OFFICIALS and well-wishers of the Bangsamoro peace project in the Philippines must have had a fright when they gathered inside the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City, Manila, on July 23 to hear Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte present his annual “State of the Nation” address to the Philippine Congress.
The guests were there for a very good reason. The highlight of the Bangsamoro’s collective centuries-old struggle for a distinct homeland carved out of the island of Mindanao they call their own — the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) — was to be signed into effect with some dramatic flourishes in their very presence that day.
Alas, again, it was not to be! Duterte, in the presence of his host, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, were left to cool their heels in an ante-room as an hour-long drama of a different sort unfolded. A new speaker was being voted on and sworn in: ex-president Gloria Arroyo.
The unscripted political event precluded the lower House of Representatives from putting to the final vote the Bangsamoro Bill before Duterte eventually took to the rostrum.
There are few political certainties in the Philippines except uncertainty and the parliamentary drama on July 23 again proved that to be so. That the final passage of the BOL was left to the very first day of the new legislative calendar was itself only the result of much cajoling and even threats from Duterte personally.
All can now sigh collective relief when the crucial piece of legislation was eventually approved the following day and duly signed into law by Duterte a day later.
The momentous event has met with international acclaim, including from the United Nations secretary-general. No country other than the Philippines will be more pleased than our own.
It is a touch ironic that it was Arroyo as president right at the turn of the new millennium who initiated Malaysia’s direct involvement in the Bangsamoro peace process. Her shepherding of the process led to the sealing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, left undone by a successful legal challenge.
Arroyo’s successor, Benigno Aquino III, picked up the pieces and concluded the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro but failed to clear the legislative hurdle after a disastrous terrorist operation led to the deaths of nearly two dozen of the country’s Special Forces commandos.
Duterte, the first Filipino president from Mindanao, thus, created history anew with the BOL now under his belt. And it comes early enough in his presidency for him to be in the position to help oversee the new Bangsamoro autonomous region through its infancy.
The BOL will still need to be endorsed via a public plebiscite of residents in the affected region before the Bangsamoro Transition Commission moves into action, fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front armed wing decommissioned and preparations made for the election of the new Bangsamoro Parliament in 2022, followed by the inauguration of the Bangsamoro regional government.
With enhanced powers and budgetary provisions compared with the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the Bangsamoro regional government will be on much surer footing to realise the long-thwarted aspirations of its people.
There is some concern that some perceived watered-down provisions of the BOL to enable it to pass muster with the Philippine Congress may still lead to some serious political disappointments and unhappiness. The fear is that the disgruntled few will further swell the ranks of the extremist fringe.
Duterte is fully conscious of this possibility as he sought in the immediate aftermath of the BOL’s enactment open dialogues with the likes of ex-ARMM governor Nur Misuari and the Abu Sayyaf Group.
The bane of the Bangsamoro is that differences are always not just political but tribal and even between powerful clans. The hope must be that local as well as international goodwill generated by the successful birth of a new autonomous dispensation will quickly translate into real change for the better among impoverished local people to tamp down inevitable political rivalries.
The Philippines, as a whole, has often swung quite wildly between the desire for strong institutions and strongmen. The trouble is that strong institutions are not built overnight and the political class perceived to be such a venal lot generally that popular frustrations with institution-building easily give way.
Duterte probably understands such an acute conundrum better than most and while the success of his controversial national war against illicit drugs is still an open question, the odds of him building on the Bangsamoro peace may be better.
John Teo views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak