His father was assigned to Davao City in 1983, heading the 3rd Marine Brigade until 1986. He himself spent little time in the city, coming here only for short visits, but Ruffy Biazon, currently congressman of Muntinlupa City but gunning for a seat in the Senate under the Liberal Party (LP) slate, has hit upon a novel approach to maintaining peace in Mindanao: Don’t negotiate.
No, it’s not an iron-fisted approach he’s advocating. Simply put, Biazon wants both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to suspend all negotiations during this transition period and maintain a “Period of Peace” in which both sides make no demands and offer no promises. “This would allow for a peaceful transition (in the peace negotiations) between government and the MILF,” Biazon told me in a one-on-one interview here in Davao City last Saturday (March 6).
This period of peace, of course, involves a cessation of hostilities, but more than that, it would prevail upon both sides to wait until a new administration is installed before actual negotiations are resumed. “The Arroyo administration cannot promise anything at this point because it cannot fulfill it. It should just leave it to the next administration to continue the negotiations,” Biazon said.
He noted that in the case of the 2008 Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA AD), it was widely opposed in Mindanao — and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court — because it had some provisions that government could not have delivered without amending the Constitution.
“This administration could not guarantee amendments to the Constitution under this 14th Congress, what more under the 15th Congress? The composition of the 15th Congress, which will be the one to tackle any revision or replacement of the Constitution, will only be known after the May 2010 elections. No one knows how the 15th Congress will collectively think about changes to the Constitution, so even if the government gives in to the demands of the MILF for concessions outside the Charter, it cannot guarantee that the concessions will be followed by the new government,” he added.
How about the “enhanced autonomy” put forward by government chief negotiator Annabelle Abaya? “It should be abandoned,” Biazon said. To recall, Abaya had explained a few weeks ago that enhanced autonomy means the President “is offering to share powers” in such areas as tax collection and the control of natural resources in areas in Mindanao that Filipino Muslims claim as their ancestral domain.
Biazon, however, said aside from questions on what kind of and how much enhancement the executive branch can give without legislative action, “the issue of a midnight deal” comes to mind. “In the dwindling hours of the Arroyo Adminsitration, it shouldn’t go into such commitments,” he said.
“Instead of offering enhanced autonomy, the administration should just work for the adoption of a Period of Peace beginning now and until the new government takes office. During such period, both parties agree not to engage in hostilities and continue talks at the technical level in order to prepare the ground for fresh round of talks between the MILF and the new government,” he added.
Biazon said government must not adopt a “bahala na ang sunod na administration (let the next administration deal with the backlash)” attitude during this time of transition. “We must make sure the next administration will have good ground to stand on,” he said.
Random Posts:
