CUI BONO?
Who DOES NOT WANT PEACE with MUSLIMS?
"Suspicions of Arroyo's motives helped sink Muslim peace deal" by Carlos H. Conde, International Herald Tribune | August 17, 2008
MANILA - For more than three decades, Filipino Muslims have been demanding greater autonomy in a country dominated by Christians. It is a dream that has fueled Islamic separatism in the Philippines, and embroiled Mindanao, the southern region where most Muslims live, in a cycle of violence and conflict.
Earlier this month, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main separatist group, and the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo thought they had finally achieved a pact that would make that dream of autonomy come true and end the violence.
The agreement, which has been championed by Arroyo, would grant Filipino Muslims, in the words of one government negotiator, a Muslim "state within a state."
The problem was that the document was not made public until two days before it was to be signed in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 6. Once its contents were disclosed, a storm of protest brought the peace process to a halt and helped set off renewed violence in Mindanao.
Many critics felt the document gave too many concessions to the Muslims of Mindanao. Others from the region were angry that they had not been consulted. The plan also became a lightning rod for critics of Arroyo, who see the deal as a Trojan horse designed to keep the president in power beyond her term.
Critics says the agreement violates the Constitution because it would divide the republic, in effect ceding a large chunk of Mindanao to Muslims. It seeks to give Muslims the final say in how their natural resources will be exploited, promises to expand an existing Muslim territory and, much like an independent state, would allow the Muslim government to enter into international agreements.
To make this plan work, however, the Constitution would have to be amended to transform the Philippines into a federal republic, officials said. In a speech this month, Arroyo confirmed that her administration would now work for this shift. "I advocate federalism as a way to gain lasting peace in Mindanao," she said.
Her press secretary, Jesus Dureza, said the administration supported a resolution in the Senate that could pave the way for this shift to federalism. Under the proposal, the Philippines would be divided into 11 federal states, each empowered to chart its development. Currently, provinces and regions have to defer to the central government in Manila on major decisions, particularly those involving natural resources.
"This concentration of such enormous powers in Manila has created only one center of finance and development in the country, resulting in a highly centralized system of government," the resolution said. Dureza said it was now "all systems go" for federalism - the only way, he said, that the agreement with the Muslims could be implemented.
I like it: Local control, local, local, local, not CENTRAL!
Now, whom wouldn't?
Fearful that the agreement would make the Islamic front more powerful than it already is, several officials from the provinces that were to be included in the expanded territory denounced the pact, particularly a clause that says an existing region being run by Muslims would be expanded. One of the officials appealed to the Supreme Court, which stopped the scheduled signing.
The aborted signing was a major embarrassment for Manila. Dignitaries, including the US ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie Kenney, had gone to Kuala Lumpur to witness the ceremony. It also caught the Moro Islamic Liberation Front by surprise.
In response, Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels occupied several villages in one province, burning down Catholic chapels, by some accounts, and refused to leave when government troops arrived.
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