Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat speaks during a rally attended by about 3,000 people in front of the Zamboanga City Hall on Monday, August 4, 2008. Lobregat spearheaded the rally to protest the inclusion of eight most Muslim villages to a proposed Islamic homeland in Mindanao. Manila signed a deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels on the Muslim ancestral domain that will make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Zamboanga was the former capital of the Moro province and part of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. (Mindanao Examiner Photo) ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 4, 2008) – Some 3,000 mostly Christian residents here held a rally Monday to protest the inclusion of at least eight Muslim villages in a proposed Islamic homeland in the southern Philippines.
Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City also criticized the government for including the villages in the ancestral domain that the government supposedly would grant the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels under the peace pact.
He said the century-old Zamboanga City Hall and the Fort Pilar, an open-air Catholic shrine and the Cathedral are located in two of the eight villages, he said.
Many of those who joined the rally wore red shirt and were mostly local government employees and students who were ordered by their teachers to join the protest. Others were curious about the rally and the issue of the Muslim ancestral domain.
Local Catholic priests in their homily on Sunday also urged the residents to join the rally.
“Our teacher told us to attend this rally. We do not know what they are talking about here,” one high school student told the Midnanao Examiner.
His teacher said the principal ordered them to bring the students at the rally. “We were just told to bring the students here at the rally and to put on a red arm band in support of the protest rally,” she said.
Some of the protesters carried placards denouncing the inclusion of Zamboanga villages in the Muslim homeland. One placard reads: “Gloria tumigil ka na…Gloria magisip-isp ka.”
Another reads: “I am a good Moro. I am against the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Let us all unite to live in peace.”
Lobregat, also wearing a red shirt and Zamboanga City Archbishop Romulo Valles, clad in white robe and red skull cap, also spoke about the ancestral domain before the huge crowd. Some of their followers carried wooden crosses and different statues of the Virgin Mary.
President Gloria Arroyo’s peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said there is need to amend the Constitution to allow the referendum in areas under the ancestral domain that would make up the Bangsa¬moro Juridical Entity.
Peace negotiators are to formally sign the agreement on the ancestral domain on Tuesday in Malaysia, which is brokering the seven-year old talks. The peace agreement also supposedly would provide for a referendum on whether more than 700 other villages across Mindanao wanted to be part of the ancestral domain.
Lobregat said residents already twice rejected plebiscites in the past to include the city in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Esperon denied Lobregat’s claim on the coverage of the proposed plebiscite. He said only Sacol Island in Zamboanga City is included in the ancestral domain. “I assured the people of Zamboanga that only Sacol, which is a predominantly Muslim island, is included in the ancestral domain,” he said in a separate interview.
Sacol is one of 25 island communities largely populated by poor Muslims, mostly fishermen and seaweed farmers. Many Muslim enclaves in Zamboanga have little or no development projects at all and villagers rely mostly on foreign aid for their water and electricity sources, despite the city government's more than P2-billion savings in banks.
US government agencies such as the USAID, AMORE and GEM and the US military have been active in providing Muslim villages in the city with infrastructure projects, medical missions and solar-power technology that provides electricity to homes.
Several department stores, mostly owned by influential Chinese businessmen, also closed shops before noontime in support of Lobregat’s call to protest the inclusion of Zamboanga City villages to the Muslim homeland.
Lobregat said many Muslim village leaders are also opposed to the inclusion of their communities in the Bangsamoro homeland. Most of these leaders, however, are also the mayor’s allies and supporters.
But many Muslims in Zamboanga City said they wanted to be part of the Bangsamoro homeland and are supporting the MILF peace talks. Many of them claimed that they are being discriminated against by Christians. Others also claimed that many department stores in the city do not hire Muslims, but only Christians.
Muslim groups and peace advocates in Zamboanga City are supporting the peace talks and favor the ancestral domain. Ancestral domain was arguably the thorniest issue that blocked a political settlement between the government and the rebels.
Zamboanga was the former capital of the Moro province and part of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo.
Aside from Zamboanga City, the ancestral domain includes the whole of ARMM and also some areas in Zamboanga Peninsula, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces in Mindanao where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. It also covers Palawan province in western Philippines. ARMM is composed of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and Marawi City.
Lobregat said the Arroyo government is using the policy of “divide and conquer” and “divide and rule”.
“We are for peace. We are for honorable and long lasting peace. Christians and Muslim live in harmony and peace in Zamboanga City. And we respect each other culture and religion.”
“This issue of ancestral domain again cropped up. We are appealing to the government peace panel to listen to our calls. We are part of Mindanao. We are part of the Philippines. We are Filipinos and we should thread what binds us together and not our differences. We do not believe that a juridical entity should be created out of religion or base on segregation. Here we should live together and in harmony,” Lobregat said.
Residents of Iligan City, led by Mayor Lawrence Cruz, also held a protest rally, Lobregat said. Vice Gov. Emmanuel Pinol of North Cotabato said he will also oppose any attempt to include his province in the Muslim homeland and has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the signing of the ancestral domain accord in Kuala Lumpur.
Zamboanga City Rep. Erico Fabian also filed a similar petition on Monday at the Supreme Court.
The independent, but influential group called Peace Advocates Zamboanga (PAZ), headed by Claretian priest Angel Calvo said the signing of the ancestral domain is a big step in achieving peace in Mindanao. “It is one big step to achieving peace,” said the Spanish priest, who is also the president of the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace in Philippines.
PAZ is a Catholic organization whose objective is the promotion of peace by strengthening good relations among Muslims and Christians, and all other peoples.
The United Opposition also called on President Gloria Arroyo to postpone the signing of the peace pact until the Supreme Court determines the legality of the agreement.
The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, appealed to Christians and Muslims in Mindanao to promote trust, understanding and cooperation, not hatred and mistrust. Rebel leaders said they will not sign any peace deal with the Arroyo government unless the demand of Muslims for self-determination is granted.
Last year, peace talks were stalled after government negotiators reneged on the ancestral-domain deal.
President Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001 after deposing President Joseph Estrada. But despite the peace talks, sporadic fighting between rebels and soldiers still continue in Mindanao with both sides accusing each other of violating a fragile truce accord. (Mindanao Examiner)
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