by Juan Apolinario C. Reyes (Written years ago)
Whenever the likes of Miriam Ferrer, a major architect of the GRP-MILF peace panel, speaks of Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), you can feel through her passion. We all can see the moorings of her activism. The larger narrative that contains her BBL is PEACE. It is the core of her activism. But the thing about peace activists is that they often lose sight of the larger scheme of things. They lack sense of proportion. This is true with many activists out there.
The issues which are left out in BBL, however, are the core issues which are at the foundation of modern states. One principle in particular is sovereignty of a nation. The Filipino nation is a sovereign state. A sovereign state answers to no one except to herself. It shares power with no other distinct groups except the power shared among three co-equal institutions of democratic nations: the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of government.
BBL, however, contains the seeds of treason. It contains a careful wording of provisions that intend to give rise to institutions of governance which are not answerable to the national government. Senator Bongbong Marcos was chairman of the Senate committee that was tasked to scrutinize BBL, and he himself was struck by the boldness of BBL's aspirations.
Such boldness of course is to be expected from MILF. BBL is their chance for "self-determination". But for such boldness to be abetted by the national government itself leaves the likes of us dumbfounded. The national government through the GRP panel intends to voluntarily give up many of its legislative, judiciary, and executive functions in the "Moro" part of Mindanao. How such propositions could even be contemplated by the national government can only be understood by the narrative that clouds their minds.
This narrative goes this way.
"Moros are an oppressed class of people. Oppressed by colonial powers, oppressed by Christians, oppressed by a Manila-centric governance. To undo this oppression, and to make historical amends, the Filipino people must give Moros the right to self-determination".
This is the narrative of Miriam Ferrer's activism.
Everywhere in the world we see classes of people who had been gravely oppressed in the past. Oppressed either by colonial powers or resident classes. The aborigines of Australia and the native Indians of the United States are among those oppressed classes. As centuries passed by, the people of Australia and US saw the grave injustice done to the native residents of their countries. They made their amends by removing legal discrimination among races, everybody regardless of color and personal histories became true citizens of those countries.
But their amends, however, never went as far as to give Australian Aborigines and native American Indians their right to "self-determination". Australia gave no right to Australian Aborigines to organize their own police, army and make their own laws. The same must be said about US in relation to native Indians.
The Philippine government through the GRP panel is the only government I know that wishes to subvert its own sovereignty. By proposing to create a BANGSAMORO, they aim to introduce discrimination. There are Moros and non-Moros. There are laws that apply to Moros and laws which apply to non-Moros. But what leaves us truly flabbergasted, is the proposal to create a military and police infrastructure within Bangsamoro which is answerable to no one except Bangsamoro
BBL will surely be trashed in congress. I cannot wait for it to be trashed. Miriam Ferrer said, it took them between 10 to 15 years to produce BBL. I know, I can see the pangs of pain and their near frustration. But nothing, absolutely nothing in the world will give me as much pleasure as to see that something like BBL which was attended by so much birth pains, a vision 15 years in the making, will simply be thrown away like a piece of shit.
Whenever the likes of Miriam Ferrer, a major architect of the GRP-MILF peace panel, speaks of Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), you can feel through her passion. We all can see the moorings of her activism. The larger narrative that contains her BBL is PEACE. It is the core of her activism. But the thing about peace activists is that they often lose sight of the larger scheme of things. They lack sense of proportion. This is true with many activists out there.
The issues which are left out in BBL, however, are the core issues which are at the foundation of modern states. One principle in particular is sovereignty of a nation. The Filipino nation is a sovereign state. A sovereign state answers to no one except to herself. It shares power with no other distinct groups except the power shared among three co-equal institutions of democratic nations: the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of government.
BBL, however, contains the seeds of treason. It contains a careful wording of provisions that intend to give rise to institutions of governance which are not answerable to the national government. Senator Bongbong Marcos was chairman of the Senate committee that was tasked to scrutinize BBL, and he himself was struck by the boldness of BBL's aspirations.
Such boldness of course is to be expected from MILF. BBL is their chance for "self-determination". But for such boldness to be abetted by the national government itself leaves the likes of us dumbfounded. The national government through the GRP panel intends to voluntarily give up many of its legislative, judiciary, and executive functions in the "Moro" part of Mindanao. How such propositions could even be contemplated by the national government can only be understood by the narrative that clouds their minds.
This narrative goes this way.
"Moros are an oppressed class of people. Oppressed by colonial powers, oppressed by Christians, oppressed by a Manila-centric governance. To undo this oppression, and to make historical amends, the Filipino people must give Moros the right to self-determination".
This is the narrative of Miriam Ferrer's activism.
Everywhere in the world we see classes of people who had been gravely oppressed in the past. Oppressed either by colonial powers or resident classes. The aborigines of Australia and the native Indians of the United States are among those oppressed classes. As centuries passed by, the people of Australia and US saw the grave injustice done to the native residents of their countries. They made their amends by removing legal discrimination among races, everybody regardless of color and personal histories became true citizens of those countries.
But their amends, however, never went as far as to give Australian Aborigines and native American Indians their right to "self-determination". Australia gave no right to Australian Aborigines to organize their own police, army and make their own laws. The same must be said about US in relation to native Indians.
The Philippine government through the GRP panel is the only government I know that wishes to subvert its own sovereignty. By proposing to create a BANGSAMORO, they aim to introduce discrimination. There are Moros and non-Moros. There are laws that apply to Moros and laws which apply to non-Moros. But what leaves us truly flabbergasted, is the proposal to create a military and police infrastructure within Bangsamoro which is answerable to no one except Bangsamoro
BBL will surely be trashed in congress. I cannot wait for it to be trashed. Miriam Ferrer said, it took them between 10 to 15 years to produce BBL. I know, I can see the pangs of pain and their near frustration. But nothing, absolutely nothing in the world will give me as much pleasure as to see that something like BBL which was attended by so much birth pains, a vision 15 years in the making, will simply be thrown away like a piece of shit.