Moro talks’ next hurdle: Territorial waters

MANILA

URIED in the euphoria of the signing of the annex on power sharing to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) last Dec 8 is the absence of consensus on the issue of “Bangsa-moro waters.”

In their joint statement, the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels said they will be working on “an addendum on the matter of Bangsamoro waters” alongside completing the annex on normalisation next month in order to pave the way for a comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) to be hammered out by the two sides.

The CPA will consist of the FAB plus its four annexes on transitional modalities, wealth sharing, power sharing and normalisation. The addendum on Bangsamoro waters will be another documen-tary hurdle in completing the peace process.

The concept of Bangsamoro waters is proposed by the MILF to provide political connectivity to the future autonomous entity’s territories, which are in mainland Mindanao and the Sulu archipe-lago. MILF peace panel member Maulana Alonto said such political connectivity would be important in developing further the psychology of the Moro nationhood.

The MILF’s proposed concept goes beyond the current notion of municipal waters, which is defined by the Philippine Fisheries Code as “marine waters 15km from the coastline, including streams, ri-vers, public forest, timberland, forest reserve or fishery reserve within the municipality” except those subject to the provisions of the law on protected areas.

Such maritime territory will pri-marily involve parts of Yllana Bay, the Moro Gulf and the Sulu Sea.

Delineating Bangsamoro waters and defining jurisdiction over these will definitely have an implication on sharing the wealth that will eventually be found therein.

Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN