Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have welcomed the agreement on Sunday between the Filipino government and the country’s biggest Muslim rebel group to end a decades-long separatist insurgency that killed more than 150,000 people.
The agreement calls for a new semi-autonomous Muslim area in the resource-rich southern Philippine region of Mindanao, which the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front regards as its ancestral homeland.
“This framework agreement paves the way for a final and enduring peace in Mindanao,” Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III said in a nationally televised address.
“It brings all former secessionist groups into the fold. No longer does the Moro Islamic Liberation Front aspire for a separate state.”
This means that hands that once held rifles will be put to use tilling land, selling produce, manning workstations, and opening doorways of opportunity for other citizens.
Aquino said the national government would continue to exercise exclusive powers of defense and security, foreign policy, monetary policy and coinage, citizenship, and naturalization.
The constitution and lawful processes shall govern the transition to the Bangsamoro – the people living in the southern region of the Philippines bearing the same name – and this agreement will ensure that the Philippines remains one nation and one people, with diverse cultures and narratives seeking a common goal. The Filipinos of Bangsamoro will be assured a fair and equitable share of taxation, revenues, and the fruits of national patrimony. They will enjoy equal protection of laws and access to impartial justice.
An OFW engineer based in Riyadh, Rasol Abbas, said: “This was not an easy decision to take by any administration. At least the present administration put an end to the centuries-old problem that caused thousands of lives and billions of taxpayers’ money. It will also pave the way for economic progress as we rely on Muslim countries’ oil and we deploy our people to their countries to earn money.”
He said, “We have to understand that all progressive countries in the world, including Europe and America, had no choice except peace to lead a prosperous, thriving and flourishing life. They have tasted the nightmare and destructive fruits of war wherein no body can claim to be a winner. In fact, they were all losers.”
OFW in Jeddah, Eli Perez Sarmiento, called the agreement a pragmatic initiative, though he said it still remained to be seen if the framework agreement would hold to produce positive results. “This is a prudent step on the part of the government. However, the main players are our Muslim brothers in the new Muslim autonomous region Bangsamoro to replace the existing one, which was created in 1989. This autonomy will serve as an acid test to their leadership and the balance of power in dealing with the localities, the country and in the eyes of the international community, in general. Let us all be optimistic on this new road map for peace and stability in the entire region,” he added.
Another OFW, Deen Mohammad, observed, “We hope that the agreement will cover all stakeholders (MILF, MNLF, Muslim NGOs and others) to this complex issue. The more (right-minded) people are included, the better the outcome will be. The conflict in Mindanao has already lasted for two generations. It has lead to a cycle of violence that has claimed so many Filipino lives – soldiers, warriors, and innocent civilians all needlessly shed their blood.”
In his speech, President Aquino noted that many solutions have been proposed and tried, but have not brought about lasting peace.
"We have had peace agreements in the past, but still our hopes for the region remained unfulfilled. Some gained power, but instead of increasing the quality of life in the region, this begot a structure that tightened the shackles of poverty,” he said.
He said the command vote phenomenon strengthened a feudal structure; ghost roads, ghost bridges, ghost schools, ghost teachers, ghost students became prevalent as a powerful few fattened their purses. A culture of impunity and injustice set in; the people lost their trust in the system, with some attempting to secede.
The president described the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a failed experiment. “Many of the people continued to feel alienated by the system, and those who felt that there was no way out would continue to articulate their grievances through the barrel of a gun. We cannot change this without structural reform.”
He continued, “This is the context that informed our negotiations throughout the peace process. And now, we have forged an agreement that seeks to correct these problems. It defines our parameters and our objectives, while upholding the integrity and sovereignty of our nation.
“This agreement creates a new political entity, and it deserves a name that symbolizes and honors the struggles of our forebears in Mindanao, and celebrates the history and character of that part of our nation. That name will be Bangsamoro.
“We are doing everything to ensure that other Bangsamoro stakeholders are brought into this process so that this peace can be claimed and sustained by all. Sovereignty resides in the people, and consistent with the constitution, a basic law will be drafted by a transition commission and will go through the full process of legislation in Congress.”
President Aquino said his administration has pledged to support a law that would truly embody the values and aspirations of the people of Bangsamoro. Any proposed law resulting from this framework would be subject to ratification through a plebiscite. Once approved, there would be elections.
This Framework Agreement paves the way for a final, enduring peace in Mindanao. It brings all former secessionist groups into the fold; no longer does the Moro Islamic Liberation Front aspire for a separate state.
