PEDDLED LIES, PEDDLED IMPLEMENTATION
A Response to the Arroyo Administration’s Implementation of the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996
By Abdulhusin M. Kashim, Ph.D., Member, MNLF-Joint Working Group for Natural Resources and Economic Development Issues
03-07 January 2008, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Manila
PREFATORY STATEMENT
The problem with the Arroyo Administration is that it continues to peddle lies in its program of defending itself from the Filipino public. And the worst is: it peddles these lies even to a bankable friend—the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
In a document submitted to the OIC, during the joint workshop meetings between the GRP and the MNLF from 03-07 January 2008 at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Manila, entitled “Status of Implementation of the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement (FPA) Phase II,” the government articulated that hundreds of politically empowered Muslim Filipinos now hold the reins of governance in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
It stressed that thousands of former combatants now live in peace with their families, carrying sickles instead of guns while continuing to express patriotism and love for the Bangsamoro people in helping their communities develop.
The document also stated that hundreds of communities now breathe with life, instead of fear, appreciating the influx of livelihood projects rather than the entry of machine guns and military trucks.
What a concoction!
But looking at our people, we ask: “politically empowered”? “Live in peace”? “Sickles instead of guns”? “Patriotism and love”? “Breathe with life”?
In the midst of super-hyped government’s propaganda, we cannot live in silence but leap to strike falsehood, and inform our people—including our well-meaning friends,—that statements such as these cannot be taken with a grain of truth; otherwise truth itself will drown and evil will triumph.
It is in this light that I have penned this paper in defense of truth. I invite everyone to critically do the same.
1. RIGHT OF REPRESENTATION AND PARTICIPATION
The GRP Implementation:
The document said that 96 Muslim Filipinos were appointed to executive, highly technical and/or policy determining positions in the National Government and other organs of the State.
Two of these Muslims were appointed to Government Departments (Hon. Nasser Pangandaman as Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform and Hon. Macabangkit B. Lanto as Undersecretary of the Department of Justice). Two more were appointed to the Court of Appeals (Mr. Justice Hakim S. Abdulwahid and Mr. Justice Japar B. Dimaampao).
One was recently appointed as Commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Hon. Moslemen Macarambon, Sr.).
My Response:
The GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996 (FPA), which is under review in the Tripartite Meeting, provided under Item No. 65 (Appointment to the Cabinet), Item No. 66 (Appointment to Constitutional Bodies), and Item No. 69 (Appointment to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals) for the manner of representation of the Bangsamoro people in the National Government and all other organs of the State.
Item No. 65 says:
“It shall be the policy of the National Government that there shall be at least one (1) member of the Cabinet (with the rank of Department Secretary) who is an inhabitant of the Autonomous Region to be recommended by the Head of the Autonomous Government.” (Underlining mine)
Item No. 66 says:
“It shall likewise be a policy that there shall be at least one (1) official in each of the departments and the constitutional bodies of the National Government who shall be appointed in executive, primarily confidential, highly technical or policy determining positions, from among the inhabitants of the Autonomous Region upon the recommendation by the Head of the Regional Government.” (Underlining mine)
And Item No. 69 says:
“It shall be a policy of the National Government that at least one (1) justice in the Supreme Court and at least two (2) in the Court of Appeals shall come from the Autonomous Region. For this purpose, the Head of the Autonomous Government may submit the names of his recommendees to the Judicial and Bar Council for consideration.” (Underlining mine)
I have underlined the phraseologies “to be recommended by the Head of the Autonomous Government,” “upon recommendation by the Head of the Regional Government,” and “the Head of the Autonomous Government may submit the names of his recommendees to the Judicial and Bar Council for consideration” to underscore the fact, and the only fact!, that the FPA has provided a clear-cut procedure for the appointment of the inhabitants of the Autonomous Government to the national positions, which must be, as the Agreement expressly says, “recommended” (or in variation “upon the recommendation by” or “his recommendees”) by the head of the Autonomous Government.
This procedure must be clearly set out and contra-distinguished from the regular appointments that the President of the Republic, in exercise of his or her constitutional power, may extend to government officials.
The regular appointments that the President may extend can be done unilaterally even without the recommendation of the head of the Autonomous Government, because they are outside of the framework of the FPA.
