of government. The Constitution provides that “The President
shall exercise general supervision over autonomous regions to ensure that laws
are faithfully executed.”
This
peace process was preceded by the 1996 Peace Agreement between the Philippine
Government and the MNLF, then the main rebel group, leaving out of the negotiations
the MILF, a splintered group advocating secession from the Philippines. The
Agreement culminated in the passage of Republic Act 9054 also referred to as
the ARMM Expanded Organic Law.
A key
provision of this law is Section 3 under Article X entitled: “Ancestral Domain,
Ancestral Lands, and Agrarian Reform.”
Section 3 provides:
“As used
in this Organic Act, the phrase
‘indigenous cultural community’ refers to FILIPINO CITIZENS residing in the autonomous region who are:
a)Tribal
peoples. These are CITIZENS whose social, cultural, and economic conditions
distinguish them from other sectors of the NATIONAL
community;
and b)
Bangsa Moro people. These are CITIZENS who are believers in Islam
and who have retained some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and
political institutions.” (Emphasis mine)
The
proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) now seeks to change the concept of “Bangsamoro
people” from a “cultural community” to providing the Bangsamoro with a separate
political identity divorced from their Filipino identity. This would be the interpretation derived by
the deletion in the BBL of the phrase safeguarding that the Bangsamoro people
are Filipino citizens. The proposed BBL also widens the political base of the
Bangsamoro by absorbing the tribal peoples as Bangsamoro, thereby depriving the
tribal peoples of express protection of their separate cultural identities.
During
the peace negotiations, the MILF, in support of their objectives, argued that
they could be described both as Filipino citizens and as Bangsamoro, pointing
to the Statute of Catalonia describing the regional population as both
Spaniards and Catalans.
The
example of Catalonia, however, is a disturbing reference because of the Catalan
separatist movement holding that the Catalans are not Spaniards and because the
Catalonian Parlement has voted to authorize the holding of a regional referendum
in November 2014 on two questions: 1) Do you want Catalonia to be a state? 2)
Do you want Catalonia to be independent? President Artur Mas has signed this
Act into law.
The
Spanish Government has petitioned the Spanish Constitutional Court to annul the
Catalan law as unlawful, on the ground that the Spanish Constitution dictates
that the matter of independence is a question for all Spaniards to decide. The Court has issued a Suspension Order
similar to a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order).
The
Catalan Government argues that the Catalans have a right to be consulted on the
referendum issues pointing to the example of Scotland which recently voted on
independence. (The vote was against.) The separatist movements in Catalonia and
Scotland are motivated by the notion of nationalism. However, Catalonia has a
different status from Scotland because Catalonia is not a state but only an
autonomous region of Spain. Scotland has a different status and was a different
state from England until the Act of Union of 1707 enacted by the Scottish and
English Parliaments, which established the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
The question
of the legal status of the Bangasamoro people is of fundamental importance
because it also affects the question of whether the so-called Bangsamoro
political entity to be created has all the elements of a state or sub-state. One
of the elements of a State is “people”. The fact that they are Filipinos should,
therefore, not be left ambiguous. The definition of the Bangsamoro people in
the Organic law as being Filipino citizens would allay doubts on the sincerity of
the MILF in renouncing their struggle for secession and achieving lasting peace
and genuine reconciliation. The peace process should forge national unity and
not lay the seeds of secession and strife.
