Spratly: Time is Running Out

With the problem of MILF secessionist taking the headlines, the issue of Spratly and the Baseline Bill are now gathering dust in the shelves of congress. Time is running out. House Bill 3216 otherwise known as “An Act Defining the Archipelagic Baselines of the Philippine Archipelago, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act 3046, as Amended by Republic Act 5446” should now be passed or discussed in congress.

 

The United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) requires every archipelagic nations to establish its archipelagic baseline by May 2009 or else the exclusive economic zone shall become an international waters or be owned by the neighboring countries claiming such territorial boundaries. Spratly group of islands are being claimed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan; and the way Philippine officials are conducting themselves dragging the baseline law in the sidelines of “kangkongan” so many years overdue, it won’t be far that we will be left again eating the dust in the “pancitan.” It has been almost ten years now since UNCLOS gave the time limit on May 13, 1999, and we have only eight months left to fast-track the Baseline Law or we will be knocking our heads on the wall in disgrace.

 

The Baseline Bill was on the third and final reading in the lower house of Congress when the Department of Foreign Affairs lobbied to stop it for reason that it has international complications. The house scheduled the said bill for final approval sometime in April, this year, but Palace officials intervened saying that it should be returned to the originating committee for further deliberations. Malacañang asked the House leadership to reconsider its version of the baselines bill, which, it said would provoke the country into war with fellow Spratlys-claimant and military giant, China. The Secretary of Justice, in parrying the thrust of accusations hurled against them in giving away Spratly by shelving the baseline bill, raised the scenario of war with alarming catastrophic effect –this a common tactics of sowing fears to win an arguments. But his tail is not wagging, hidden under his belly instead. Senator Asshole is of no difference. Fearing international repercussions, they threw the towel inside the ring ...without even a fight... and warding off with a treatise of non-existing provisions on the laws of the sea. A bunch of cowards are guarding the sovereignty of our territory. Why was Malaysia did not fear in incorporating our Sabah? Why was Formosa did not fear in separating from China? Why was China did not fear in making a law claiming the whole China Sea and all the islands within it? All these States did not go to war to acquire their domain on the land and sea they claimed. All can be done in the negotiating table. We have to assert our right and declare our strongest position through the baseline bill. The world today does not thrive through barbaric or primitive ways. Great men and women recognize reasons in the face of all adversaries.

 

China has been feeding the Spratly-claimants with soft and long-term loans and providing other Asian leaders of voluminous project assistance funding or behind-the-scene-negotiation to stop further making moves in claiming the disputed islands. This is a one-way of under the table diplomacy to avoid war. And why should we be afraid in asserting our right in our front door island space right on the side of an ocean highway? I suspect that there are personal benefits promised to this administration and this is the reason why they are making it difficult to pass the Baseline Bill.

 

The executive department and its minions are dead in trying to block the bill citing a varied legal treatise –rendered obsolete by the phrase “ all laws or agreements inconsistent with this new law are hereby cancelled or amended” and weakened its impregnability- without definitive bearing on our baseline territory just to appease China whose planned hegemony of all the islands encompassing the China Sea is in the offing. The Treaty of Paris is always being cited as the basis of our claim but this treaty signed on September 3, 1783, in Paris, is only an agreement between Great Britain and the United States of America. It involves the colonies bounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The Philippines is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea and was not even mentioned. Maybe the treaty being referred to is the Treaty of Peace, signed in Paris on December 10, 1898, between the United State and Spain ceding the Philippines for a mere $20 million and specifying its boundaries. But these treaties have been centuries old and it appearing that these have no bearing and being defied by our neighbouring States. We have to be attuned to changing times and there is an international body administering the present problems of conflicting States as the UNCLOS, in which all nations are signatories.

 

We have to act now. There are many tricks being employed by interested party States to distract our attention in strengthening our claimed Kalayaan Group of Islands (Spratly) which we have Pinoy-brothers-and-sisters-inhabitants to protect. The MILF conflict in Mindanao is one problem our adversaries have created as diversionary tactics to further delay our compliance with the nearing deadline of UNCLOS requirements. We have to be on guard, upright, and clever enough to defend our territories up to the extent of exhausting our last moment of breath or shielding it with our blood.

 

We have lost Las Palmas (Miangas) and North Borneo (Sabah) and Mindanao is being agitated. All these were lost through the fault of conflicting interests of our leaders. Spratly is next in line, are we a bunch of what have said as a people of damaged culture or just simply cowards?

Read more on this article...

Giving Off Mindanao: The Negotiators Negotiated

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post. Read more on this article...

Government is not Fed-Up with MILF Acts of Atrocities

The government is having a double talk relative to its position on the problem how to deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Recently over the radio interview, government spokesman said that the administration is trying to build a case wherein they can declare that the MILF is a terrorist organization. However government negotiators are continuing behind the scene talks with the separatist group rampaging in Mindanao –killing children, women, and elders; burning houses and destroying crops and other properties- in an act a terrorist is clearly defined.

