Local execs welcome SC cancellation of MOA on Muslim territory
Posted by: jesusversusjesus in Local Governments, Mindanao, Newsbreak, Peace and Security, tags: ancestral domain, Cruz, Iligan, LGUs, Lobregat, Mindanao, MOA-AD, North Cotabato, Pinol, ZamboangaBy Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
October 14, 2008–Local officials from Mindanao Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision declaring as unconstitutional the memorandum of agreement that would have given Muslim rebels control over an expanded territory in the south.
Interviewed by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak, the most vocal critics of the MOA on ancestral domain said the tribunal’s ruling should be a lesson to the government to be more careful and transparent the next time it negotiates with the Muslim separatist groups.
By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that the deal forged by the national government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was unconstitutional. The signing of the MOA-AD in Malaysia was cancelled last August 5 after the court issued a temporary restraining order, based on a complaint filed by local officials in Mindanao whose areas were covered by the agreement.
Petitioners said the deal was tantamount to the creation of a separate state in Mindanao. Under the agreement, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and territories that would vote for inclusion in the Moro homeland through a plebiscite would form the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). The agreement would also empower the BJE to establish its own courts and police and the power to independently deal with foreign governments.
“We are very elated and pleased,” Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, one of the petitioners, told us. Six Muslim barangays in Zamboanga’s Sacol Islands were included in the proposed BJE.
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