The Supreme Court (SC) required the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday to answer in 10 days two petitions that challenged the constitutionality of the 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
Answers or comments were also required by the SC on the prayer for a temporary restraining order (TRO) pleaded in the two petitions.
The two agreements are now being used by Congress to craft a Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that would set up a Bangsamoro government to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Petitioners in the two cases are the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) and Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto V. Paras.
The Supreme Court yesterday also dismissed for being premature a case filed by a certain Rolando Rojo Mijares assailing the BBL as unconstitutional.
In a press briefing, SC spokesman Theodore O. Te said that Justice Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen “who was the chair of the Government Negotiating Panel that negotiated the Framework Agreement for the Bangsamoro before being appointed to the Supreme Court has voluntarily inhibited himself from participation in the pending cases and any future cases involving the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, and the Bangsamoro Basic Law.”
The Philconsa petition described the FAB and CAB as “unconstitutional agreements that would grant unconscionable” financial, social, economic, and political benefits to the MILF.
It said that the conduct of the peace process with the MILF violated Executive Order No. 125 which requires the presence of a panel of advisers composed of one each from the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Cabinet to be designated by the President.
“Contrary to and in violation of EO 125, the GPNPs (Government Peace Negotiating Panels) were not assisted by the panel of advisers. The different GPNPs conducted numerous negotiations, dialogues, and face-to-face discussions with the MILF here and abroad bereft of the presence of the requisite panel of advisers,” it said.
At the same time, Philconsa said the FAB and CAB granted concessions to the MILF beyond the powers of the President to bestow and in violation of the provisions of the Constitution and existing laws.
MANILA BULLETIN
