Province of North Cotabato v.

Government of the Philippines Peace Panel

568 SCRA 492
FACTS:
On 8 August 2008, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), represented by the
GRP Peace Panel and the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (PAPP), and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) were scheduled to sign the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral
Domain (MOA-AD) Aspect of the previous GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2 0 0 1 in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The MOA-AD included, among others, a stipulation that creates the
Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), to which the GRP grants the authority and jurisdiction over the
ancestral domain and ancestral lands of the Bangsamoro—defined as the present geographic
area of the ARMM constituted by Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, and
Marawi City, as well as the municipalities of Lanao del Norte which voted for inclusion in the
ARMM in the 2001 plebiscite. The BJE is then granted the power to build, develop, and maintain
its own institutions. The MOA-AD also described the relationship of the GRP and the BJE as
“associative,” characterized by shared authority and responsibility. It further provides that its
provisions requiring “amendments to the existing legal framework” shall take effect upon signing
of a Comprehensive Compact.
ISSUE: WON the MOA-AD is constitutional
RULING: NO. It cannot be reconciled with the present Constitution and laws. Not only its specific
provisions, but the very concept underlying them, namely, the associative relationship
envisioned between the GRP and the BJE, are unconstitutional, for the concept presupposes that
the associated entity is a state and implies that the same is on its way to independence.
While there is a clause in the MOA-AD stating that the provisions thereof inconsistent with the
present legal frame work will not be effective until that framework is amended, the same does
not cure its defect. The inclusion of provisions in the MOA-AD establishing an associative
relationship between the BJE and the Central Government is, itself, a violation of the
Memorandum of Instructions From The President addressed to the government peace panel.
Moreover, as the clause is worded, it virtually guarantees that the necessary amendments to the
Constitution and the laws will eventually be put in place. Neither the GRP Peace Panel nor the
President herself is authorized to make such a guarantee. Upholding such an act would amount
to authorizing a usurpation of the constituent powers vested only in Congress, a Constitutional
Convention, or the people themselves through the process of initiative, for the only way that the
Executive can ensure the outcome of the amendment process is through an undue influence or
interference with that process.