This time, VGov Pinol wants GRP peace panel cited for contempt

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 August) – North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol wants the government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) cited for contempt for allegedly “ignoring the Supreme Court decision declaring the MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain) unconstitutional.”

The government and MILF in a Joint Statement signed in Kuala Lumpur on July 29 agreed during their two-day “special meeting” on four issues that would help “pave the way for the early resumption of the stalled peace negotiations,” among them the “acknowledgement of MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed document, and commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement.”
In a press statement dated July 31 and e-mailed August 1, the day former President Corazon Aquino died, Pinol said “the brazen act of the GRP Panel to include the MOA-AD in the Joint Statement will not go unquestioned.”

Governor Jesus Sacdalan, however, laughed off Pinol's statement. "Grandstanding lang yan para mapansin. (He’s just grandstanding to catch attention)... Tama na. (Enough). Let's move on. Give peace a chance,” he said.

Pinol claimed that he “and the People of North Cotabato, who have long been searching for true and lasting peace, take note of the accomplishments of the new peace panel negotiating with the MILF and consider its efforts as a genuine gesture to attain peace in Mindanao. But at the same time, we raise serious concerns and express extreme disappointment over the reference to and inclusion of the MOA-AD in the Joint Statement and the expressed ‘commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement.’”

Pinol last year spearheaded the filing of a petition for temporary restraining order to stop the government from signing the MOA-AD. The Supreme Court issued the TRO on August 4, the eve of the formal signing of the MOA-AD in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
“Is not the inclusion of and reference to the MOA-AD in the Joint Statement a mockery of the decision of the High Court of the Land and tantamount to Contempt?” asked Pinol.

“Did the GRP Panel take notice of the fear, the rift, the division and the violence that the proposed MOA-AD brought upon the people of the country, especially among us living in the Southern Philippines?” he asked.

Pinol said the MOA-AD “in its entirety is a document that virtually creates an ‘associative’ government that is equivalent to a new State minus the word ‘sovereignty.’ It talks of an expanded territory in addition to the original Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and will cover the Province of North Cotabato as well as almost all parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula and parts of Palawan Island.”

“When the Joint Statement expressed the commitment ‘to reframe the consensus points’ in the MOA-AD which was thrashed by the Supreme Court, does that mean retaining the spirit and intent of the original document, which is an expanded territory to be managed by the MILF and simply rewording it?” asked Pinol.

Peace Process Undersecretary Camilo Montesa, also government peace panel spokesperson, told MindaNews on July 29 that the acknowledgement of the MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed document “means what it says.”
“It is a document that is unsigned yet initialed and that Parties will move on to negotiating the comprehensive compact. It describes a fact and a resolve by the Parties to move forward,” he said.

By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court on October 14, 2008 ruled the MOA-AD “unconstitutional” but noted that “surely, the present MOA-AD can be renegotiated or another one will be drawn up to carry out the Ancestral Domain aspect of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001, in another or in any form, which could contain similar or significantly dissimilar provisions compared to the original.”

The MOA-AD was the third and last agreement out of the three-agenda items in the talks -- security, relief and rehabilitation, and ancestral domain – prior to the negotiation on the political settlement.

Montesa said Pinol should ask his “legal experts to read and explain the SC decision… to him. I can understand his ignorance. But the SC decision states in part that the 'MOA-AD is a significant part of a series of agreements necessary to carry out the GRP-MILF Agreement on Peace signed by the Government and the MILF in June 2001. Hence the present MOA-AD can be renegotiated or another drawn up that should contain similar or significantly dissimilar provisions compared to the original."

“Clearly, the Supreme Court allows ‘acknowledgement’ as it has clearly done so. But of course Vice Gov. Pinol can go to the Supreme Court and seek a confirmation of his ignorance. And furthermore, what is ‘reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement’ but a restatement of the Supreme Court’s directive for the panels to draw up something “that could contain similar or significantly dissimilar provisions compared to the original,” said Montesa.

Lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, secretary-general of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus, told MindaNews, “what is his problem? Why is he preventing the Moro people from ending the war and reclaiming their ancestral domain? With or without the MOA, the ancestral domain is a legitimate grievance that any right-thinking leader should recognize. He better read the Supreme Court decision first before he makes such a move. The Supreme Court said that the present MOA-AD can be renegotiated or another drawn up that could contain similar or significantly dissimilar provisions compared to the original.”

“It is high time for him to transcend his blatantly ostentatious economic interests for the sake of peace, “ she said. (The MPC and other civil society organizations also issued a media statement ).

Government peace panel chair Rafel Seguis said “I believe it is his right to file such action but before he does that, I hope we would be able to talk so he could be clarified. I am right now in Damascus but I will request for meeting with him as soon as I get back to Manila.”

Pinol’s executive assistant, Carlos Bautista, told MindaNews Tuesday that Pinol has not filed the contempt charges as of August 4. Bautista said Pinol “has a meeting with the peace panel in Cebu tomorrow.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)