The appointments, therefore, of Secretary Pangandaman, Undersecretary Lanto, Justice Abdulwahid, Justice Dimaampao, and Commissioner Macarambon, Sr., to set the record straight, are regular appointments that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had issued, which she does normally to Muslim and non-Muslim applicants in consideration of their high personal expertise and qualifications, or their closeness to her, in which case the appointments become a “political prize”, or because they are part of the coalition party that she cannot do without.
The recommendation expressly required under the FPA is an active, not passive, act of performance emanating from the head of the Autonomous Government. It cannot be sought after merely as a documentary support. It is a self-initiating decision conscious of the implementation of the FPA. It is a new standard of qualification for Muslims (or inhabitants of the Autonomous Government) to occupy National Government positions, under the regime of the FPA. Thus, it is different specie from the regular appointments that the President may extend, which are traditionally based on her consideration of political expediency or necessity.
It is a pity that while well-deserved Muslim officials appointed to high Cabinet positions are a welcome feat, the Arroyo Administration, in its selfish desire to project its standing abroad, propagandizes these appointments at the expense of truth.
This is the first lie!
2. SPECIAL REGIONAL SECURITY FORCES
The GRP Implementation:
The document also said that in accordance with Republic Act No. 9054—the Organic Law that serves as the basis for the implementation of the FPA, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the operationalization of the Regional Security Force or RSF on 04 May 2002. It also said that the President has created the ARMM Unified Command.
My Response:
The FPA under Item No. 73 called for the creation of a PNP Regional Command, to be called “Special Regional Security Force (SRSF)” in accordance with Paragraph 8, Article III, of the Tripoli Agreement of 1976.
The SRSF, based on Item No. 74, is to be composed of the existing PNP units in the area of the autonomy, the MNLF elements, and other residents of the area who may later on be recruited into the force.
The MNLF takes Item No. 74 in relation to Item No. 20 (a), which provides that “the government shall exert utmost efforts to establish the necessary conditions that would ensure the eventual integration of the maximum number of the remaining MNLF forces into the Special Regional Security Force (SRSF) and other agencies and instrumentalities of the government.” (Underlining mine)
The reading of these two Items together would result in the rejection of the GRP position and will establish the first argument of the MNLF as regards the RSF.
The MNLF decried the RSF as a unilateral act of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which deviated from the FPA. The SRSF, as provided for under the Agreement, is a joint activity between the MNLF and the GRP. It shall employ the existing PNP units in the area of the autonomy, necessarily including the MNLF integrees, the remaining MNLF forces that have not been integrated into the force to maximize their integration, and other residents in the area of the autonomy that will be recruited later into the force.
What is going on now is this: the RSF absorbs the PNP units in the area of autonomy, with the MNLF integrees included, but fails to integrate the remaining MNLF forces into it to maximize their integration, including their integration into other government agencies and instrumentalities. The RSF, as a unilateral act of President Macapagal-Arroyo, suffers from the mandate of the FPA and fails to implement it.
This is the second lie!
The MNLF likewise scores the GRP for unilateralism, evading the FPA. It dismisses the ARMM Unified Command, calling it as President Arroyo’s another concoction in the continuing manipulation of the FPA, to confuse the OIC and obfuscate the real issue on regional security force.
The MNLF vigorously objected to the ARMM Unified Command, saying that it is not provided for under the FPA.
This is the third lie!
3. EDUCATION
The GRP Implementation:
The document also said that the GRP has set the stage for education reform in the ARMM, by devolving the powers and functions of the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) from the National Government to the Regional Government of the ARMM.
It said that the “Road Map of Upgrading Muslim Basic Education” and “Madrasah Education Program” were developed and implemented. The DepEd enumerated the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM)-AusAid, the Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SADCI), the Comprehensive Education Development of Mindanao (ASCEND Mindanao), and the Philippines-Australia Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (PA-BEAM) that launched the Expanded Support to Muslim Education (ESME) program, as its accomplishments in the implementation of the FPA.
Through the ESME, the DepEd bragged, the language enhancement program, one of them is Arabic, was launched to train Madrasah teachers (“asaatid”).
Further, the document recognized the technical and financial supports of multilateral agencies such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The Asia Foundation (TAF), the World Bank (WB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), and the Libyan-based NGO World Islamic Call Society (WICS) that helped in the research, development, and printing of educational learning materials.
