Peaceful Scottish referendum provides lessons for PH - Ferrer

MANILA –Government of the Philippines (GPH) chief negotiator Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer noted the peaceful conduct of Scotland's independence referendum, saying that it provides many insights for the Philippines to learn from in the establishment of the Bangsamoro. The political predicament (in Scotland) was settled through the vote. People’s support were courted through reason and arguments, Coronel-Ferrer said. To be sure, the campaign went full swing with all the trappings of a political contest. But balloons and barn-hopping, not bombs and bullets marked the campaign. Debates and dialogues brought forth the best arguments for and against independence. On Sept. 19, Scotland voted no to independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain in a historic referendum that has been dubbed on the world stage as a peaceful revolution and a triumph of democracy. According to Coronel-Ferrer, either way the vote may have turned out, the point is that in expressing nationalist aspirations for independence and determining the will of the people in and of Scotland, nobody had to kill nor to be killed. The chief negotiator noted that the peaceful process the Scottish referendum was conducted provides an invaluable lesson as the Philippine Congress now moves towards legislating the Bangsamoro. More than 100,000 people had to die and millions of people displaced in the course of the armed conflict propelled by Moro nationalism. May this violence be truly a thing of the past, she said. On Sept. 10, President Benigno S. Aquino III led the turnover ceremony of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law to the leaderships of both houses of Congress. The BBL is the legal translation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed by the GPH and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on March 27. Win-win solution Coronel-Ferrer noted that in the Scottish referendum, nobody lost, everybody won, since the equation is not reverting to the status quo now that the co-existence has been reaffirmed. Isn’t this the same win-win solution that we signed on to in the CAB The result of the Scottish referendum opens the door for what UK Prime Minister David Cameron termed as a new and fair settlement which is the government’s bold offer for more devolution, specifically on the issues of tax, spending and welfare. In the Philippine setting, the chief negotiator underscored that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law is intended to provide for more devolved powers to the Bangsamoro, in order to enable meaningful self-governance of the people in the upcoming autonomous region while remaining part and parcel of national politics and society.