Scotland referendum provides lessons for Phl – Ferrer

MANILA, Philippines - The peaceful conduct of Scotland’s independence referendum provides insights and lessons for the establishment of the Bangsamoro entity, government peace panel chairman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said yesterday.

“The political predicament was settled through the vote and people’s support was courted through reason and arguments,” she said.

She also noted that even though the campaign for and against Scotland’s independence had all the trappings of a political contest, it was marked by “balloons and barn-hopping, not bombs and bullets.”

“Debates and dialogues brought forth the best arguments for and against independence,” she said.

Scotland rejected independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain in an historic referendum on Sept. 19 that has been dubbed as a “peaceful revolution” and a “triumph of democracy.”

“Either way the vote may have turned out, the point is that in expressing nationalist aspirations for independence and determining the will of the people in and of Scotland, nobody had to kill nor to be killed,” Ferrer said.

She expressed confidence that the armed conflict in Mindanao, which has left over 100,000 people dead, would be a thing of the past when the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law is signed into law.

President Aquino submitted the draft law to both houses of Congress on Sept. 10.

Ferrer stressed that the draft law is intended to provide for more devolved powers to the Bangsamoro to enable meaningful self-governance of the people in the upcoming autonomous region while remaining part and parcel of national politics and society.

She noted that as with the Scottish referendum, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro would provide a win-win solution “now that the co-existence has been reaffirmed.”