On the Bangsamoro Question (again!) and the Need for Understanding

There's an interesting discussion (and quite heated, I should say) over at Filipino Voices, following the uploading of MILF Commander Ameril Kato's YouTube video. Kato, as you may well know, is being tagged as a "rogue" MILF commander on a warpath. The AFP said, Kato's video is part of MILF propaganda, which, for all intents and purposes, it is. Nothing wrong with that except that it has injured the ego and pride of the AFP--or those who want Kato captured--because he has eluded their dragnet for quite some time now. Despite the bombs, the forced evacuation, the massacre of Moro families and the obvious militarization of the entire Mindanao, Kato and his followers continue what they call their "jihad".

Those who want to understand the problem, I can only describe it in two words: real estate.

Who owns this vast prime lands that we call "Mindanao"? Who owns the seas, the oceans and the rivers comprising the territory that is Mindanao? Easily, you may say, the Philippine government. Under the Treaty of Paris, this entire region was included in the lands transferred by the Spaniards to the Americans by virtue of war booty. When Independence was declared in 1946, the Americans by right, transferred ownership of these lands to the Philippine Republic which now exercises dominion over these lands by virtue of law and armed aggression.

You may then ask me--what about the Sultanate of Sulu and those territories under it? Were they included in the transfer of property? Obviously, these territories being claimed as under the Sultanate is now, part and parcel of Philippine territory. The Sultanate does'nt exist anymore and has been conquered by the Philippine state. So, even those territories are now integrated into the Philippine territory.

Now, here we are, Mindanao-based Muslims claiming the right of dominion over these lands we call Mindanao. Do they have the legal and legitimate right to claim ownership of these lands? 

Yes, they can, being that the Philippine State recognizes the individual right to claim and exercise ownership over a thing, which in this case, these lands. The claim, though, can only be recognized under the property regime that is the Civil Code of the Philippines.

But, can these Muslims claim sovereignty over these lands by right? No. They don't exercise sovereignty because they don't occupy a territory and they have'nt established a government that maintains power over the inhabitants of those lands. The very fact that they are now on the run, technically, has rendered their belligerency status ineffective.

(more on later posts..)