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ZAMBOANGA CITY—Mayor Celso Lobregat on Tuesday said that
while this city fully supports peace efforts with Moro
rebels, “it totally rejects moves to include it or any
of its barangays in the proposed establishment of the
Bangsamoro Homeland and Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.”
Lobregat
made the announcement as he called on all sectors to
unite and express their sentiments against any move to
include some of this city’s 98 barangays and other parts
of the region in the proposed entity.
“We have
been very emphatic ever since, we are for peace…just,
long and lasting peace…but the people of Zamboanga, just
like the other provinces in Mindanao, have spoken. They
want to maintain their status as part of Region 9,”
Lobregat said.
He
received information that some parts of this city are
included in the soon-to-be-proposed Bangsamoro Homeland
and Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in the discussions on
ancestral domain in the peace talks between the
government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The
government and the MILF peace panels finally settled
last week the issue of ancestral domain.
Lobregat
said that over the weekend, he sent letters to Sen.
Edgardo Angara and Senate President Manuel Villar
seeking support and assistance for this city’s
noninclusion in the said proposed entity.
Attached
to the letters were City Council resolutions, a letter
of commitment from business sector, a resolution from
the Liga ng mga Barangay and the results of the
plebiscites held in 1989 and 2001 where majority of the
residents rejected the proposal to include this city in
the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and
later the expanded ARMM, and letters he sent to then
presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza
and other national officials.
Lobregat
lamented that the peace panels are keeping records of
the peace talks under wraps, leaving the people in
Mindanao, in general, and this city, in particular,
unaware of any decision reached during the negotiations.
Lobregat
said he fully supports the move of Vice Gov. Manuel
Piñol of North Cotabato, who was set to file a case in
court that would, in effect, order the peace panels to
make public the agreement reached during the talks,
specifically on the ancestral-domain issue.
He said
the move to include some of this city’s barangays in the
proposed Bangsamoro Homeland and Bangsamoro Juridical
Entity is like gerrymandering, an act that seeks to
dismember an area.
“As what
Senator Angara said in his speech during the Rotary Club
induction last Saturday, the strength of the community
is its culture, and so don’t separate the Muslims from
the Christians and the Subanons. We are all part of the
city, so why dismember it?” the mayor asked.
He said
the city government is currently looking into all
options available to make the government and the MILF
panels know that the city residents are against the
move.
He said
additional plebiscites are not required as this city has
rejected its inclusion in the ARMM in two separate
plebiscites.
In the
1989 plebiscite, 90,152 residents voted not to be
included in the ARMM as against 5,499 residents who
voted yes. In 2001, during another plebiscite, 112,623
voted no while 5,650 voted yes to the inclusion.
Lobregat
is also set to send a similar letter to Secretary
Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the presidential adviser on the
peace process. |
