Bangon Pilipinas signs covenant advocating Mindanao autonomy

To address poverty and peace problems in southern Philippines, the Bangon Pilipinas party led by standard bearer Eddie Villanueva on Tuesday announced it has signed a covenant pushing for autonomy for Mindanao. To attain its goal, the party said it would push for the establishment of a federal form of government, but only through a constitutional convention, one of the legal ways to amend the Charter. “In the long term, Bangon Pilipinas commits to call for a constitutional convention to submit, propose, and support the adoption of the federal form of government as a final and permanent solution to the pursuit of peace and progress in Mindanao," a part of the covenant said. Under a federal system, constituent states enjoy major powers that in a non-federal system will be held by a unified national government. In the federal system, the powers of the federal government are usually restricted only to well-defined areas as allowed by the constituent states, such as foreign affairs, defense, and central finance. The United States of America is one of the most prominent examples of a federal system of government, which shares sovereignty with state governments. In a statement, the party said Villanueva and the party’s senatorial bets signed the pact. It did not indicate the date of the signing. Bangon Pilipinas added that Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spokesperson Eid Kabalu witnessed the event. Kabalu, for his part, said the MILF did not sign the pact because it was unilateral. Still, Kabalu welcomed the party’s move. “That’s a good idea," he said in a text message to GMANews.TV. Ted Pascua, the party’s lawyer, clarified that while the party wants a self-determined Mindanao, it does not necessarily mean that it will be dismembered from the Philippines. “There will be no segregation. We don’t want a segregation. This is not similar to the [aborted] ancestral domain deal that created a separate juridical entity," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. He was referring to the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), which the government junked in 2008. The deal, which the Supreme Court found as unconstitutional, would have created a separate Bangsamoro republic. Pascua likewise said the details of the federal form of government would be decided by the constitutional convention. Poverty in Mindanao In the same pact, Bangon Pilipinas candidates likewise vowed to provide Mindanao a fair share of the country’s wealth. Half of the country’s ten poorest provinces are in Mindanao. These are (in order of poverty incidence) Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Surigao del Norte, and Lanao del Sur. “That the injustice and deprivation suffered by Mindanao of its rightful share of the wealth of the nation will be addressed by the implementation of the ‘assured regional pie’ policy of the Bangon Pilipinas platform…," the covenant said. “What is for Mindanao stays with and benefits Mindanao," it added. In explaining this, Pascua said that multinational companies build their plants in the region but pay taxes to Metro Manila local government units, where their offices are located. “That should not be. They use Mindanao’s natural resources, yet the taxes go to Metro Manila," Pascua said. - GMANews.TV