My Response:
1) The devolution of the powers and functions of the DepEd, specifically, to the Autonomous Government has worsened the condition of public education—school teachers, officials and students, mostly Muslims, who were not prepared to see hasty and political decision to devolve DepEd to the Autonomous Government. The ill-timed devolution of DepEd has therefore made the DepEd-ARMM the “basket case” of corruption and mismanagement in the Philippines, which persists up to these days.
The devolution, without a strategic vision to make ARMM succeed in the implementation of the FPA, was a palliative, a mere show of tokenism, and a conscious design to frustrate the autonomy.
The GRP prides on Dr. Luningning M. Umar and Dr. Manaros Boransing, two Muslim educators who made it to the top. Dr. Umar was appointed as Commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) while Dr. Boransing was appointed as Undersecretary of the DepEd.
Truth to tell, however, the appointments of these two Muslim educators are the same as the appointments of Secretary Pangandaman, Undersecretary Lanto, Justice Abdulwahid, Justice Dimaampao, and Commissioner Macarambon, Sr., who were mentioned earlier as appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in exercise of her regular appointing power. Their appointments were made outside the framework of the FPA.
The practice or malpractice! to be correct, of the Arroyo Administration in continually propagandizing the gains and utility of Muslim officials who made it to the National Government positions, by sheer force of their own success, has dissipated whatever value these officials have to contribute to the development of the country, and to make the Bangsamoro people proud of them. What a loss!
This is the fourth lie!
2) In relation to the “Road Map of Upgrading Muslim Basic Education” and the “Madrasah Education Program” as centerpiece educational strategy of the DepEd, the following are apparent: (1) the programs and assistances that the GRP claims, as party to the FPA, are not its own. They are programs and assistances undertaken by friendly countries that have stakes in the peace in the Southern Philippines. These programs and assistances, as non-signatory activities, are not GRP’s and therefore cannot be claimed by it in implementation of the FPA; (2) whether there was an FPA or not, these programs and assistances would still come to the Philippines because of strategic interests the donor countries have in keeping local terrorism in check, so that it will not spread to their homeland.
The Arroyo Administration, if it were a self-respecting party to the FPA, should not have ascribed these programs and assistances to itself and dangle them in compliance of the FPA.
This is the fifth lie!
3) The Arroyo Administration has time and again boasted that the Madrasah schools are the breeding grounds for terrorists and “Islamic militants.” The Road Map for Upgrading Muslim Basic Education and the Madrasah Education Program have to be developed in order to provide an institutional base for the capture and utilization of foreign funds. Thus, let us not forget, lest we miss the context of the whole thing, that these programs and assistances, as the DepEd brags, are implemented “all over the country and not just in the ARMM.” So where is the FPA?
This is the sixth lie!
4) The GRP, in defending its educational implementation of the FPA, argued that out of 32 Items agreed in the Agreement, 31 of them (Item Nos. 94-124) are “policy provisions” that should be implemented by the Autonomous Government. Only Item No. 125 is the “commitment provision” that should be implemented by the GRP. It provides that “funds for education constituting the share of the regional autonomous government as contained in the general appropriation should be given to the autonomous government.”
If it is true, as the GRP insists, that only Item No. 125 is its commitment provision, so why peddle the Road Map for Upgrading Muslim Basic Education and the Madrasah Education Program as implementation of the FPA, when both are not FPA’s?
This is the seventh lie!
The MNLF demanded that the GRP first establish the fiscal autonomy for the Autonomous Government, with special funds for the development of the curricula, the teaching materials, the human resources, management, and the educational system of the Autonomous Government. It clarified that all educational programs and development, in implementation of the FPA, must involve the three parties to the Agreement—the MNLF, the OIC, and the GRP,—from the preparation stage, to the approval stage, to the final implementation stage.
The failure of the GRP to involve the Tripartite Body in this regard constitutes the eight lie!
4. ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL SYSTEMS
The GRP Implementation:
The document said that Republic Act No. 9054 provided the Autonomous Government with the powers to formulate its own economic and financial policies and programs, consistent with its various advocacies. It created the Regional Economic Development and Planning Board that crafted the ARMM Medium-Term Development Plan for 2004-2010.
The functions of the National Government in the areas of tourism, trade and industry were devolved to the Autonomous Government. The Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) has authorized the Regional Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-ARMM to approve and sign patents from alienable and disposable lands covering an area of 12 hectares. And the Office of Southern Cultural Communities was also devolved to the Autonomous Government, allowing it to realize its advocacy of giving equal opportunities to all inhabitants of the ARMM, regardless of ethnicity, culture, sex, creed and religion. Wow!
