Passing the buck

The Gaza hostages-for-prisoners swap bodes well for world peace, at least for now. Brokered by the United States, the swap saw the return to their respective families the remaining 20 Israeli hostages and the release of around 2,000 Palestinians jailed in Israel. In any armed conflict, any ceasefire moment always helps bring about the desired peace.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas is due to return the bodies of 27 hostages who died or were killed in captivity, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza conflict.

The latest bloody war began when Hamas-led militants attacked on Oct. 7, 2023 and killed 1,200 people and took 251 captives, mostly civilians attending an open-air concert. This led to Israel’s retaliatory campaign that reportedly killed more than 67,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Israel stood pat that they would not end the war until all the hostages were freed. Thus, the AP further reported: “The war has rippled across the Middle East, with conflict erupting between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen and Iran itself… Gaza has been decimated by Israeli bombardment; there is little left of its prewar economy, basic services are in disarray and many homes have been destroyed. It remains unclear who will pay for reconstruction, a process that could take years.”

Yesterday, the Gaza peace accord was formally signed by the feuding sides and witnessed by no less than its chief broker, US President Donald Trump. According to the declaration, the signatories pledged to “pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region,” and also welcomed “the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip.”

This brings to mind our own peace process in Southern Philippines. 

The negotiations for these Mindanao peace pacts spanned seven administrations that started way back in the 1976 Tripoli Agreement. It was first entered into during the term of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in a bid to stop the Muslim separatists’ war led by the first Filipino jihadist, chairman Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

The Tripoli Agreement set forth long years of negotiations for peace in Mindanao. Through the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) headed by Indonesia as third-party broker, a peace pact with the MNLF was reached in 1996 by the administration of the late president Fidel Ramos. Misuari headed the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as part of this peace deal.

However, a splinter group of jihadists from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) headed by the late Hashim Salamat broke away from Misuari’s MNLF. So a totally new peace negotiation was initiated by the Philippine government, this time under the auspices anew of the OIC headed by Malaysia. A comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed with the MILF during the term of the late president Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino III.

The CAB led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) that replaced the ARMM. Like its predecessor, the establishment of the BARMM was attended by birthing pains, erupting in many deadly encounters between government forces and hold-outs among Muslim rebels.

It was not until former president Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11504, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law, that rolled the government’s implementing the political foundation for the BARMM.

Fast forward. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was all set and ready to hold the country’s first BARMM Parliamentary elections (BPE) last Monday, Oct. 13. But two weeks before the scheduled BPE, the Supreme Court (SC) rendered its final and executory ruling resetting the BPE to not later than March 31, 2026.

The High Court directed the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to redraw parliamentary districts of the seven seats previously allocated to Sulu in accordance with the country’s 1987 Constitution and laws of the land. The SC gave the BTA until Oct. 30 this year to craft a new redistricting law. Incidentally, the seven seats were created as a direct result of a separate SC ruling last year that upheld Sulu’s opting out from BARMM coverage.

Originally, Sulu was part of the BARMM that included Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi. Yesterday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced they are currently working for the seamless transfer of Sulu to Region 9, or the Zamboanga Peninsula region, to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of public services during the transition of the province out of BARMM.

The DILG echoed the directives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (PBBM) for whole-of-government to help in a phased and seamless transition in close coordination with all stakeholders to sustain the gains of the peace process in Mindanao.

While declaring they will abide by the SC decision, Comelec Chairman George Garcia reiterated yesterday the seven-man poll body is just waiting for the BTA to come up with the constitutionally compliant new districting law.

The Comelec chief renewed this commitment after election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) issued an official statement yesterday. They questioned the SC decision resetting the BPE. LENTE warned that the High Court ruling could be seen as “interference” with the date set for an election by a valid law.

“This decision also sets a dangerous precedent, one that risks opening the floodgates for malicious actors to use judicial intervention to justify the postponement of an election despite the validity of a law setting the date of the election,” LENTE pointed out.

Another complication emerged yesterday. The Comelec received word that the BTA wants the 20th Congress to pass a law to set the new date for the BPE.

The present Congress has already adjourned for their Undas break and won’t be back until Nov. 10. Passing the buck is not a quick fix solution. Such do not augur well to sustain the promised peace in Mindanao.