Mark Anthony Q.

Pesigan
Oral Arguments
CEU School of Law and Jurisprudence

Bangsamoro means Moro Nation, with nation referring to a nation-state.

Supreme Court approval required

First things first. The Bangsamoro Framework Agreement (BFA) would have first to be
approved by the Supreme Court since three suits have been filed there alleging its
unconstitutionality.

Note well: The Supreme Court in Province of North Cotobato v. GRP, GR No. 183591, October 14,
2008 ruled as unconstitutional the Memorandum Agreement on Ancestral Domain (the MOA-
AD). Hence, it is almost certain that the Court will also throw out the BFA.

Observation: The MOA-AD, as it were, was a lite version of the BFA. Such Agreement
recognized the fact that it would require amending the Constitution if it is to be implemented,
since among other reasons, our Constitution is silent on the creation of such a sub state as the
Bangsamoro Entity.

Conflicting Policies

The agreements Section VII paragraph (b) requires the government To work on proposals to
amend the Philippine Constitution for the purpose of accommodating and entrenching in the
Constitution the agreements of the Parties whenever necessary without derogating from any
prior peace agreements.

However, President B.S. Aquino has already announced that he isnt interested in changing the
Charter. Even assuming that the Court would rule Aquinos pact constitutional, a hurdle just as
big is that the agreements wouldnt move an inch forward unless the Congress approves these
by passing a Bangsamoro Basic Law that would contain all the provisions of the framework
agreement and its annexes.

Normalization

The last annex signed, the Annex on Normalization confirms the BFAs disregard for the
Constitution. It has even made an imminent threat the worst nightmare of non-Muslims in
Mindanao: the MILFs armed forces being legalized as a police force.
Observation: Former President Fidel Ramos Final Peace Agreement in 1996 called for the
gradual disbandment of the Moro National Liberation Frontfrom which the MILF broke
awaywith the MNLF fighters being integrated into the military or the Philippine National
Police. Some 3,000 of MNLFs officers and soldiers reportedly joined the military and the PNP,
with some of them having demonstrated their loyalty by risking and even sacrificing their lives
in battles with terrorists and even the MILF armies.

An MILF police

Aquinos latest Annex on Normalization on the other hand would allow the MILF to organize
its own police force. It even implicitly requires the government to make a gesture of goodwill
by undertaking programs to make the MILFs six military camps productiveinstead of wiping
out any trace of them. At the top of the annex list of these camps is the MILFs former
Mark Anthony Q. Pesigan
headquarters, Camp Abubakar as-Siddique, in Maguindanao, which then President Estradas
military conquered in 2000.

The Annexs section A (entitled Policing), section 1 specifies that a police force for the
Bangsamoro (will be created) whose primary function will be law enforcement and
maintenance of peace and order in the Bangsamoro. Its section 2 provides that the Police force
for the Bangsamoro will be responsible both to the Central Government and the Bangsamoro
Government . . .

No amount of careful word play would conceal the fact that this provision patently violates the
Constitution and even the basic definition of a sovereign state, which is that it has the sole legal
monopoly on the use of force.

Article XVI, Section 6 of our constitution reads:

The State shall establish and maintain one police force, which shall be national in scope and
civilian in character, to be administered and controlled by a national police commission.

The Annex on Normalization creates a separate police force for the Bangsamoro, answerable
to the Central Government and the Bangsamoro Government controlled by the MILF.

Decommissioning

But when will decommissioning actually start, when will the MILF surrender its first AK-47?
Section C, paragraph 9 tells us when: The decommissioning of MILF forces shall be parallel
and commensurate to the implementation of all the agreements of the Parties.
But the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement and its annexes arent worth the papers it is
writtenand arent real agreementsuntil Congress passes the Bangsamoro Basic Law which
would contain its provisions. The Framework Agreement is a misnomer: it is a framework,
but not a binding agreement until Congress adopts it by passing that Basic Law. And it will
not be constitutional until the Charter is amended.Therefore, the first MILF rifle will be laid
down and the very first MILF fighter will return to civilian life only when Congress passes that
Bangsamoro Basic Law which would implement the agreements.