My Response:
Revisiting the provisions of the FPA, particularly Item Nos. 126-151, one will find it easy to sift the following ideas:
1) That the Regional Development Plan, which is to be crafted for the Autonomous Government, must seek to set up an Islamic Financial System (IFS) so that the Islamic Financial Institutions (IFI’s), as envisioned in the FPA, can come into existence; and
2) Once the IFI’s shall have been organized, it is only through them that the issues on financial autonomy, economic empowerment, sources of revenues, environment, natural resources, and other economic activities can be pursued and implemented.
The GRP is insensitive to these ideas. And proceeding to the FPA, it unilaterally implemented its own self-serving policies and programs and came up with the list of its own accomplishments, as follows:
1) The GRP has provided regular budgets in the General Appropriations Act to the Autonomous Government in the amount of PhP8.4B for 2006; PhP 9.07B for 2007; and PhP 8.6B for 2008. The problem with this generalization of figures is that, oftentimes, the actual programs of expenditures are glossed over. For example, from 1996 to 2000, during the incumbency of Chairman Nur Misuari as Regional Governor of the Autonomous Government, the GRP had released a total amount of PhP15, 494,803,730.84 to the ARMM. Of this amount, PhP11,142,539,586.61 were allotted for personal services; PhP2,182,872,210.42 for maintenance and operating expenses; and PhP1,799,149,791.06 for capital outlay and projects.
Mr. Randolph C. Parcasio, then Executive Secretary of the ARMM, explained the error in the following manner:
“The amount of PhP11, 142,539,586.61 [which is intended for personal services] is a mandatory and obligatory appropriation for the payment of the salaries, wages and other personal benefits of 18,000 employees transferred by the national government to the ARMM by devolution since 1996.
“Chairman Nur Misuari as Regional Governor of ARMM proposed to the GRP a budget of Ten Billion Pesos for the implementation of priority projects intended to rehabilitate the war ravaged areas within ARMM but the GRP appropriated only the said PhP1, 799,149,791.00 which is 17.99 percent of the amount proposed.
“The Ten Billion Peso budget was supposed to represent the Mini Marshall Plan budget promised by the GRP.”
The pattern from 1996-2000 reemerged in 2006 and 2007, and continued to hostage the current budget (2008) of the ARMM. Where is the real, developmental value of the figures?
This is the ninth lie!
2) The GRP has released the internal revenue collections to the Autonomous Government since 2003, consistent with Item No. 151 of the FPA. In addition, each province, city, municipality, and barangay in the ARMM is provided with the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) from the National Government. This IRA is in million. I want to appreciate these statements in the following:
It is a law in the Philippines that§ all local government units (LGUs) are to be provided with internal revenue allotment. This IRA is a statutory safeguard to protect the LGUs and ensure their development, not an Item agreed upon in the FPA.
The disbursement of the IRA requires that all LGUs specifically process it with (and receive it directly from) the National Government, without passing through the Autonomous Government.
The IRA is President Gloria§ Macapagal-Arroyo’s political weapon, consistent with her constitutional power to exercise control and supervision over the LGUs. In the midst of divisive perception that she had cheated her way to the Presidency in 2004, she has not balked to use this weapon, and often without compunction, to frustrate the people’s will that tries to impeach her, constitutionally or extra-constitutionally. Where is the FPA here?
This is the tenth lie!
3) On the banking sector: the GRP has established five “ARMM-based” banks to supplement the universal and commercial banks operating in the ARMM. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) maintains a branch office in Cotabato City that provides services to banks in the area. The BSP has also a Regional Office in Davao City which can provide banking services to the whole of Mindanao. If it is true that these banks are located in Cotabato and Davao cities, which are outside of the Autonomous Government, how can they be said to be “ARMM-based” implementing the FPA? Are they not located in the usual business of performing banking function of the National Government? Preposterous!
This is the eleventh lie!
The MNLF demanded that the GRP render its report of true accomplishments to the Tripartite Body, so that it can help in the assessment of the Agreement. It reminded the GRP to furnish it with copy of such report and not hide it by submitting directly to the OIC.
The MNLF believes that the quality of life of the Bangsamoro people and the state of development of their communities in the Southern Philippines cannot be measured by statistics but by facts on the ground. It calls on the OIC-Southern Philippines Peace Committee to conduct a confirmatory visit to Muslim areas in the Southern Philippines, for it to verify, but sans the government intervention.
