Mar Roxas

Hi everyone. Senator Roxas is currently in Mindanao meeting with local leaders about the GRP-MILF MOA. This issue is currently one of the most pressing concerns for the country and Senator Roxas gave a privilege speech in the Senate clarifying his stand on this issue last August 11, 2008. We’ve uploaded a video of his speech on Youtube and we’re also posting the transcript for everyone’s reference. Feel free to give your comments about the issue.

SPEECH TRANSCRIPT OF SENATOR MAR ROXAS
Privilege Speech on the GRP-MILF Memorandum of Agreement (MoA)
Session Hall, Senate of the Philippines
11 August 2008

Mr. President, I am angry at what is going on at the South, and it’s for that purpose that I ask to take the floor on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

As we speak, there are ongoing hostilities in North Cotabato and Maguindanao where the Armed Forces and the MILF are locked in armed combat. Tens of thousands of evacuees have fled their homes. We have a brewing humanitarian situation on our hands.

On Friday, August 15, the Supreme Court will receive all oral arguments regarding the aborted MoA between the MILF and our Government, and all of this is under a growing atmosphere of dissension and acrimony. This morning, I myself filed an intervention in order to declare this document unconstitutional.

This MoA initialed and sought to be formalized, in Malaysia, violates at least three major articles of our Constitution. Unang pahina pa lang, hindi na papasa ito sa ating Saligang Batas.

Rather than respect our national territory, this MoA breaks it up into already smaller bits.

Rather than uphold the ideal that all government authority emanates from the people, the government had the gall to enter into an agreement that would partition our country, and create a state within a state, all without prior consultation with the people of Mindanao, or with the people in the rest of the country. It had the gall to shroud this agreement in secrecy.

Rather than uphold one sovereign people enjoying the equal protection of law, the MOA effectively splits the citizenry in two, each clothed with differing political and economic standards.

Hindi isang salitang walang laman ang soberanya ng bansa natin. Saklaw ng konsepto ng soberanya ang pakikibilang ng mamamayan sa paggawa ng mga desisyon…

The Constitution is not just some piece of paper. It is our nation’s very substance and spirit. For example, Mr. President, I have a copy with me of what was submitted by the GRP Panel in conformity or in compliance with the order of the Supreme Court directing it to release an official copy of the final draft of the MoA that would have been signed in Kuala Lumpur last week.

On page four of this document, under territorial waters, I read, for the record: “The boundaries of the territorial waters shall stretch beyond the 15-kilometer BJE” – that’s the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity – “internal waters, up to the Central Government’s baselines under existing law. In the southern and eastern part of the BJE, it shall be demarcated by a line drawn on the Maguling Point, Palimbang Province of Sultan Kudarat up to the straight baselines of the Philippines. On the northwestern part, it shall be demarcated by a line drawn from Little Sta. Cruz Island, Zamboanga City, up to Naris Point, Bataraza, Palawan. On the western part of Palawan, it shall be demarcated by a line drawn from the boundary of Bataraza and Rizal up to the straight baselines of the Philippines.”

And what will be the import of this demarcation of territorial waters? The previous paragraph says these waters shall be under the “joint jurisdiction, authority and management over areas and all natural resources living and non-living contained therein.”

In short, distinguished colleagues, should we not have been told that hundreds of thousands of hectares of our water resources have now been negotiated away as part of this MoA? Should we not have been consulted? Should we not have been informed? And certainly there is nothing in this MoA that says we will be subject to a referendum. The only referendum that is contemplated in this document is a referendum asking the citizens of each of the communities that are being claimed to be a part of the BJE to indicate whether they consent in fact to be part of it or not. Sama ba sila o hindi?

Pero tayo, mga mamamayang Pilipino, wala ba tayong sey dito? Parang hiniwa tayo at ipinamigay ang isang bahagi ng katawan natin na wala man tayong ka-sey-sey.

