COTABATO CITY: Personalities who are not from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)and opposed the botched 2008 memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) attended yesterday’s huge consultation on the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) in Buluan, Maguindanao.
The FAB, signed on October 15, 2012 by the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf) in Malacañang, aims to establish a new autonomous political entity to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The consultation, jointly organised by Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu and the league of municipal mayors in the province, was supported by the office of Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chair of the government’s peace panel negotiating with the Milf.
Ferrer, who addressed thousands of participants in the forum, cited the provincial government of Maguindanao for embarking on the activity, which she said would boost peace talks.
“Let’s continue helping each other in supporting the peace process,” Ferrer told thousands of participants to the forum, held at the Buluan municipal gymnasium.
The event was attended by former North Cotabato governor Emmanuel Piñol, South Cotabato Representative Daisy Avance Fuentes, and Lualhati Antonino, who is chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority, who were all critical of Malacañang’s peace overtures with Moro factions during the time of presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
ARMM Acting Governor Mujiv Hataman said he welcomes the participation in the activity of Piñol and the latter’s political rival, the re-electionist North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, and Fuentes and Antonino.
Members of the ARMM’s 27-seat Regional Assembly, provincial governors Sakur Tan of Sulu, Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-Tawi, Jum Akbar of Basilan, and Mamintal Adiong Jr of Lanao del Sur attended.
Hataman even recalled in a speech how North Cotabato’s various communities opposed the MOA-AD, the supposed basis for the government and the Milf to set up Moro homeland the rebel group was to govern through the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
The Supreme Court declared the August 5, 2008 signing of the MOA-AD as unconstitutional.
Hataman, who is running for ARMM governor in May polls, said that even if he is elected, he will be willing to step down by 2015 to give way to the Bangsamoro region under FAB.
On Tuesday, a peace caravan involving hundreds of vehicles — led by Maguindanao provincial officials and members of the league of mayors — toured the province and several towns in North Cotabato.
Mangudadatu said he is grateful to his constituents in the province for the outpouring of support to efforts to educate the public about the FAB and the newly-created Transition Commission, or Transcom. The TransCom, created through Executive Order 120, will oversee the implementation of the FAB and the drafting of the Basic Bangsamoro Law that would enable the creation of the Bangsamoro region.
Mangudadatu, during a plenary session that capped the forum, approved seven resolutions drafted by technical working groups from the ARMM provinces recommending to the government and MILF panels various proposals to hasten the Mindanao peace process.
The Philippine star