The MNLF firmly stands on the fundamental truth behind all its position: That the faces of the impoverished and the condition of their communities do not lie!
The Philippine Human Development Report of 2005 revealed that the provinces of the ARMM, principally Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Shariff Kabungsuan, including the City of Marawi, make up the top/bottom ten provinces of the country, in terms of income lost, internally displaced persons, discrimination, life expectancy, human development, etc.
The MNLF insists that the GRP rectify all the existing laws that violate the economic rights of the Bangsamoro people.
This is the twelfth lie!
5. SHARI’AH AND JUDICIARY
The GRP Implementation:
Of the five areas under review, it is in this area that the GRP has desperately failed. The document said that Presidential Decree No. 1083 otherwise known as the Code of Muslim Personal Laws has set the Shari’ah courts in the country. It mentioned that the Regional Legislative Assembly is at the forefront of pushing for the establishment of Shari’ah courts in the areas of the autonomy, with the filing of Muslim Mindanao Bill No. 24—An Act to Establish Shari’ah Courts in the ARMM.
My Response:
The Muslim Mindanao Bill, after 12 years?
PD 1083 is an old Marcos law. It antedated the FPA. It is not an FPA. So I ask: How did the GRP, or where did it get bone, to swallow lies and stand before the OIC with a Marcos face?
Truly, the GRP under the Arroyo Administration is not only making lies. It takes these lies as the core value of its foreign policy.
Item No. 152 of the FPA provided that “the Regional Legislative Assembly of the area of autonomy shall establish Shari’ah courts in accordance with the existing laws.”
The filing of Muslim Mindanao Bill No. 24—An Act to Establish Shari’ah Courts in the ARMM comes after long years since 1996 when the FPA was signed. It is suspicious!
The MNLF rejected PD No. 1083 for the following reasons:
“The Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines (CMPL) which was promulgated by former President Marcos can not be considered an implementation of the Peace Agreement. The Presidential Decree is limited to those pertaining to personal status, marriage and divorce, paternity and filiations, parental authority, succession and inheritance, support and maintenance, rights and obligations as well as property relations of husband and wife of Muslims in the Philippines…”
The courts established under the decree “are not the courts referred to in paragraph 153 of the Peace Agreement.” Therefore the MNLF demanded that a new law be enacted to upgrade these courts, from merely functioning like a family court, to courts compliant with the Peace Agreement.
The MNLF stressed that such a law should, and must be drafted and formulated by the Tripartite Body composed of Shari’ah experts coming from the MNLF, the GRP and the OIC.
This is the thirteenth lie!
CONCLUDING QUESTION
How can peace be attained when one party in negotiation is habituated to falsehood and lays such falsehood on the table, without any qualm?
The GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996 is a groundbreaking formula, with sincerity of all parties. It has not given itself to obsolescence. Therefore, it can still compass the hopes and dreams of the parties.
I believe that the path to peace, under the scarred circumstances currently obtaining, goes beyond the pale of review of the autonomy. It goes back to the elementary question of the issue: the right of the Bangsamoro people to organize their autonomy administratively and politically.
This is the way, I believe, to assign responsibility, to impose accountability, and to infuse dynamism in the expectation to succeed.
REFERENCES
1. Parcasio, Randolph C. “Review and Assessment of the 1996 GRP-OIC-MNLF Peace Agreement,” in MNLF-GRP Joint Technical Working Group, Indonesian Embassy Manila, Philippines, January 3-7, 2008 (One World Institute).
2. The GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of September 2, 1996.
3. The Philippine Constitution of 1987.
4. The Philippine Human Development Report of 2005.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Kashim is an academic and former diplomat. He was an Associate Professor of International Relations and Dean at the Mindanao State University. He taught as a Special Lecturer of Diplomacy and International Business at Lyceum University’s College of Foreign Service (now College of International Relations). He was a Foreign Information Officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs based at the Embassy of the Philippines in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Now he lectures at international fora and serves as a Resource Person on international politics, religion and violence, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and interfaith dialogue. He is currently President of the Institute for the Study of Peace in Islam (ISPI) based at the International Academy of Management and Economics, and President of Ar-Rahmah Mindanao Foundation, Inc., a group that assists in the repair and construction of mosques in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao and in Metro-Manila. He sits as Member of the Board of Trustees of the Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation, Inc.
