‘Autonomy is under your nose’

BANTAY GOBYERNO

Ike Señeres

WYSIWYG is an old computer jargon that simply means “What you see is what you get”. While that may be true, there are actually many features in a computer that you do not see, and yet you still get it. Somehow, there seems to be a connection here to the other saying “What you do not know won’t hurt you”, a saying that I have proven to be wrong so many times.

In retrospect, I now know that what I do not know could hurt me and as a matter of fact, I could have avoided getting hurt, had I known earlier what would happen. Not knowing what would hurt me, and not seeing what I am about to get does not always turn out well for me, and that is easy to explain why that is so.

You might have experienced it yourself, when you rummage through your old things, and you see something of value that you could have used, or you could have sold, when you needed money in the past. Or you could see something of value that could have made your life better, or in other words, you did not know that you had an asset that you would have enjoyed. Doing my mountaineering days, I always saw to it that I knew exactly where to get things out of my pack, by simply groping through it, even if I did not see what I was trying to get. What was important then is that I knew what was inside my pack, and I knew where to get what when I needed it.

I remember a joke about an old man who went to a movie house, and he started to look for his flashlight, using his flashlight. He was so embarrassed when the usher told him that he was using his flashlight to look for something that he thought was missing. That may not sound too funny to you, but the moral lesson here is that we often look for something that we already have, not realizing that we already have it. Similarly, we often wish that we would have something that we would desire so badly, not knowing that we already have it. In this case, it could be said that not knowing what we have could actually hurt us.

Sovereignty is a state of being that would, and should always come with a territory. Perhaps the only exception to this rule is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), which is actually a sovereign order but is not a sovereign state, even if it has been granted observer status by the United Nations, and even if has the rights to open its own embassies and issue its own passports. SMOM maintains its headquarters in Rome. It has its real estate properties in Italy, but that is not the same as having a territory of their own. In contrast, Vatican City is considered as a sovereign state even if it is physically located inside Italy. As a further contrast, Vatican City has been granted permanent observer state status by the United Nations, recognizing it as a sovereign state, even if it is not a member.

The Falkland Islands off Argentina is a territory of the United Kingdom. It does not have sovereignty, but it does have autonomy. Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia is a territory of Australia. It also does not have sovereignty, but it also has a large degree of autonomy. Generally speaking, it could be said that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the other member countries of the British Commonwealth might have total autonomy so to speak, but they could not be considered as fully sovereign, because their Head of State is still the Queen of England.

At the outset, it seems very clear that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is only asking for autonomy, but not sovereignty. Technically speaking, autonomy could only be granted by a sovereign state, while sovereignty could not be granted, it could only be won by way of a revolution. This is the reason why MILF Chief Negotiator Mr. MohadgerIqbal appears to be in a state of confusion when he declared that the MILF now has a “revolutionary status”. He would only be correct if as a matter of fact the MILF has already won territory because of a “revolution”. By some stretch of our imagination, we could perhaps say that the MILF now “controls” some territories, but that does not mean that they already have “revolutionary status”, nor does it mean that they already have sovereignty over these “controlled territories”.

If it is only autonomy that the MILF is asking for, that should not be a problem because the Local Government Code (LGC) already provides for autonomy to be enjoyed by all Local Government Units (LGUs). It does not even have to be granted, because it was already granted by an Act of Congress. As it was granted by the law, autonomy could now be enjoyed by all towns, cities and provinces. What that means is that Mr. Iqbal does not even have to ask for autonomy, because all he has to do is to apply the LGC in all the towns, cities and provinces that the MILF supposedly “controls”. If it happens that he would actually want more autonomy than what the LGC provides, perhaps he should try to enjoy first what has already been given, before he would ask for more.

How I wish that we could give autonomy to the territories that have been identified by the MILF as under their “control”, but it is actually ours to give, because it was given to them already, assuming that we have the same understanding of what autonomy means to us and to them. It appears however that Mr. Iqbal has his own interpretation of autonomy such as having their own Supreme Court, their own Ombudsman and having their own Commission on Audit. I do not know if Mr. Iqbal understands the magnitude of what he is saying, because what he is asking for would require a Constitutional amendment. Short of calling for a Constitutional Convention, the Congress has the power to declare or constitute the territories that are supposedly “controlled” by the MILF into an autonomous region with its own Regional Development Council (RDC), as provided for in the LGC.

Looking back, the government has already created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the past, even if it is perceived to be a failure. Notwithstanding that perceived failure, it does not mean that the concept is wrong, and it does not mean either that it could not work. For the record, the ARMM already had its own RDC, and it already had its own budgets. That said, it may be worthwhile for both sides of the negotiating table to consider instead the reconstitution of the ARMM into an Autonomous Region of Bangsamoro (AROB), with its own RDC, and with its own budgets. Just as we still have to work harder to make the LGC succeed nationwide, the people of Mindanao could still work harder to make AROB succeed region wide. All of us, Christians and Moslems alike already have autonomy right under our noses, and all we have to do is to make it happen.

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