Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Deles claimed to be on the homestretch toward a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) this year, which has less than six months left.
She said that both parties — the MILF and the government — have already agreed to the creation of a new autonomous political entity to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with the entity expected to provide genuine autonomy for the Bangsamoro people, which she added, addresses the root causes of the armed conflict in Mindanao.
Malacañang may call it a “political entity” even when it will have the size, shape and its own political, economic and religious system under a sub-state, which is what the MILF demands.
First off: How can a political entity for the MILF replace the ARMM, which is the existing body that the Constitution mandates for Muslim Mindanao?
It is presumed that as the MILF is Muslim, the territories now an integral part of the ARMM are the same territories that this “new political entity” that is the MILF, which will exercise control.
What then happens to the ARMM? Is the name to be retained or will this be the so-called Bangsamoro sub-state?
Using the word sub-state, as Malacañang knows, will not pass muster at the Supreme Court — unless of course Noynoy has the Corona-less SC under his twiddling thumb.
Still, not even Noynoy can abolish the ARMM and replace this with another autonomous Muslim region that would in reality be an Islamic sub-state just like that, since this should need an amendment to the current Constitution, unless the ARMM is retained, and officials will have to be elected by the people.
What the MILF demands is that the Bangsamoro people get genuine self-governance.
The Tribune quoted MILF chieftain Al Haj Murad as firmly standing on the MILF having a separate sub-state at the end of the  Bangsamoro Leaders’ Assembly.
As he put it: “We are not campaigning for a  federal form of government but a sub-state. We do not recognize the ARMM as it has no power, much more no people’s empowerment.”
He stressed that there will be no more compromises.
This is probably why Deles chooses to call this sub-state the “new political entity that will have power-sharing and wealth-sharing with the national government,” but will still be a sub-state.
On the issue of power-sharing, the national government will have its reserved powers, the new political entity will have its exclusive powers, and there will be concurrent powers shared by the national government and the new political entity.
What is meant by that interesting turn of phrase “exclusive powers” that are to be granted by the Aquino government? Details of that  agreement is still being kept away from the Filipino people. Chances are, however, that the “exclusive powers” are broad, including granting the MILF its own police and military forces — and not necessarily in the way the Moro National Liberal Front (MNLF)’s armed forces  were promptly integrated with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police when this rebel force agreed to sign a peace pact with government under an autonomous system in the ARMM.
Then too, it is almost certain that the Aquino government will parcel out non-Muslim territories to the MILF, which was the cause of problems between the Christians and the Muslim armed groups.
It is likely that the Noynoy government will be granting the demands of the MILF — complete with giving away Philippine territories or, to put it bluntly — giving up sovereignty to the band of Islamic rebels under a sub-state agreement — without necessarily using the term “sub-state,” which is why the government chooses to use the term “new political entity” as a replacement of the ARMM.
How can a “new political entity” be granted “exclusive powers” over territories that belong to the Philippine domain and not be called a sub-state?
If that is not the case of a government giving away territories and giving up Philippine sovereignty — which is not Noynoy and his government’s as it belongs to the Filipino people, what then is giving up government power and territories,  apart from power and wealth to a so-called independent Islamic “sub-state?”