MANILA (UCAN) -- The head of the bishops' interreligious dialogue commission sees a Supreme Court order temporarily blocking the signing of an agreement between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as a chance for education and dialogue.

The ruling "gives time for both sides to explain their positions and basis for their decisions to affected communities," Jesuit Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro told UCA News on Aug. 5. That had been the scheduled date for the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Ancestral Domain in Kuala Lumpur.

The court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the government one day earlier, however, and scheduled oral arguments for Aug. 15 on two petitions filed against the agreement. The court ordered the Office of the Solicitor General to furnish it and all parties in the two petitions with official copies of the MOA by Aug. 8.

The government was also directed to answer within five days petitions filed by Cotabato Governor Jesus Sacdalan and Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol, and by Mayor Celso Lobregat and House Representatives Erico Basilio Fabian and Maria Isabelle Climaco, all of Zamboanga City. Cotabato province and Zamboanga City are both in Mindanao, the southern Philippine region.

The MILF has been fighting since the 1970s for a separate Islamic state in traditional Moro (Muslim Filipino) territories, mostly in Mindanao.

In July, the government announced it and the MILF had settled the issue of territory claimed by the front as part of its ancestral domain. However, only "unofficial versions" of a draft MOA have been circulated by media and other groups.

Speaking with UCA News from Cagayan de Oro City, 775 kilometers southeast of Manila, Archbishop Ledesma said the delay would be "good" if people use the time for consultation and dialogue. "It might be good to listen to negotiating panels themselves explain about the proposed memo of agreement so that we can hear both sides," the prelate elaborated.

Another positive development is that "people are asking to see the actual document itself to study it carefully," he said. "That is, precisely, the democratic process."

In his archdiocese, he also reported, "we are looking into an offer to have" study forums and dialogues on the agreement and related issues.

In comments sent to UCA News on Aug. 5, Julkipli Wadi, associate professor of Islamic Studies at the state-run University of the Philippines, explained the MOA concerns the area that presently constitutes the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). It includes additional land and maritime resources to be added after a plebiscite in August 2009, he said.

Three months after the plebiscite, a "Comprehensive Compact" will be signed to provide the "political structure and system of governance of a new political entity called the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE)," he continued. According to his reading, the ARMM eventually will give way in favor of the BJE. The agreement stipulates the BJE is to have executive, legislative, judicial and administrative institutions, even though the extent of its authority remains unclear, Wadi wrote.

On Aug. 4, Archbishop Romulo Valles of Zamboanga told UCA News he joined a group that studied an "unofficial draft" on July 21 and felt "angry" that the government tried to "hide plans from us who are affected by the MOA."

He recalled discussions of provisions to include more than 700 villages in an expanded ARMM to be governed by BJE. Eight areas in Zamboanga were reportedly to be among those to be annexed after the plebiscite.

"I am very happy with the TRO," the archbishop said. He heard news of the ruling after he joined a rally of more than 10,000 people in Zamboanga on Aug. 4, including bishops, clergy, Religious and local politicians protesting the agreement. Shops in the city also closed from 11 a.m. until noon in protest.

In his message to UCA News, Wadi acknowledged lack of "proper information" from the government has fueled the "frantic attitude pervading in Mindanao today." He expressed concern about exploitation of people's emotions by local executives and "opportunist groups" seeking to "derail the peace process."

According to Wadi, the court intervened prematurely in the power of the Executive Department to deal with the MILF and preempted Congress's function to craft laws.

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