February 1-7 (2010)

There is nothing more comical to showcase the “grand paikut” (fooling around) of the Philippine government in the peace talks than to examine their latest offer of so-called “enhanced autonomy” to the MILF. This is the third and perhaps not the last in their vain attempts to make this passé offer in the 13-year GRP-MILF Peace Talks. Former but ousted President Joseph Estrada offered “enhanced autonomy” to the MILF in May 2000 and gave it seven days to accept or refuse, with accompanying veiled threat. The MILF did not care to see the draft. On February 10, 2003, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo again offered enhanced autonomy to the MILF; on the following day, the government forces attack Buliok Complex in North Cotabato where the late MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim was encamped temporarily. After this third offer, what happens next, we do not know. But if patterns are to be believed, then expect some government military muscle-flexing on the ground.

Very surprisingly, however, the offers had been consistently made in the midst of progress in the talks. Why? This can only mean that the government has never been serious in the peace talks and true to its commitment to find a negotiated political solution to the centuries-old Moro Question in Mindanao.

The term enhanced autonomy is a copycat of former President Fidel Ramos’ concept crafted during his peace engagement with the MNLF. And surely, Ramos is watching very closely how his predecessors are parroting his invented term.

Even Ramos misused the word, because autonomy, in politics, means self-government or political independence. It is a digression and an insult to the British and Americans, who speak the original English language, to add the descriptive word enhanced, because autonomy carries with it the elements of being self-governing. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that the government proudly showcases has no real autonomous powers; it is only an administrative unit of government. Local government units like provinces and municipalities have more powers than the ARMM.

The offer of enhanced autonomy is a “tired phrase and recycled ploy”. It is nothing but an escape valve for shifting the outstanding contested issue of ancestral domain and deviation from agreed scope and outline during the agenda-setting made by the two Parties during the resumption of the peace talks on December 9, 2009. Atty. Camilo “Bong” Montessa, who was and still is an undersecretary in the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP) made the proposal in behalf of the government peace panel --- and the MILF concurred with some elaborations made by Atty. Datu Michael Mastura.

Why was Montessa not included in the government peace delegation? Because of this commitment on how the outline of the comprehensive compact draft is to be made? Montessa and Director Mark Ryan Sullivan are the only members in their delegation who have institutional memory of the negotiation process. Secretary Nasser Pangandamen is another, but we don’t know how he fares with the group.