EDITORIAL - Waiting for the Bangsamoro

No one said the process would be easy, so it is not surprising that the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law has hit a snag. The cause has not been disclosed to the public although there are reports that the talks stalled over the creation of the Bangsamoro police force, fiscal autonomy and economic rights over waters within its jurisdiction.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has said it would not renegotiate issues and language already agreed upon in the peace agreement and annexes. MILF leaders nevertheless have resumed talks with government representatives, with congressional leaders hoping to pass the basic law by the end of the year.

Memories are still fresh of the fiasco that accompanied the rushed signing of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain with the MILF in the previous administration. That debacle has made the Aquino administration more mindful of the constitutional implications of the law that will create the Bangsamoro.

Any law enacted by President Aquino can be challenged by opponents before the Supreme Court. The government will also have to sell the peace deal to the nation for ratification. With the people and the nation’s highest court needed on board, extra care must go into the crafting of the basic law.

People have not forgotten that a peace agreement was signed 18 years ago with the original separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front. The deal led to a measure of peace in Mindanao but development remained elusive. Today the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is one of the poorest areas in the country, with peace and order still a major problem. The MILF, which broke away from the MNLF, now has its own rogue faction, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, whose members seem bent on sabotaging any new peace agreement.

The deal with the MILF is supposed to be an enhancement of the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF. As in 1996, the new deal is raising expectations that sustained peace will finally come to the Muslim regions and usher in prosperity. The government cannot afford to slip and turn high hopes into disappointment.