Opening Statement of Mohagher Iqbal

Opening Statement of Mohagher Iqbal, BTC Chair, During the Meeting with Ad Hoc Committee on BBL led by Congressman Rufus Rodriguez at the Batasan Complex on August 11, 2015.

Good morning. Thank you very much for allowing me to address you on this very urgent matter. My purpose this morning is to state gently and clearly our thinking and concerns on the developments relating to the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) so that we can help and cooperate with each other in attaining peace and development in Mindanao and in the whole country.

At the onset, let me thank you for all the hard work and the patience you have invested in coming up with the current version of the BBL. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. This confirms to us that we are truly partners for peace.

Admittedly, it is more often that I and my colleagues would only get glimpses of sentiments of members of this august body from what are written in the dailies, when in truth, we have so much to talk about. I wish gatherings like this could be more regular, where we could engage in intelligent discourse about the BBL to eliminate any miscommunication in the end. That is the true essence of collaboration; being able to see the interests of everyone from all sides, with the end in view of arriving at a desirable situation.

Sometimes, it is hard to be straight-forward in dealing on hard issues of the day. Some people might see it as undiplomatic if not an outright uncivility. But lawmakers, I would dare say, are the most trained and experienced in discussing issues even the most difficult ones without any tint of hesitancy, otherwise, they cannot be good legislators and they cannot legislate.

Therefore, forgive me for going straight to our message: the current version of the BBL, House Bill No. 5811, with all its amendments, departs substantially from the just agreements between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine Government as contained in the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). House Bill No. 5811 is, thus, repugnant to the aspirations and dreams of the Bangsamoro People and to the MILF. Therefore, we urge Congress to remain faithful and

pass instead the draft of the BBL as contained in H.B. No. 4994 which was submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) to the Office of the President.

We have stated in our letter to the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Philippines our detailed comments and objections to more or less 28 substantial modifications.

Let me address the bigger picture as to why the current draft, House Bill No. 5811, appears to be greatly inconsistent with the signed agreements.

The peace negotiations between the MILF and the Philippine Government have only one single agenda which is to "solve the Bangsamoro problem". This so-called Bangsamoro problem is political in nature and is about the unjust annexation or the incorporation of the Bangsamoro people into the Philippine state without its consent. Thus, the Bangsamoro problem is about the imposition made on the Bangsamoro people on how to live out their destiny as a people, including their political, economic and social institutions. The solution to the unjust imposition without consent is precisely to grant the dominated Bangsamoro people the power to exercise their right to self-determination. The solution to the problem of imposition is the free exercise of choice with regard their political status and to freely determine its own form of political, economic, cultural and social development.

Will the current draft, House Bill No. 5811, grant the Bangsamoro people the free exercise of choice to determine their own form of political, economic, cultural and social development? I would beg to differ, on two counts.

Firstly, the drafting itself of the BBL as contained in House Bill No. 4994 is the direct exercise by the Bangsamoro people of their right of choice. Thus, the document and the process that led to the drafting of the document is in itself the beginning of self-determination. If Congress does not place premium to the choices made by the Bangsamoro people through the BTC and in fact, dilutes those choices, then the right to self-determination is denied and thwarted already from the very beginning. The author of House Bill No. 4994 is the Bangsamoro people themselves. It is not the MILF, not the BTC, not the Office of the President.

When Congress dilutes the provisions of House Bill No. 4994, it denies the Bangsamoro people their right to self-determination. It rejects the choices of the Bangsamoro people.

Secondly, collectively the amendments contained in House Bill No. 5881 do not grant the Bangsamoro people the freedom long denied them. With due respect, the amendments would appear to prolong and continue the stranglehold of the Philippine state on the Bangsamoro people. The amendments would directly thwart the exercise of genuine autonomy which is deemed the real answer to the Bangsamoro problem. The amendments would seem to strengthen the status quo. If the current version, House Bill No. 5811, is passed into law, then the problem will remain unsolved. And if the MILF accepts this law, then no doubt we will not only be cursed by our people but the MILF loses its legitimacy and currency. We will be relegated to the dustbin of history.

With all humbleness and humility, I dare to say here again that the only appropriate issue to be of common concern is whether there are indeed constitutional issues or infirmities in the original BBL, which I believed have already been addressed in all levels of engagements from the BTC to the peace panels and to the Office of the President. Perhaps, wisdom could tell us that it is better to leave those, if any --- which I believe there is none --- to the Supreme Court to determine and decide.

We concede that Congress has the plenary power over legislation. There is no argument about it at all. This is the reason we make this appeal, to give space, to accommodate the exercise by the Bangsamoro people of their right to self-determination by passing the spirit and form of House Bill No. 4994. Please improve it but do not dilute it. Do not water it down. This is our sincerest and noblest appeal, in particular to the Honourable Speaker of the House, Sonny Belmonte.

This must be stated gently and with all respect, the Bangsamoro people and the MILF feel and stand ground that the current draft House Bill No. 5811 will not reflect the essence of the peace negotiations and more importantly, the signed agreements, if it is passed into law. Let us respect the wisdom and efforts that both Peace Panels poured into this whole exercise by passing the BBL in its original form. Let us respect the wishes and dreams of the Bangsamoro people. We look up to Congress especially the Lower House as protector of the legitimate interests and aspirations especially of the weak, marginalized, and often “oppressed� sectors of society like the Moros and the indigenous tribes.

Thank you very much.

Short Message of Mohagher Iqbal, Chair of the BTC, during the Luncheon Meeting with Speaker Sonny Belmonte Jr. at the Batasan Complex on August 11, 2015.