Why is it that this administration cannot act decisively the way it should be? People are dying and the partnership of MILF secessionists are just talking that they do not sanction the terrorist activities of its leaders. Why is the government kept on trusting this kind of people who cannot discipline their own men? This is just to show the different factions, unlawful purpose and disposition, and wild behaviour of these terrorists groups which the MILF claims to be under their organization of establishing an independent state.

Government negotiators are may be on the wrong side in talking peace agreement with people who cannot be relied upon. It has been told that MILF has been waging a separatist war in Mindanao. This is the notion that the Filipinos are made to believe that the MILF have a justifiable reason to up rise. No, they have been waging terrorist activities for three decades now and the military is in collusions to justify its huge fund for a budget allocations. The Estrada administration almost wiped out these terrorist groups but was revived by the Arroyo administration under the advice of Ramos, her mentor.

The country will be mutilated if our government leaders will continue to regard these terrorist --who are evading criminal cases in the guise of political agenda- with open hand and who are offering a Trojan horse of peace.

Read more on this article...

The Legacy of Erap and the Barbaric Nature of MILF

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post. Read more on this article...

The New UN-IPOC

I have just posted an article about the impending collapse of man-made global warming legerdemain, yet another environmental scare is looming in the science circle invaded by politicians. Another component of greenhouse gas is being readied to take the place of life sustaining carbon dioxide which was charged and found guilty by Hansen and associates on the crimes against nature. Read more @Warming Sun Read more on this article...

Man-Made Global Warming Cooking is Cooling

The tower of “Man-Made Global Warming” is now in an impending collapse. A number of unaccounted weights have been overloading the “sound structure” built in a soft and unpiled foundation. The subsequent manifestations cannot be denied as a sign of eroding beliefs in global warming legerdemain. See more @ Warming Sun Read more on this article...

Men of Academe - Advocating Deceit (MOA-AD)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post. Read more on this article...

The Impending Tearing-Off of the Philippines

The Arroyo administration almost torn-off the Philippines in recognizing the Mindanao Independent State. Without the intercession of the Supreme Court through the issuance of a temporary restraining order, the Memorandum of Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) relative to Bangsamoro Juridical Entity could have been appropriately stamped “a done deal.” MILF could have shouted aloud and declared into the whole world that “Mindanao was won” and is legally authorized as an independent nation. This may become another case of non-stopping hostilities as being experienced by the Palestinian State in Gaza Strip and areas of the West Bank or the Hezbollah of Lebanon enjoying the status of independent state agitating a neighbouring Israel.

 

Why did GRP negotiating panel led by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita and Presidential Adviser on Special Concerns Norberto Gonzales let the MILF to win substantial portion of Mindanao and gave in to this separatist group much better concession when this group was almost wiped-out and disabled during the capture of Camp Abubakar in July 2000? The position of GRP was now carried by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Hermogenes Esperon Jr., and the same; they acceded to the demand of the Islamic separatist group in its claim to establish an independent Bangsamoro Republic in the pretext of lasting peace. Can it be called peace when majority of the inhabitants in Mindanao are at stake of being evicted? How did they got the authority to put in their hands the fate of the people of Mindanao and the future of a United Philippines without due consultations and evading constitutional processes? What are the hidden agenda behind this one-sided compromise?

 

What will stop the MILF to annex Davao City or Cebu City or even Manila which was formerly headed by a Muslim Chieftain -Rajah Soliman, the last native ruler of Maynilad, a Muslim Kingdom on the southern delta of the Pasig River and was considered as the "greatest king of Manila" and most important native chief when Martin de Goiti and Juan de Salcedo landed there in 1570. (Cultural Heritage) They have tried to include Davao del Sur but were rejected in ARMM plebiscite. They’ve tried Davao City and any other areas by just pointing those lands and verbally claiming it that those were their ancestral domain. What ancestral domain they are talking about? The whole Philippine Islands is the ancestral domain of the Filipinos and no one shall ever claim or touch it or “repay with death” as the words of Rajah Soliman spread in the Spanish community.

 

We have overcome all the tests to dismember the Philippines except for Sabah on North Borneo. Malaysia has annexed Sabah and they have reason to campaign for a separate Mindanao to lessen the pressure inserted by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu in reclaiming Sabah or to increase the rate of rent being paid by Malaysia. It maybe deduced that when Mindanao is separated, there is a chance that they can annex it when they are already economically capable to court or entice the poverty burdened Mindanao through the auspices of the Organization of Islamic Conference or of foreign entities.

