Local officials from Mindanao Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision declaring as unconstitutional the memorandum of agreement that would have given Muslim rebels control over an expanded territory in the south.

Interviewed by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak, the most vocal critics of the MOA on ancestral domain said the tribunal’s ruling should be a lesson to the government to be more careful and transparent the next time it negotiates with the Muslim separatist groups.

By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that the deal forged by the national government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was unconstitutional. The signing of the MOA-AD in Malaysia was cancelled last August 5 after the court issued a temporary restraining order, based on a complaint filed by local officials in Mindanao whose areas were covered by the agreement.

Petitioners said the deal was tantamount to the creation of a separate state in Mindanao. Under the agreement, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and territories that would vote for inclusion in the Moro homeland through a plebiscite would form the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). The agreement would also empower the BJE to establish its own courts and police and the power to independently deal with foreign governments.

“We are very elated and pleased,” Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, one of the petitioners, told us. Six Muslim barangays in Zamboanga’s Sacol Islands were included in the proposed BJE.

Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the decision justified the opposition of the local officials to the deal and proved that they were not just being “emotional and reactionary.” During the height of the debate on the MOA-AD, Cruz was worried because Iligan City could lose 82 percent of its territory if its eight barangays were to be included in the BJE.

“[The decision] is most welcome,” Cruz said. “We just hope that all the parties will respect the decision.”

Meanwhile, North Cotabato Vice Governor Manny Piñol, whose petition became the basis for the Supreme Court’s order that stopped the signing of agreement, said the SC ruling proved that any similar agreements needs consultation with the people. “It proves that the Supreme Court listens to the voice of the people from the far-flung areas.”

Piñol, however, described the decision as an “icing on the cake” because they have already succeeded in stopping the signing of the agreement. “We already attained our objective.”

Local officials we interviewed said the greatest lesson for the government from the aborted deal is the need to be transparent and to consult the people who would be affected by the similar agreements.

“Any peace deal should not be done in a secret manner and should be open to the public,” Cruz said.

Mayor Loreto Cavaya of Aleosan, North Cotabato, whose seven barangays are included in the BJE, said the government should be more careful the next time it would negotiate with the separatist groups. “They should not ignore the right of the people to participate [in the consultations].” (abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

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