THE PHILIPPINE government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiating panels are in KL, hammering away at the two remaining annexes: on power sharing and normalization. Contentious issues remain, which make many of us worry. The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) was signed October 15, 2012. The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), mandated to draft the basic law that will flesh out the agreement and strengthen the grant of autonomy, was created late last year. The members appointed by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III last February. What will they draft, if two crucial annexes remain? How to proceed, when the tripartite review of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), facilitated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), seems to be floating in the political winds? The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is the result of the peace agreement with the MNLF. It is logical to assume that this agreement is the base upon which the GPH-MILF negotiations are anchored.

Meanwhile, the attention of government has been focused on the rehabilitation of the one million victims of Typhoon Yolanda, plus the victims of the Bohol earthquake, the 120,000 refugees in Zamboanga living in tents for over three months now, the Napoles-PDAP scandal, and other political land mines.

So much on the plate of the President and his cabinet. Will the peace process with the MILF have the attention needed to bring it to fruition? In the meantime, we who are outside government need to do what we can to help.Last week, we had a hectic two-day conference-workshop on the “Business and Investment Climate for the Bangsamoro” held at the Waterfront-Insular Hotel in Davao City (November 26-27). Organized by the Foundation for Economic Freedom and the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, the conference was the first of a series. Discussions were expected to yield common approaches to achieving fiscal autonomy by strengthening the foundation for business and investment in the Bangsamoro region. The succeeding workshops will be more focused, zeroing in on the key issues identified by the conference. Dr. Cayetano Paderanga of the UP School of Economics, former head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), expertly chaired and moderated the two-day conference.This initiative, conducted in coordination with the Bangsamoro Development Agency, is supported by AusAID. One hundred twenty leaders participated — from the MILF and Bangsamoro, private and public sectors, as well as international development partners. Our project leader, Tom Allen, FEF trustee and former Philippine country director of the World Bank, has to be credited for the strong presence of the private sector and international development partners.

MILF Vice-Chair Mohagher Iqbal, who heads the MILF Negotiating Panel and chairs the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, led the MILF and Bangsamoro participants. The BTC is mandated to draft the basic law, which will transform the present ARMM into the Bangsamoro Region. This is pursuant to the agreements between the government and the MILF, and specifically laid out in the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro and its four annexes.

Also with us were the entire Board of the BDA led by its chair, Dr. Safrullah Dipatuan, and directors of the Bangsamoro Leadership Institute. From the private sector, we had the Foreign Chambers Association including heads of the American, Australia-New Zealand and Canadian Chambers; the Philippine, Mindanao and ARMM chambers of commerce; Makati, Mindanao and Muslim Business Clubs; senior officials of banks; and investors; among many. Secretary Luwalhati Antonino, chair of the Mindanao Development Authority, came and spoke about the work of MinDA, advocate for and coordinator of Mindanao-wide development.

I take pains to describe the participants,as this conference probably constitutes the first major engagement between the MILF and the private sector, thus finally breaking the ice and allowing both to lay their cards on the table. For many years now, I have always maintained that weak fiscal autonomy led to the failure of the ARMM, a conception of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The flawed fiscal autonomy could partly be attributed to the lack of engagement with the private sector. Congress crafted the law establishing autonomy. With the lack of consultation, the Autonomy Act and its implementation did not sufficiently consider the requirements the private sector.

MILF Vice-Chair Iqbal, in his keynote address, stressed that political autonomy without fiscal autonomy is meaningless. As I echoed in my talk: a young man who has to ask his mom for an allowance to take his girl to the movies is not autonomous. Similarly, the ARMM, which is completely dependent on national government funding, is not autonomous. I have always believed that sharing of revenues will not provide the Bangsamoro with dividends of peace IF the pie to be shared is the size of a cookie or, worse, non-existent. After all, 100% of zero is still zero. Thus, it is critical to create the environment to bake a big pie for all to share.

The private sector representatives reached out to engage the Bangsamoro, staying for two days, intently listening to the presentations and providing their perspectives on enlarging the economic pie. Their participation in the four parallel workshops gave the conference the pragmatism needed to define the agenda for business/labor regulations, financing — particularly Islamic finance, land and property rights, and sustainable physical and social infrastructure.

(Bill Luz of the Philippine Competitiveness Council asked during the conference: Do we have to wait for the peace agreement to be concluded and the basic law to be passed before we implement some of the measures to strengthen the foundation for economic development? Good question, Bill. Certainly, the ARMM Regional Government has the mandate to act. )

A major source of strength of the ARMM is its Regional Legislative Assembly. If effectively run, the RLA can pass legislation that gives teeth to the autonomy law. Last year, for instance, the RLA passed the RH Law, created the Regional Commission on Human Rights Office, among others. Imagine if they pass laws providing incentives for investments — such as opting for a negotiated wage in lieu of the prescribed minimum wage. The region cannot offer much in terms of physical infrastructure; it can only offer its labor force and natural resources. The private sector has identified minimum wage as a major constraint. Would they come if the region suspended minimum wage, and thus provide jobs where none exist? For the huge numbers of unemployed of ARMM, a job that pays less than the national minimum wage is better than no wage.

The Bangsamoro region is sui generis — a class in itself. Devastated by decades of conflict, it suffers from the highest incidence of poverty and lowest level of performance in education. At the conference, the consensus of the group: the development of the region’s social infrastructure should be anchored on realities on the ground, and not on theoretical assumptions or models patterned after other regions’ programs.

Allow me to focus on the outputs of the workshop on sustainable infrastructure, the lack of which is acknowledged as an obstacle to economic development that can be more easily addressed than the political and security obstacles. Inclusive growth and development in the Bangsamoro is dependent on the ability of the regional government to harness both its human and natural resources. The alarming level of adult illiteracy, widely acknowledged as a major stumbling block to development initiatives of the area. The Magbassa Kita Foundation Inc (MKFI) has already succeeded in providing literacy skills to 63,000 citizens with the support of USAID. With more than half a million adult illiterates remaining, potentially excluded from any investment-driven economic opportunities, growth cannot be inclusive. The urgency in immediately addressing this issue is manifest.

In the case of half a million illiterates, this is a problem easily addressed by the ARMM Regional Government and the Department of Education. A low hanging fruit, we can quickly transform the half a million illiterate population into a work force that will have the capacity to absorb instructions for skills training.

Meanwhile, much-needed improvement of basic education in the region requires a strategy that harmonizes culture, language and values with competitive competencies such as science, math and English as well as ensuring increased access to quality, competitive and relevant basic education provided by the public school, the madaris and non-formal educations. For the Islamic schools or madrasah, this involves reviewing accreditation standards and alignment of curriculum with the national K-12 standard. Reformation of the current policies necessarily includes expansion of alternative learning systems, which are contextually appropriate for the learners.

Next week: infrastructure, business/labor regulations, financing — particularly Islamic finance, and land and property rights.

(Original article posted on Business World Online, dated December 5, 2013.

Original post: https://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=Waiting-for-the-peace-agreement&id=80384)