Post by E-Q on Aug 5, 2008 8:13:22 GMT 8
The Supreme Court stopped yesterday the signing of a territorial agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) even as the Arroyo administration parried accusations that it was giving up the country’s sovereignty in exchange for a peace pact with the secessionist group.
The SC, after a session of the entire court, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain, scheduled today in Malaysia.
The unanimous SC decision was in response to consolidated pesampayanons filed by the provincial government of North Cotabato and the city government of Zamboanga.
In addition to the TRO, the SC also ordered the Office of the Solicitor General to submit copies of the final draft of the MOA to the SC and to the pesampayanoners on or before Aug. 8. The SC set the oral arguments on Aug. 15.
“To prevent the violation of certain rights of the people, the Court decided to issue a TRO. Again this is not a decision on the merit, this is just a TRO to maintain the status quo,” Midas Marquez, SC spokesman, said. He said the 15 justices of the SC unanimously approved the issuance of the TRO.
“There will be no signing. I got a call from the (Supreme) Court,” Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.
In Kuala Lumpur, peace process adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he was both “personally embarrassed and disappointed” over the TRO even as he called for sobriety from all concerned.
He said the TRO should not be considered as a “permanent bar to the peace process.”
“We will try to make the best out of this trip. As long as both sides want this we can hope for the best,” Esperon said at the Kuala Lumpur airport last night shortly after arriving from Manila.
The deal was meant to widen an existing autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao and give them political and economic powers, including control over mineral wealth in an area rich in nickel, gold, gas and oil.
“I don’t know what will happen next,” Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, told Reuters.
Politicians in Mindanao, mostly Roman Catholics, are against the signing of the MOA, arguing that they had not been consulted, and that the deal will carve up Mindanao into Muslim enclaves.
“Do not build a Berlin Wall among the people in Mindanao,” Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat told a crowd of around 10,000 people.
Protesters carrying placards saying “MILF go home” also staged rallies in Iligan.
Rep. Erico Fabian, one of those who pesampayanoned against the deal, said the SC ruling was “very good news for our people down south.”
Fabian warned that the draft accord with the MILF “is a very emotional issue. This might revive old wounds, leading to renewed fighting.”
The agreement was meant to formally reopen peace talks to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has reportedly killed more than 120,000 people, displaced two million, and stunted growth in the region.
Analysts are skeptical about whether the territorial deal will ever leave the drawing board, given its implementation is dependent on a comprehensive peace deal.
Both the MILF and the government have committed to agree to a final deal by November 2009 but deadlines have consistently been missed in over a decade of talks, punctuated by violent conflict.
The SC, after a session of the entire court, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain, scheduled today in Malaysia.
The unanimous SC decision was in response to consolidated pesampayanons filed by the provincial government of North Cotabato and the city government of Zamboanga.
In addition to the TRO, the SC also ordered the Office of the Solicitor General to submit copies of the final draft of the MOA to the SC and to the pesampayanoners on or before Aug. 8. The SC set the oral arguments on Aug. 15.
“To prevent the violation of certain rights of the people, the Court decided to issue a TRO. Again this is not a decision on the merit, this is just a TRO to maintain the status quo,” Midas Marquez, SC spokesman, said. He said the 15 justices of the SC unanimously approved the issuance of the TRO.
“There will be no signing. I got a call from the (Supreme) Court,” Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.
In Kuala Lumpur, peace process adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he was both “personally embarrassed and disappointed” over the TRO even as he called for sobriety from all concerned.
He said the TRO should not be considered as a “permanent bar to the peace process.”
“We will try to make the best out of this trip. As long as both sides want this we can hope for the best,” Esperon said at the Kuala Lumpur airport last night shortly after arriving from Manila.
The deal was meant to widen an existing autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao and give them political and economic powers, including control over mineral wealth in an area rich in nickel, gold, gas and oil.
“I don’t know what will happen next,” Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, told Reuters.
Politicians in Mindanao, mostly Roman Catholics, are against the signing of the MOA, arguing that they had not been consulted, and that the deal will carve up Mindanao into Muslim enclaves.
“Do not build a Berlin Wall among the people in Mindanao,” Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat told a crowd of around 10,000 people.
Protesters carrying placards saying “MILF go home” also staged rallies in Iligan.
Rep. Erico Fabian, one of those who pesampayanoned against the deal, said the SC ruling was “very good news for our people down south.”
Fabian warned that the draft accord with the MILF “is a very emotional issue. This might revive old wounds, leading to renewed fighting.”
The agreement was meant to formally reopen peace talks to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has reportedly killed more than 120,000 people, displaced two million, and stunted growth in the region.
Analysts are skeptical about whether the territorial deal will ever leave the drawing board, given its implementation is dependent on a comprehensive peace deal.
Both the MILF and the government have committed to agree to a final deal by November 2009 but deadlines have consistently been missed in over a decade of talks, punctuated by violent conflict.