I speak to you now, aware of the extraordinary levels of irony present in the situation. We had wanted peace and security achieved through these negotiations. Instead, we are on the brink of war. How have we come to this?

We have come to this because of the government’s paranoia. The government distrusts its citizens, because how can it not, when it recognizes that its actions will not stand to the scrutiny of the people? Kaya naglilihim ang gobyerno dahil alam niya na sablay ang ginagawa nila. Sabi nga: mukhang guilty!

What we have in Mindanao, Mr. President, is the exact opposite of security. It is insecurity in the very essence of the word. The people are uneasy that even if a peace accord is signed, it raises the prospects of war.

Government functionaries are making lame excuses for their bungling of a peace process that has spawned war rather than peace. Bakit ayaw nilang idepensa ito? Sa totoo lang, Mr. President, sa ating mga colleagues, puros pang-iintriga, puros pag-kwestyon ng motibo, Puros dissembling ang sinasagot ng mga functionary ng gobyerno.

Wala ba sa kanila na magtatayo at magsasabi, ‘Ako, gusto ko ito, tama ito sa atin, itong probisyon na ito ay karapat-dapat lamang.’ Bakit walang depensang ganoon? Bakit puros ‘O, ano yung mga motibo ng tumututol dito?’ Bakit puros iintriga lamang?

Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I demand complete transparency regarding this agreement. I call upon the government to step out from behind the veil of generalizations; to let the people know, completely and without qualification, its intentions and strategies concerning the situation in Mindanao.

What are the parameters given by President Arroyo to her negotiators? What are the expected gains, losses and trade-offs from the envisioned peace settlement, politically and economically?

Dumaan ba yung government position na ito sa Kabinete? Pinagbotohan ba ito? Dumaan ba ito sa security cluster ng Kabinete? May security implications ito. Pinresenta ba ito sa National Security Council? May mga legislative implications ito. Napag-usapan ba ito sa LEDAC? Ano ba ang hinahangad ng gobyerno dito? Mabubulaga na lang tayo na nagkapirmahan na doon sa Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

What is the strategic plan of the Government if the TRO issued by the Supreme Court is lifted? How does it plan to address the political dissension that will ensue—which is both certain and severe?

How does it plan to address the further imminence of widespread conflict if the TRO is maintained?

I call upon the President to revamp her entire peace team, including her peace adviser and peace panel. I call upon the rest of the Filipino nation to continue to believe in the very ideals of our nation, and to stand faithfully behind them.

Nananawagan ako sa sandatahang lakas, na panatilihin ang kapayapaan ayon sa ating Saligang Batas. And I call upon all parties to the conflict to stand down and pave the way for a renegotiation of the MOA.

More than anything else, I urge the government to do its utmost best to keep the nation whole. To keep the great ideals of our country: One territory, one sovereign people under the equal protection of the laws.

The answer is not in further shattering this ideal of one Philippine nation. And this has nothing to do with religion or ethnic boundaries. We are all for peace. I have relatives in Mindanao. I have relatives in Zamboanga. Certainly we want peace. We want peace so that the energies of our people can be directed to improving their status in life.

Which farmer, which fisherman, would rather spend on an armament rather than food for his family? No one wants war. No one certainly wants armed conflict. The people of Mindanao, Christian, Muslim or Lumad, have been commonly victimized by oppression, greed, corruption and the bungling of this government.

I say to you now, as I say to the rest of our nation: the answer is in bridging differences. The answer is in rebuilding our nation so that none feel neglected for the sake of others.

Mabuhay ang kapayapaan. Mabuhay ang nagkakaisang Pilipinas.

About the Author Carlo "Wauks" Ople is the New Media Consultant of Senator Mar Roxas. He's the grandson of the late Foreign Affairs Secretary and Senator Blas F. Ople. Carlo worked for the leading online gaming company in the Philippines, Level Up Games (subsidiary of PLDT), as a Marketing Executive for several years. You can read more about him in his blog at http://www.carloople.com.