Moro land deal illegal

Moro land deal illegal

October 15, 2008 02:38:00
Norman Bordadora Tetch Torres
Philippine Daily Inquirer INQUIRER.net


MANILA, Philippines—The memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) between the government and a Moro separatist rebel group is illegal and unconstitutional, and the process that led to its crafting was “whimsical, capricious, oppressive, arbitrary and despotic,” the Supreme Court declared Tuesday.
Voting 8-7 on the petition of officials of North Cotabato, Iligan City and Zamboanga City, the high court stopped Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon and the government panel from signing and executing the agreement that laid the foundation for the creation of an expanded Bangsamoro homeland in Mindanao.
It described the agreement as “contrary to law and the Constitution,” and called for public consultations in accordance with the right to information with respect to any further peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“The furtive process by which the MOA-AD was designed and crafted runs contrary to and in excess of the legal authority, and amounts to a whimsical, capricious, oppressive, arbitrary and despotic exercise,” the Supreme Court said in the 90-page decision written by Justice Conchita Carpio Morales.
The high court’s earlier temporary restraining order on the signing of the agreement in Kuala Lumpur is widely seen to have triggered the attacks by rogue MILF commanders on civilians in certain parts of Mindanao.
The attacks as well as the resulting skirmishes between government and MILF troops have displaced tens of thousands of families, who continue to crowd squalid evacuation camps. The civilian death toll has reached almost 100.