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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
The government proposal to postpone the
elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was a
move aimed at amending the Constitution, Sen. Richard Gordon said on
Thursday.
“They are laying the predicate for
constitutional amendments,” he claimed, apparently referring to
backers of President Gloria Arroyo’s endorsement for the deferment
of the regional polls set for August 11.
Gordon, the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes and Laws, declared
that he would oppose not only the resetting of the ARMM elections
but also the immediate rewording of the Charter.
“I see no reason why Charter-change
[“Cha-cha”] should be done before 2010,” he told The Manila
Times. Presidential elections are scheduled in that year.
The government last week endorsed the
postponement of the elections supposedly upon request of the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during their peace negotiations.
Earlier, the government promised a federal state for the Bangsamoro
people of the southern Mindanao region with constitutional changes
to be done in September.
“The Commission on Elections is ready to hold
the [ARMM polls]. There is no war zone in the entire Mindanao. And
if we accommodate the Muslims, then other groups will be making
similar demands,” Gordon warned.
He said the sovereign powers of the state should
not be surrendered in the peace talks. According to him, postponing
the regional elections is a diminution of the state’s sovereign
powers.
Only after 2010
Gordon said that “Cha-cha” could be
undertaken only after 2010 and only if those advocating it would win
in the elections in that year.
“I am proposing that all candidates in 2010
declare their stand on ‘Cha-cha.’ If they are for it, they must
identify what provisions they want to amend. That way, nobody can
charge them later with hoodwinking the people,” he added.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has
filed a joint resolution seeking a shift to a federal government.
He, however, said he doubts if the resolution would be immediately
approved by the current Fourteenth Congress. In filing it, Pimentel
said, he merely wanted to spark a nationwide debate on the issue,
instead of confining it to discussions in academe and the
legislature.
Gordon also warned that the 2010 presidential
elections would again be saddled with controversies if the ARMM
polls were postponed. He explained that the regional elections are
supposed to be a dry run for the automation of the 2010 elections.
Without the ARMM elections, Gordon pointed out, there could be no
adequate evaluation of the performance of the voting and counting
machines.
“We don’t want to create a situation where
the results of the [regional] elections would again be
questioned,” he said.
With automation, according to him, results of
the ARMM polls are expected to be known within two hours, and of the
national elections, a little longer but only by hours.
Gordon said the Optical Media Readers to be used
by the Comelec in ARMM worked well in recent mock polls there. The
Comelec was to test the data reading equipment Thursday afternoon.
In the House of Representatives, the Chairman of
the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms also warned that
postponing the regional elections would be a violation of the law.
‘Politicians, not ideologues’
Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati City also on
Thursday said legislation is needed for the deferment. He added that
he will not block a law postponing the polls if Congress moves to
pass one.
Locsin, though, said he will not endorse that
law.
According to him, the government should not
listen to the MILF rebels because they are “politicians with guns
but with no ideology.”
The MILF sought postponement of the ARMM
elections, warning the polls would only delay the transition period
for the new Bang-samoro entity in Mindanao that would be established
by a final peace agreement.
The territory occupied at present by the
autonomous region in Mindanao will be expanded by 30 percent under a
proposed new peace agreement between the government and the MILF, a
lawmaker claimed also on Thursday.
Under such accord, Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza
of the First District of Cotabato said, up to 712 barangays
(villages) will be “annexed” by the autonomous region.
At present, ARMM has a total of 2,470 villages
in Marawi City and 111 municipalities across six provinces—Basilan,
Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Mendoza, in a statement, said the government and
MILF negotiators “should stop using Mindanao villages, whether
chiefly Christian or Muslim, as pawns to be playfully bargained
away.” Muslims are a minority in Mindanao.
Disclose details
She urged the government peace panel to “fully
disclose” every detail of the proposed new agreement with the MILF.
Mendoza said failed approaches to the peace
process cost the lives of many in the past. Yet, she added, problems
affecting both Christians and Muslims were “never effectively
addressed” by previous peace talks.
Retired general Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the
presidential adviser on the peace process, said recently that the
government and the MILF would soon set a date for the signing of the
new agreement. Then, Esperon added, the stalled peace negotiations
could resume. The talks were suspended last year after the two sides
failed to break an impasse over “ancestral domain,” or territory
sought by the rebels for their independent Islamic homeland in
Mindanao.
The integration of the additional villages would
be subject to ratification in a plebiscite to be held six months
after the new agreement is signed.
The agreement, Mendoza said, also proposes to
allow a new Bangsamoro (the Muslims in Mindanao) legal entity to
control certain forest, mineral and aquatic resources.
Draft agreement unfinished
The draft of the proposed new agreement is
unfinished, according to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
“I cannot give it to you because first of all
I don’t have the document, and even if I have it, I am not at
liberty to release it because it is still being finalized. And
besides, I’m not a negotiator,” Ermita pointed out when asked
about disclosing the content of the draft agreement.
When also asked whether the government gave away
much to the MILF by supposedly parting with the 712 villages, he
said, “We have not given in to anything yet.”
-- With Jomar Canlas And Angelo S. Samonte
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