 

This government should be vigilant in the conduct of negotiation which tends to dismember the Philippines. Many groups will try to organize, particularly the Muslim separatists, to sow hatred, hostilities, and insurgencies to attain their objective of an independent Moro Nation. MILF have gained the support of communist-NDF and has been very cordial to terrorist Abu Sayyaf-Al Qaeda-connection in accommodating them in their camps when the police are chasing them. Nur Missuari, the organizer of the defunct MNLF, was from the University of the Philippines which is believed to be the lair of the local communist party –now evolved to green environmentalist group. It is presumed that he was inspired by the NDF to organize and campaign for a Muslim separate state and it is rumoured that he will be the President of the Bangsamoro Republic. These separatist groups will do everything, promise the moon, and employ treacherous undertakings to win their cause. And there is the reported “undue interest” on the side of the US and their role with the MILF pact as shown by the presence of her ambassador on the scheduled MOA signing in Malaysia. Every Filipinos should be on guard as there are foreign interests lurking on the sidelines ready to swallow when opportunity is at hand.

 

We are still in a primitive class in spite of decades managing our sovereign state. Our subservience to minority rule is still a chain we have not been able to loose. We haven’t been able to free ourselves from the caprice and strangulation of foreign colonizers. We continue to be lame duck majority and unable to overcome the manipulation of the privilege few. We are still afraid to say “No!” They still dictate our existence and impede our development as a prosperous state. When will we ever learn?

Read more on this article...

Mindanao Conflict: An Internal Problem of the State

The state has been very soft in treating the Muslim separatist rebels. Organized in 1970, conspiring with the leftist organization and then its resistance to the declaration of Martial Law, the rebels have all the reasons for uprising as well as all freedom loving Filipinos. But martial law has ended and there is no justification for any group to isolate themselves but to seek unity as a Filipino race instead.

 

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) succeeded in furthering their cause with the establishment of Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in l996 during the Ramos Administration. Meanwhile the disintegrated Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) gained prominence after the collapsed of MNLF. President Fidel Ramos gave the rebels a room to stretch their arms when he let the formation of a camp and a territory for the rebels. President Estrada in his time forced the rebels out of Camp Abubakar, the MILF Central Headquarter, in July 2000, and almost wiped them away. However, he angered other law-abiding Muslims when “he treated the brave soldiers by feasting on roasted pig, where pork is forbidden among Muslims.” (Manila Times, June l9, 2002) But President Arroyo gave back the camp thru the advice of Ramos and the intervention of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) that gave the rebels a chance to regroup and strengthen their position. The MILF rebels continued to gain support. The Bush Administration link MILF to Al Qaeda terrorist in its fight for independence. MILF succeeded in gaining Indonesia and Malaysia to be on their side in the negotiating table. Today the Arroyo government is on the brink of giving the rebels their own controlled domain, giving off almost one-third of the Philippines.

 

Filipinos regard their Muslim brothers as their own. Although they differ in some aspects of culture and religious beliefs, they are one in their heart and with the same blood they drained in their struggle for identity and as a nation. Only the separatist group are leading the move to gain power and prominence. The creation of ARMM did not deter the rebels to pursue their aims as they did not win in an election to head the Region. Their plan to create a separate and independent state may not be appropriate in the region of diverse political infirmities and where the majority of non-muslims are the inhabitants.

 

The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was scheduled to be signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued by the Supreme Court upon request of Mindanao officials whose residents staged a protest upon learning that their barangays or municipalities were included in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

 

If and when the MOA is signed it will be submitted to the people of Mindanao in a plebiscite. And there is no assurance that the people will vote for a self-governing region as the leaders of the affected provinces are against the MILF separatist ambition and that they were not consulted when their territories were included in the expanded autonomous region. It is noted that the government panel may not be construed that it was their sign of weakness when it conformed to the desire of the separatist rebels for self-rule. They know fully well, that in any referendum or plebiscite involving its adversary group, the rebels will never win considering the records of Filipino politicians rigging the election results. But the rebels will not stop and may stage more armed attack to expand their territories and disrupt the scheduled ARMM election on August 11. The rebels may spread out the hostilities in Southern Mindanao as there are reports that the MILF is linked with Al Qaeda terrorist and their secessionist movement will be further amplified. They have employed the support of Abu Sayyaf as well as the armed movement of communist insurgents.

 

Treatment of Muslim rebels will require an extraordinary caution and persistence. Muslims in the Philippines have a record of non-submission. They are comparable to the rebels of Iraq and Afghanistan. Their record of resistance to pressure more especially to outside rule may be traced to the Bud Dajo Massacre where Filipino Muslims, instead of giving up, took refuge in a volcanic crater on the island of Jolo and were massacred by American troops under General Leonard Wood on March 7, 1906. (See “What Happened at Bud Dajo” at www.boston.com)

Read more on this article...

Global Warming Means Money

Shifting from fossil fuel source of energy to alternative source of energy means trillions of dollar investment. One can do this by citing the disadvantages of the present energy source and its ill effects to the extent of catastrophic scare of annihilating the human beings. This is what the proponents of anthropogenic global warming are advocating -forcing people to believe with the help of United Nations, wealthy capitalists, and the leftist-environmentalists or even trading their souls in exchange of power and wealth. See more @ Warming Sun Read more on this article...