Federalism the Only Way to Break Deadlock in Peace Talks — Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the government is moving in the right direction by positively responding to the proposal of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the adoption of a federal system to break the protracted deadlock in the peace negotiation.

Pimentel warned that the peace talks should not be
derailed and delayed any longer in view of the
increasing restiveness among the ranks of Muslim
rebels which may lead to the revival of the separatist
war.

He lamented that failure to forge a final peace
agreement between the government and MILF, after more
than 10 years of negotiation, has deprived the people
in Muslim Mindanao of opportunities for economic and
social upliftment, including an initial $30 million
development aid from the United States which the Bush
administration has offered as early 2003.

“As we have been saying for a long, long time, the
federal system is just bout the only feasible solution
to the centuries-old rebellion in Mindanao,” Pimentel
said.

The leadership of the MILF has openly called for the
establishment of a BangsaMoro federal state in the
wake of the cancellation of the December 2007 peace
talks in Kuala Lumpur, due to the reported Malacañang
decision to water down a draft agreement on the
ancestral domain issue earlier worked out by
government and MILF negotiatiors.

Subsequently Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
announced that the government is prepared to discuss
the federalism proposal when the peace talks resume.

Pimentel said the creation of the BangsaMoro Federal
state will serve as a forerunner to the federalization
of the entire Philippines, which can be implemented by
amending the 1987 Constitution.

He said that while he is strongly pushing for Charter
Change to pave the way for the setting up of a federal
system of government, such worthy objective may turn
sour if the ruling party will exploit the proposal to
pursue their hidden agenda of perpetuating themselves
in power.

“If even the leadership of the MILF has now come out
in favor of the adoption of the federal system, it may
be time to push it forward with the caveat that the
amendment of the Constitution to accommodate the
federal system must not be used as a subterfuge for
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s prolonged stay power and
that of her underlings,” Pimentel said.

“The adoption of the federal system must be totally
rid of partisan considerations. Otherwise, there will
be hell for the next generations of our countrymen and
women.”

Pimentel said a federal system setup will put an end
to the recurrent Muslim secessionist conflict because
it will not only give the people in Muslim Mindanao a
measure of self-rule but will also enable them to
assert and preserve their cultural identity, specially
their Islamic faith and way of life.

He said that the creation of a BangsaMoro Federal
State is the collective wish of the Muslims in
Mindanao which was conveyed to him through
conversations he had with practically all the known
Muslim rebel leaders, their ulamas, and their
business, academic and youth leaders.

“To a man, they prefer the establishment of a
BangsaMoro Federal State over the autonomous region.
Otherwise, the threat of secession still hangs in the
air as the ultimate way of out of the Moros of the
predicament they find themselves in.”
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