December 19, 2014 A Message to the Young Moro Professionals (YMPN) (A Message sent through Sister Samira Gutoc-Tomawis) Our young Moro brothers and sisters: Assalamo „alaykom wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuho. I take pleasure and consider it an honor in being able to convey a message to the Young Moro Professionals Network (YMPN) Northern Mindanao in its Year-Ender Assembly. The Moro youth will always occupy a special place in the minds and hearts of our generation because with the young generation lies, as the cliché goes, the future of our Bangsamoro nation. This is a fact that is not just a mere cliché to be quoted time and again in speeches and messages. For, this is a truism that follows the predetermined cycle of life that is in accord with the law of nature in which the past gives way to the new, the old generation to the new generation. This being the case, though, there is this caveat that the failures, side by side with the accomplishments, of the old generation will always be inherited by the new generation. But then, there is always the compelling and ever-present element of hope: Hope that the new generation will learn from the mistakes of the old, avoid such mistakes, and build and improve on what the old has accomplished in order to make come true, to bring to reality, the “dream” that has not been attained in the past nor fulfilled in the present. This is what is meant when it is said that the future of the Bangsamoro will ultimately lie in the hands of the young generation. To repeat, it is not just a cliché; it is a responsibility, obligation, and duty passed on by my generation to you, the young Moro generation. It behooves you now to put serious commitment to this responsibility, obligation and duty. Not unknown to you, today we are going through one of the most crucial periods of our current Moro history. As a backdrop, the 17-year political negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH) have yielded political gains for the Bangsamoro never before realized in previous political negotiations undertaken by our brethren in other fraternal revolutionary organizations of the Moro liberation movement. In a nutshell, these political gains come in the form of collective rights: the restoration of our right to our Bangsamoro national identity; the right over what is left of our Moro homeland; the 2 right over the natural resources found therein; and the right to govern ourselves practically as a sub-state within the Philippine State. These are the fundamental elements of the right to self-determination short of political independence, which, by their restoration as a result of armed struggle and political compromise on the negotiating table give back to our people the status of a nation, which we were before our forced incorporation into the Philippine Republic in 1946, and what we are again today because of the political negotiations. For a better grasp of the implication of this, the right to self-determination is accorded to nations by international law, and international law forms part of the law of the Philippine Republic in Article II, Section II, of the Philippine Constitution. This, then, is what gives context as well as „constitutional legitimacy‟ to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) to which the GPH is a signatory apart from the MILF. Pursuant to this political formula forged on the negotiating table to resolve with finality the Bangsamoro Question, the FAB mandates the establishment of the Bangsamoro Government that will govern the core territory of the Bangsamoro. Furthermore, the FAB called for the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that would be the governing law of the Bangsamoro and the mandate within which the Bangsamoro Government shall operate. Thus, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) that is composed of MILF and GPH nominees had been established at the instance of Executive Order 120 issued by President Benigno S. Aquino III in compliance with the FAB requiring this primordial task of crafting and drafting the BBL. But today the BBL that was drafted by the BTC has gone through and is going through a series of “harmonization” that means actually subjecting it to modifications and changes in the guise of making it literally “constitutional”, which is at variance with the fundamental compromise that was agreed on at the start of the political negotiations seventeen years ago. This constitutional process, in response to pressures from certain powerful sectors whose hidden agenda is to diminish Bangsamoro nationhood and right to self-determination, is in effect “cutting of the foot to fit the shoe” that begs the question of whether the BBL that comes out of this process is the BBL that reflects the FAB and the CAB or a BBL reduced to something akin to the ARMM or even less like it - a mere political entity that preserves the colonial status quo in the Bangsamoro all but in name. We, Bangsamoro Muslims, are a patient people. Patience is one of our most profound qualities that speak of why we were able to struggle against foreign colonialism and imperialism for almost five hundred years now. Patience, therefore, requires us to wait until the BBL comes out of the process; that is, until it leaves Congress and goes back to the Office of the President for the final presidential signature and then to the public for the popular ratification in a referendum. For then we will know whether the BBL that comes out of this process meets the requirement of the FAB and the CAB or not. Nevertheless, with no intention of dashing the hopes of everyone, having observed and participated in the crafting of the BBL, not to mention the dynamics that 3 ensued after it came out of the BTC pipeline, we can surmise that there will be changes to it. We hope and pray, however, that in the name of justice and peace the foot will not be cut to fit the shoe, so to speak. Invariably, we always remind one and all that when we drafted the BBL, the ink that was used to write it is the precious blood of our shuhada – our martyrs both in the past and the present – and the tears of our widows and orphans of war as well as the blood-sweat of our mujahideen who sacrificed over the decades so that we could reach this stage in our struggle and write this BBL. Current developments, no matter what the implications are, do not alter this perspective. This is why we contend that the BBL ought to be reflective of the FAB and the CAB for it is only as such that it can rightfully be said that it is indeed the product of the political negotiations that were made possible by the sacrifice of Moro lives. What you should further understand is that the BBL is not just for our generation but for your generation and for all incoming Moro generations. It is this in mind that animated our desire to come up with a BBL, despite its imperfection, that does not only pay tribute to our forefathers, fathers and contemporary brethren who fought for Moro freedom and liberation but a BBL that is not one that preserves the status quo, not one that is a “failed experiment”, not one that fosters injustice and oppression, not one that serves the vested interests of the ruling elites and their surrogates, but a BBL that would allow the full expression of the right to self-determination by the Bangsamoro Nation if not in our generation then in your generation and the next. Our generation is on its way to the “exit door” of this material world. The time has come for you to write the next chapters to our unfolding history. This is now the herculean challenge that faces you. Take this challenge with the pride, courage and boldness of a Moro but filled with the sense of justice and compassion of a Muslim. On this note, thank you and salaam-du‟a to all the young Moro brothers and sisters in YMPN. Wa billahi tawfiq wa‟l hidaya. Robert Mohammed Maulana Marohombsar Alonto, al haj Member, MILF Peace Negotiating Panel Commissioner (MILF), Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC)
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 01:49:19 +0000
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