For consider the stark reality: there are 110 IPs/ICCs. Are their rights to ancestral lands and domains not equal in some fundamental sense of Justice as Fairness? If the govt gives in to the ransom demands of an armed group like the MILF, what is to stop one of the other 109 IPs/ICCs from organizing their own armed gang of thugs to enforce their rights under the IPRA Law?

How can the government claim to be undertaking a “Final” Peace Agreement with the MILF, and even have many in “Civil Society” support and demand it, when it is not actually settling the same claims and rights as the 109 other IPs not represented in the Mindanao Peace Talks at all?

Check out the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address

I think all these IPs/ICCs are much better off seeking a universal or omnibus solution under the democratic mechanisms available to all Filipinos, indigenous or not.

Finally, we cannot be so obtuse as to deny the existence of the elephant in the room: the very concept and proposition that Tagalogs, Pampangos, Ilocanos, Cebuanos, et al, are NOT indigenous peoples, is puissantly absurd, in the league of the-emperor-has-no-clothes absurd. But it is the logical conclusion to SCORP’s reasoning in Cruz vs IPs.

Puno divides the Filipino citizenry neatly into two distinct classes, with one rather privileged group of “indigenous peoples” being accorded one-third of the Philippine territory as their ancestral private property (according to Panganiban’s estimate.)

The basis of this rank ethno-religious discrimination is the alleged behavior of their ancestors, mainly that they refused to engage in a culture of incessant fighting off of invaders, but rather, they sought succor and protection from those very “invaders” who happened to have been also fighting off the same oddly familiar Moros even on the other side of the world.

Just imagine. Acts of religious conversion by our great grand ancestors are visited upon us today as inheritable sins, the punishment for which is “no ancestral lands and domains for you, Catholics!” Just as if there were no Bill of Rights!

There is no end to the reductio ad absurdum that can be applied to the whole IPs/ancestral domain ideology.

Correction, Angela: you must mean the ancestors of the Tagalogs, Pampangos, cebuanos, ilokanos, etc. The sins of the forefathers visited upon his progeny?

And how do we know what your ancestors did, or my ancestors did with respect to resisting the Spanish colonial aggressors? How do we know that your ancestors and mine did not engage in incessant fighting against the Spanish invaders. And surely, not ALL the Moros engaged in such continuous resistance to keep the Spanish imperialists out of Mindanao. As well, not all Christians “largely went along” with Christianization.

I would say the vast majority of the tagalogs, pampangos, cebuanos, et al were born into the world and they discovered they had long ago been baptized Catholics!

Jego asks, “Why is it all important that we keep Mindanao (ARMM in particular) part of the Philippines? What is so terrible about letting it go and be an independent sovereign entity? How many lives have been snuffed out because of this conflict and how many more are we willing to sacrifice just to keep the Philippines together?”

Indulge my curiosity but to what or to whom would you be suggesting we turn over the responsibility for this “independent sovereign entity?”

Surely you don’t mean the MILF? The Bangsamoro people are not the only poor, oppressed people who live in Mindanao. In fact they are an absolute minority among “the other indigenous communities in Mindanao, the Lumad, belonging to the different tribes of the Manobo, Talaandig, Pulangiyon, Mamanwa, Bla’an, Dibabawon, Mandaya, T’boli, Tagabawa-Bagobo, Erumanen-Menuvu, Higa-onon and Subanon, and of course the Christians, Catholics, Protestants, and atheists.

Minda News carries the Statement of these IPs protesting the fact that the squeaky MILF wheel is getting all the Grease in the form of that very BJE

Regarding Self-determination…this must ultimately be expressed in the form and substance of a democratic plebiscite. On that, all are agreed. But province wide or barangay wide plebiscites? Remember we have already had two plebiscites forming the ARMM.

I recorded the statements of Press Secretary Jess Dureza on ANC’s Crossroads talk show with Tony Vasquez Friday night and those in reply by Cotabato Gov. Manny Pinol.

These are worth a listen to. Then puzzle me this:::

Why are Tagalogs, Pampangos, Cebuanos, Ilokanos not considered to be “indigenous peoples of the Philippines”. Why don’t they deserve an ancestral homeland just like the Muslim Bangsamoro? Is it because they are Christian??

Believe it or not, the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the answer to this last question is “YES!”

Sad to say, the right to self-determination in feudal Muslim Mindanao will never work. A look at the MNLF ARRM experience of disgraced Nur Misuari going to the slumber for corruption is indicative of what is in store for the Muslim people….. what will make it different this time around with the MILF?

The ARRM region is also notorious for fraudulent electoral cheating with the feudal warlords and political trapos dictating who they should vote for.

Until the Philippines get past the feudal stage, secession will only lead to the crumbling of the Republic not that it has not crumbled yet but it will be worse.

Devolution is probably the best option, unfortunately too much money in the hands of too many people poses enormous problems and temptations in a nation where endemic corruption and proliferation of thieves outnumbering honest leaders with integrity that is if they even still exist.