Dr. Parouk S. Hussin, former regional governor of ARMM laments exclusion of Sulu, suspects a hand behind
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(SDN) — Apparent and palpable. Almost tangible, tactile, it feels heavy in the heart. You can feel it all over the body.
That’s how agonizing to the heart and soul of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and among its leaders and, to be sure, the region’s people the decision of the Supreme Court cutting the island province of Sulu from the Bangsamoro’s umbilical cord.
Complicating these emotions and feelings is the triumph of the 2018 Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) as the Supreme Court affirmed on Monday, September 9, its constitutionality amidst challenges posed in a petition against its ratification.
The Bangsamoro government welcomed this triumph of the BOL, or Republic Act No. 11054, in a statement that BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim issued on September 11, who expressed these mixed feelings — joy and sorrow, affirmation and negation.
Affirmation of the Supreme Court on the BOL’s being constitutional, bestowing recognition to the regional parliamentary government; negation as it cut Sulu off from the Bangsamoro autonomous region.
Ebrahim, president of the political platform of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), expressed the regional government’s sentiments on the Supreme Court’s decision, noting “significant victories” but “deeply concerned over” Sulu’s exclusion.
“Sulu is not only an essential component of the Bangsamoro by virtue of law but also by its deep historical and cultural ties to the Bangsamoro identity and struggle. The Bangsamoro will never be the same without Sulu and its people,” the BARMM chief minister said.
Read: High Court’s Exclusion of Sulu from Bangsamoro Region Tempers BOL Triumph; Never the Same Now – Chief Minister Ebrahim – SDN – Science & Digital News (scitechanddigital.news)
BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal also articulated these mixed emotions plain and simple, issuing a separate statement even as he mourned the demise of Sulu’s participation and membership in the relatively nascent Bangsamoro region.
“There is no victory when part of you is suffering,” Iqbal, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front MILF) Peace Implementing Panel for the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). He wears many hats — chief negotiator, among others — in the Mindanao peace process.
He said that as he welcomed and respects fully the High Tribunal’s deciding one-and-for-all the BOL’s constitutionality, “I cannot truly feel victorious because that would mean that our brothers and sisters in Sulu who voted for their inclusion in the BARMM would be left behind.”
Here’s the exact words from Iqbal, who last year met and renewed his friendship with Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan when he called on the latter at the gleaming white Provincial Capitol Building in Jolo.
“What is Sulu to us?
“Sulu is the home of our brave Tausug brethren who fought alongside with us in our pursuit for justice and the right to self-determination. It is for this reason that we cannot afford to let them face this battle alone and leave them in the dark.
“While this separation is so painful to us, this will be ephemeral. As your brother in Islam, we will do everything and take all positive steps to bridge the gap brought about by the decision and, in sha Allah, we will not let you down.
“Furthermore, we trust President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos, Jr., that he will intervene to address the adverse effect to life, administration, operation and services to the affected people of Sulu.
“To our brothers and sisters in Sulu, remain steadfast, for ‘Indeed what is to come will be better for you than what has gone by.'” (Al-Qur’an: Chapter 93, Verse 4)
Meanwhile, Dr. Parouk S. Hussin, former regional governor of the ARMM from 2001 to 2005, has expressed sadness over the High Tribunal’s ruling that cut of Sulu from the Bangsamoro region.
He is sad that his home province is now no longer part of the BARMM, hinting in a call from Sweden to this journalist that he suspects that, in the overall scheme of things in the Moro political dynamic, someone from outside the Bangsamoro region could have played a role like a puppet master in the unfolding development.
Hussin, one of the top leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), recalled the harmonious relationship between and among the 13 Moro tribes of Mindanao.
He said there were no animosities in the Moro ethnic communities’ ties that bind them in the decades of struggle for self-determination.
“You know what happened in Sulu,” Hussin said, apparently referencing what is now called the “burning of Jolo” in a major military blitzkrieg of the island province, as well as the days when the dreaded Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) put Sulu in the world map in a notorious way as the so-called Philippines’ “kidnapping capital.”
“It is now the most peaceful in the region,” Hussin pointed out.
The MNLF leader acknowledged the good performance of the BARMM government, at the same time saying that he knows the “people of the current” (the Tausug) will not beg to be re-included in the Bangsamoro region.
Apparently, with tinge of sadness in his voice, and his heart and soul hit by the new development on his home province, Hussin, a medical practitioner by profession, said the efforts of the late former President Fidel V. Ramos in his inclusive policy for the Muslim Filipinos, as well as of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, even ousted then President Joseph Estrada, will go to naught with the separation of Sulu.
In his phone call to this reporter that lasted 16 minutes and 24 seconds on Wednesday evening at 9:53 o’clock, former regional governor of ARMM called on the national government to do something to prevent the exclusion of Sulu from becoming a thorn in the attainment of lasting peace, security, and stability in Mindanao, in particular, and in the whole country in general.
Hussin acknowledged that his home province was the “most problematic and troubled” in the region but is “now the most peaceful.”
“And now they will create trouble,” he said, as he recalled the harmonious relationship among all the Moro tribes when he was ARMM governor.” (/)