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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Office of the Solicitor General has
submitted to the Supreme Court the official Malacañang
communication formally dissolving the government peace panel that
negotiated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
This is expected to boost the government’s
position that the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral
Domain has become moot and academic.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno directed
Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera to submit the said document
at the conclusion of the High Court’s oral argument on the
agreement on August 28, along with the final draft of the agreement
and the travel authorities of Hermogenes Esperon, the
presidential adviser on peace panel, and Rodolfo Garcia, head of the
government peace panel.
The Malacañang memorandum, signed by Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita, was forwarded by the Solicitor General to
the High Tribunal on September 4.
Ermita’s memorandum, which was addressed to
Esperon, came out on September 3. It was attached as
“Annex-A” in the Solicitor General’s seven-page manifestation.
“Please be informed that the President has
dissolved the Negotiating Panel of the Government of the Philippines
[GRP] with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front headed by Ret. Gen.
Rodolfo Garcia effective immediately,” Ermita’s memorandum read.
Merely recommendatory
The Solicitor General, in its manifestation,
also stated the “President is consistent with the respondent’s
position that the powers of the GRP negotiating panel are merely
recommendatory and that the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral
Domain will no longer be signed in pursuant to the memorandum of the
Executive Secretary dated August 28, 2008.”
Devanadera told the High Court during the oral
argument the agreement was a mere “codification of points of
consensus” and “a process in continuum.” In the end, it will
still have to be approved by President Gloria Arroyo.
The High Court spokesman, lawyer Jose Midas
Marquez, said the President’s order that dissolved the government
peace panel is also expected to be tackled by the Court when it will
deliberate on the petitions filed against the agreement, and the
motion of the Solicitor General.
Petitioners wanted the High Court to issue a
ruling on the constitutionality of the agreement.
However, the High Court also ordered the
petitioners, which include the provincial government of North
Cotabato and city governments of Zamboanga and Iligan, to submit
their respective memoranda within 20 days, starting August 28, the
last day of the oral argument.
Marquez said that there were many possibilities
as to what the Court will do owing to the complexity of the issue.
“There were a lot of points raised during the
oral argument. One possibility is for the Court to decide whether
the issue has been mooted or not with the declaration of Malacañang
that it will not sign anymore the agreement,” Marquez said.
But Marquez also pointed out it is also a
possible the High Court might just issue a resolution, similar to
what it did with the scrapped $329-million national broadband deal
with ZTE Corp. of China.
The agreement on ancestral domain was supposed
to be signed August 5 in Malaysia by the government panel and the
MILF if not for a temporary restraining order issued by the High
Court on August 4.
The Solicitor General admitted during the oral
argument that if the agreement was signed, it would have compelled
the Arroyo government to “drastically” amend the
Constitution.
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