MILF to get lion’s share of wealth

Peace pact seen after Ramadan

MANILA, Philippines - A 75 percent share in taxes and earnings from natural resources and metallic minerals in the proposed Bangsamoro entity, and 50 percent from energy and other mineral resources.

These are the terms won by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the wealth-sharing deal it signed with the government late Saturday night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the peace panels finally completed the wealth-sharing annex, with the lion’s share of earnings in the Bangsamoro going to the MILF.

A statement from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) said the sharing scheme would be 25-75 percent in favor of the Bangsamoro on taxes collected from its territory, 50-50 on energy and minerals, and 25-75 on metallic minerals.

The deal included taxation procedures, sharing of revenues from natural resources, and how Malacañang would sustain a fledgling Bangsamoro entity.

The government and MILF are aiming to establish the new Bangsamoro political entity in 2015, before the conduct of the 2016 synchronized presidential, local and regional elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The wealth-sharing scheme the two panels crafted would be added as an annex to the Oct. 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB), the basis for the drafting of an enabling law that would legitimize the setting up of a new, MILF-led self-governing setup to replace the ARMM.

‘A close call’

Last Saturday’s agreement was signed by Ferrer, as the government’s chief negotiator, and her counterpart in the MILF, Muhaquer Iqbal, in the presence of Tengku Dato Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed from the Malaysian government.

The six-day talks were the longest since the negotiations officially started Jan. 7, 1997. Past exploratory talks between the government and the MILF lasted only for three days.

In their joint communiqué, Ferrer and Iqbal acknowledged and expressed gratitude to President Aquino for his continuing support to the peace talks, and to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and the chairman of the MILF’s central committee, Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, and all foreign governments and international organizations for helping push the negotiations forward.

“It was a close call. But both parties’ persistence and goodwill bore fruit,” Ferrer said.

“We have a good package, one that we believe would make fiscal autonomy in the Bangsamoro a reality,” she added.

Ferrer said the agreement would “correct the flaws in the current fiscal system” in the ARMM.

Ferrer said the government was cautiously optimistic of a final peace pact within weeks after the compromise deal with the MILF late Saturday following six days of grueling talks.

“This signing indicates that both sides are really committed to finish the peace negotiations. Nobody wants this not to reach its fruition,” Ferrer told reporters in Malaysia after the wealth-sharing formula was signed.

“We are always optimistic, but that is always guided by a good sense of possibilities and constraints of our situation,” she said.

MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar welcomed the signing of the wealth-sharing annex but admitted that he was not very happy.

“I’m sure we’re not fully satisfied but it’s okay at least we have accomplished something,” he said.

On the other hand, ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, who was elected chief executive of the region last May 13, said he was elated that both panels finally crafted a deal acceptable to both sides.

“Negotiations and consensus-building are the best means of addressing the decades-old Moro issue hounding Southern Philippines,” Hataman said.

Hataman said he is ready to vacate his post if the two panels can put up the new Bangsamoro entity a year before his tenure as ARMM governor ends in June 2016.

Breaking the deadlock

For the last four months, the two sides have been caught in a deadlock over how to share resources with the proposed Bangsamoro region that will replace the ARMM.

The government had initially bargained for a bigger share of the wealth, arguing that it wanted a deal that could withstand legal challenge in the Supreme Court.

Ferrer said a final peace deal with the 12,000-strong MILF could be signed after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which officially ends this month.

Malacañang said a press conference would be held today with Ferrer and OPAPP Secretary Teresita Deles expected to discuss the developments in the peace talks with the MILF.

The talks were supposed to have ended on Thursday without a deal but presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Deles flew to Kuala Lumpur to relay the commitment of President Aquino and the Cabinet to have an agreement with the MILF.

Discussions were extended to Friday and again up to yesterday when a deal was not reached.

The two panels had reached an agreement on three of four annexes to the framework deal but the annex on wealth sharing proved to be the most contentious.

The disagreement reportedly centered on how the government and the MILF would divide the revenues from “energy sources” and tax collection in the proposed Bangsamoro territory.

The MILF is pushing for a 75-25 percent sharing, with the larger share going to Bangsamoro, arguing that to achieve true fiscal autonomy, the final peace pact must present solutions greater than what the ARMM already enjoys.

The government, on the other hand, wanted a bigger share.

The proposed Bangsamoro territory comprises areas in Mindanao that Muslims consider their “ancestral domain.”

Mindanao is believed to have a large chunk of the country’s estimated $840 billion in gold, copper and other mineral reserves.

Disarming

Ferrer said last Saturday’s compromise is not the end of lengthy discussions still to come.

She said both panels would have to meet again to finish the issues of power sharing and normalization. The two panels are expected to meet again next month after the Ramadan.

Ferrer also said both sides still had to agree on a formula over how to disarm the MILF fighters as well as the extent of the powers of the Bangsamoro region.

Jaafar, for his part, said the MILF expected a “more contentious” round of negotiations ahead.

“The MILF fighters will not disarm unless clear conditions and terms for their safety are met. There must also be an assurance the fighters will be free from harassment from troops once they are disarmed, if ever,” Jaafar said.

Jaafar said some groups or individuals who are not satisfied with the agreement could use it to justify their atrocities.

“Not all of us were totally satisfied with the outcome (of the talks),” he said.

“If this (agreement) is not popular among Bangsamoro masses especially the leaders, I fear that it may be used as a justification for acts similar to those of the BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters),” Jaafar told radio dzBB in Filipino.

Negotiations on the wealth-sharing agreement lasted while deadly attacks were staged by the BIFF, a splinter group opposed to the peace talks with the government.

The BIFF, led by disgraced MILF commander Ameril Umbra Kato, has vowed to sabotage the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.

Ferrer also warned that failure to seize the pact could be used by the BIFF as a justification to sow further violence.

“A failure of the agreement can by used by groups like the BIFF who do not want the process to succeed – who say nothing will happen in these negotiations – to agitate for war, and continue use of violence,” she said.

The BIFF broke away from the MILF in 2011 and has since been staging deadly attacks to derail the negotiations.

A skirmish Saturday, the latest to hit the region, left two soldiers and five BIFF guerrillas dead.  â€“Aurea Calica, Alexis Romero, Delon Porcalla