The Unexplained MILF Pact Signing Posponement and The SC TRO

Written on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 5:16 pm | by Ding G. Gagelonia

Filipino Voices first reported at 12:46 p.m the MILF’s unexplained 20-day postponement of tomorrow’s earlier announed signing of the infamous ‘memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain’ that would carve out a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in thean expanded area now covered by the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao .

Now just hours after that post which quoted the MILF web site, the Supreme Court intervened and issued a temporary retraining order (TRO) stopping the signing ceremony with the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and her impleaded officiuals being given until August 15 to defend, and explain the wisdomof their treasonous action (my description), unratified by Congress, to sign away a wide area of Mindanao to secessionist rebels.

Did the MILF by some precognitive powers (mole-fed) know that TRO was about to issue from the highest tribunal of our still tenuously intact Republic?

To its credit the Justice Reynato Puno-led Court sat en banc to act with dispatch on the urgent opposition filed by North Cotabato officials to the treacherous fait accompli that was about to be signeed by the administradition whose questioned mandate is expiring some 20 months from now.

At the full bench hearing of the Supreme Court the government of the day ran true to form.

It filed a 26-page comment saying no details of the negotiations between the government panel and the MILF could be revealed even to the sovereign Filipino people.

It’s claim: executive privilege.

Expletives are a no-no. So I end this post here.

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About The Author: Ding G. Gagelonia is a journalist of some 30 years, having worked in both radio and TV news and public affairs since his teens. Ding Gagelonia now writes independently and does corporate communications consulting. He has two kids, Felice and Luis. His journalist blog is at midfield.wordpress.com

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23 Responses to “The Unexplained MILF Pact Signing Posponement and The SC TRO”

  1. mlq3 on August 4th, 2008 7:56 pm

    amazing reportage on your blog. re: your initial report and interval before SC handed down TRO:

    INQ timestamp 13:30:00 08/04/2008 thats 1:30 PM
    FV timestamp is August 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

  2. Nick on August 4th, 2008 8:01 pm

    Ding, you never cease to amaze me..

  3. Ria Jose on August 4th, 2008 8:05 pm

    Every time I see or hear the phrase “executive privilege,” my distrust for Arroyo and her cohorts increase.

  4. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 4th, 2008 8:23 pm

    Nick,
    I simply believe in your vision of FV and the genuine service it can provide. Proud to be with FV.

    MLQ3,

    Can I share a personal trivia with you, my ate dad was the historian Pedro A. Gagelonia. His birthdate was August 19. You know that date, right? :)

  5. Bencard on August 4th, 2008 11:21 pm

    a “tro” is a temporary order that has no bearing on the merits of a case. its principal purpose is to maintain the status quo as of its issuance to avoid irreparable damage to the party requesting it. it doesn’t confer any new rights to, nor reduce any power of, the parties.

    among ordinary filipinos, so much misunderstanding of tro is fomented by intellectually dishonest politicians and, whether deliberately or out of sheer ignorance, by certain media practitioners.

    the tro is just a part of due process, an optional procedural step towards a final determination whether the government can constitutionally enter into such an agreement and how it can be validated. it is not a declaration that the whole process is illegal or unconstitutional, at least, not yet.

    it is at best premature, alarmist and counterproductive to talk about the proposed peace agreement as “treasonous”. true to form, franklin drilon and escudero spouting such venom and, again, threatening impeachment, are leading the assault.

  6. Bencard on August 5th, 2008 5:04 am

    in the case of mindanao, the alternative to a negotiated peace is a permanent state of war or armed rebellion by a sizable muslim population. we can elect a milosovic or karadzik clone who will have no hesitancy wiping out the entire people, men or women, young or old, civilians or combatants - a complete ethnic cleansing. are we prepared to do that in this day and age?

    both on our own and through our colonial masters, we have tried just about everything - pacification, political and social assimilation, religious conversion, economic amelioration, all to no avail. one thing we haven’t tried is peaceful co-existence under a rule of law.

    as i remember manolo quezon saying in his blog, the “old obediences” of yesteryears must be re-examined to determine their applicability to the present state of our nationhood.

    btw, i think everybody is in agreement that no one, at this point, has examined and analyzed the proposed MOA. there’s no point hyperventilating over something we have not had a chance to read in full.

