REPOST: 5.3.14 STATUS UPDATE By Robert Maulana Marohombsar Alonto On March 11, 2014 the commissioners of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) together with the MILF and GPH Peace Negotiating Panels will meet the Moro public in a mass consultation in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur. These are our people, our masses, our brothers and sisters, and our youths to whom we dedicate the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Ranao has always been at the heart of the Moro struggle just like Maguindanao, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi. Voices should be heard, sentiments have to be expressed as we reduce to a historic document the fruits of the historic struggle of the Bangsamoro people. The language of the Basic Law is not the language of the Philippine Constitution as others would insist it should; it is the language of the Moro shuhada (martyrs), the widows, the orphans and our mujahideen who sacrificed and suffered so that we, today, can write this historic document that is the testament to their sacrifices. The Basic Law is for the Bangsamoro people, by the Bangsamoro people, and of the Bangsamoro people. Short of that, I cannot be a part of it. Back to the home front. The issue of constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the Bangsamoro Basic Law should not bother us. (Frankly, Im never bothered by it.) Looking back, similarly it never bothered us whether the peace negotiation and its results were constitutional or not. The Moro struggle is not about upholding the Philippine constitution; it is about addressing and redressing the historic and current grievances of the Bangsamoro people - an injustice that predates all Philippine constitutions from 1935 to the present. (Why, the Bangsamoro Question even predates the US Constitution of 1787!) The Basic Law has to be designed to correct these wrongs, and not to satisfy or meet the requirements of the Philippine constitution. Otherwise, what did we struggle for? What did we negotiate for? There are many who ask What if Congress shoots down the Basic law because of unconstitutionality? So what? Then nothing changes. The Bangsamoro Question remains a question. Is that what they want? Of course we want peace. Of course we need peace. But not at the expense of justice. Not at the expense of our right to self-determination. Not at the expense of freedom or a modicum of it. What is moral should be legal, and what is legal should be moral. It is the moral issue (justice) that were institutionalizing, so it is legal. Unconstitutional? Naaaah! So be it.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:34:08 +0000
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