  7. Ding Gagelonia on August 5th, 2008 5:07 am

    Bencard,
    I admire the sobriety in you tone and language. And yes I know what a TRO is. After the merits are later taken out and indeed in this case Arroyo and company are found wanting, and injunction may come next. But TREASONOUS I maintain the draft MoA is. Both you and I are Filipino, right? How do you feel about our Republic, imperfect and dysfunctional as its institutions may be, being dismembered before our very eyes.

    I can even grant the Bangsamoro arguments, but how about the areas of Palawan and North Cotabato plus the Liguasan marshes that are also being carved out? You honestly believe there is no treason being commited?

  8. Ding Gagelonia on August 5th, 2008 5:10 am

    BTW, I have read the draft MoA in full 4 times. If you care to, I’ve posted it in mu blog. It is sad you think those opposing it are simply hyperventilating.

  9. DJB Rizalist on August 5th, 2008 7:38 am

    Only those who’ve not been paying attention to this situation can afford such equanimity as Bencard displays. The contents of the MOA, in part or in whole have been obvious throughout the long history of the so-called peace negotiations. You just have to monitor luwaran dot com, and the actions of the “peace negotiators” whose emanations are as arbitrary and dishonest as necessary for them to maintain their mutual charades. There is an alternative to both “war” and “peace” — it’s called democracy and the rule of law.

    the problem here is treating the moros as if they were any different than the rest of the filipinos, as well as buying into the historical fairy tales about the moro golden age in mindanao.

    Yet history proves they were invaders just as much as Spain and America were. There were lumads in Mindanao long before Shariff Kabunsuan arrived (in 1511!) to establish the Cotabato sultanate.

    Why the Moro should now be entitled to “ancestral domains” is a disgusting bit of political correctness that needs better examination by “peace advocates” who don’t understand why we should not give in to a re-establishment of sultanates devoted to slavery and human trafficking as their primary means of livelihood.

    The attempts at historical expiation via “ancestral lands and domains” are trying to collect the same kind of “pound of flesh” debt which shakespeare exposed as “murder” in the Merchant of Venice.

    There is a massive guilt tripping going on that needs to be put to a stop. The Christian tribes ought not be made to bear the sins of colonialists.

    The essence of Justice is fairness, and without Justice there can never be peace.

    People who say it’s okay for there to be an independent Moro state in Mindanao (under whatever pretty name) are simply cop-outs who’ve never read anything about Mindanao but Constantino or Joma or Nur Misuari’s surrogates.

    All Filipinos deserve a homeland. It’s called the Philippines. But if we make land an apple of discord for “indigenous peoples” and “non-indigenous peoples” the result will be endless war and strife.

    The solution to war and insurgency is disarmament. The solution to poverty is democracy and elections, and the slow, sure workings of human beings living in peace with both the past and the present and playing the hand that has been dealt them as best they can.

  10. DJB Rizalist on August 5th, 2008 7:52 am

    Hahaha! I think I know why the Supreme Court acted so swiftly…Just take a look at the PDF of the that MOA the govt was gonna sign in Petrajaya, Malaysia…It opens with the following line ahead of its title even:

    “IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL”

    I suppose the original read “In the name of Allah…”

    What self-respecting democracy would sign such a surrender to theocracy, excuse me!

    And if somebody breathes “cultural sensitivity”…well behead me already!

  11. Ding Gagelonia on August 5th, 2008 7:52 am

    DJB,

    We are in your debt for finally putting the situation in the widest perspective. The best I have read anywhere thus far.

  12. Ding Gagelonia on August 5th, 2008 7:54 am

    BTW, I have an extended and updated post on this issues in my blog, if you care to. Salamat po.

  13. DJB Rizalist on August 5th, 2008 8:08 am

    Tell me Ding, what’s really there to explain about the unexplained postponement of the signing? They heard from Dureza and Garcia (Heckle and Jeckle) early Monday morning that the jig was up and the Court wasn’t going to allow this fast one to get through. So they dumped.

    What’s sure to follow now is the endless and usual hand wringing by “progressives” and “peace advocates” who don’t really believe in the principle of self-determination because they think they already know what’s good for the Bangsamoro and Mindanao.

    How many times do these crazy ideas have to be rejected by the people themselves in plebiscites for the message to get through their thick skulls: nobody wants to be part of some restored Moro Sultanate except those with the license from Muhammad (”tarsilas”) to lord it over everybody else.

    They will continue to push for this wrong idea that historical injustices of the past can be made up for by even greater historical injustices in the present.

    There is no way we should agree to re-establish the “sacred inequality” of the Moro Taliban, any more than we would agree to restore Spanish Taliban rights.

    But we ought not punish Catholicized tribes for “succumbing” to the Spanish Cross just because they were more afraid of the Moro Crescent forcing them into harems and selling them off to Bornean potentates.

    At the root of this confusion is the IPRA Law, which I urge everyone to study with care along with the Supreme court ruling in December 2000 (Cruz vs IPs), in particular the dueling ponencias of Justices Puno and Panganiban.

    Start by considering the absurdity that Tagalos, Pampangos, Ilocanos, Cebuanos and ALL Christianized groups are considered “non-indigenous peoples” of the Philippines.

    It’s time to take the bull by the horns and stand by the Democracy that Moros and non Moros alike want and deserve.

  14. J on August 5th, 2008 8:33 am

    We all want peace with the MILF. But not surrender.

    This is the worst thing Gloria did to the country.

  15. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 5th, 2008 9:23 am

    DJB,

    Am sure you know I used the term “unexplained” to stress the intellectual dishonesty of the MILF announcement to pull the rug from under the SC TRO which issuance was or most likely, known by them in advance or was possibly anticipated by Malacanang.

    At one time last night I almost thought a charade was being played out. See my latest post on the issue.

  16. DJB Rizalist on August 5th, 2008 9:33 am

    If and when the MILF begins their Mr. Hyde phase and once more foments war on the Filipino people so as to give “peace advocates” the usual ammunition decrying “all out war” and the newspapers their photo ops of “poor oppressed Muslims” running away from “govt offensives” I urge everyone here to join in a campaign that will put the MILF where they belong: in the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list of the US, the EU and United Nations, which already has the ASG, the NPA (including Joma) and the RSM listed as such. Among the foreign terrorist personalities ought to be Jess Dureza and Rodolfo Garcia, as well as the geniuses in the US Institute for Peace, for being state sponsors of terrorism and abetting lawlessness.

    The MILF is really the largest Kidnap for Ransom gang in the country. Dureza and Garcia are no different than the Isnajis, only worse. We are all their hostages and the ransom payment they want is Mindanao itself.

    Gloria wants war to perpetuate her hold on power. I want war on the stupid ideas infecting otherwise intelligent Filipino heads.

    In the name of God, the beneficent and the merciful!

  17. Bencard on August 5th, 2008 9:58 am

    djb, democracy and rule of law can only prevail as a substitute for war if both antagonists will embrace them. breakup of states happen only too frequently throughout modern human history as a result of war, followed by a negotiated peace. think of korea, india vis a vis pakistan and bangladesh, the balkans, the former territories of soviet union.

    you have to defeat your enemy before you can disarm it. there can be no disarmament without surrender or peace accord. to expect unilateral disarmament by a stubborn and resolute enemy before it’s vanquished is wishful thinking, if not pitifully naive.

  18. cvj on August 5th, 2008 12:20 pm

    If the United States comes out with a message that ‘hails’ the accord, then that probably means we’ve been sold out.

  19. DJB Rizalist on August 5th, 2008 2:27 pm

    Ding,
    I’ve been looking at the posts on Luwaran dot com and it seems you may have misinterpreted a typographical error? Here is the August 4, 2008 post on that website:
    “In what is considered as the most significant and historic event that ever happened in the annals of the 11-year old GRP-MILF Peace Talks, the MILF has sent some 50 persons including its peace panel, secretariat, technical committee, and representatives of its nominated non-government organizations (NGOs) to the formal signing ceremony of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) in Putrajaya, Selangor, Malaysia August 25.”

    I think they meant to put August 5 not August 25. The rest of the post doesn’t talk about any “postponement” at all!

  20. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 5th, 2008 2:57 pm

    DJB,

    I don’t do single source reportage. Other sources explained the nuance of what you could call ‘iwas pusoy’ tenor of the MILF post. There are other details I have also not yet written about relative to the aborted signing of the agreement. No typo sir.

  21. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 6th, 2008 9:05 am

    Further to the above, DJB, you may care to read the latest piece of Manuel Buencamino in the Business Mirror.

  22. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 6th, 2008 9:06 am

    It’s at http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/08062008/opinion02.html

  23. Alleba Politics » Blog Archive » GRP - MILF to Sign Memorandum of Agreement on September 27th, 2008 5:36 pm

    […] For more information and analysis on the agreement, visit these links: Peace in our Time by MLQ3 Solving Mindanao by Angela Stuart-Santiago The Unexplained MILF Pact Signing Posponement and The SC TRO by Ding Gagelonia […]

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