Joint Technical Working Group Meeting on Territory

• Country/entity

  Philippines
  Mindanao
  
• Region

  Asia and Pacific
  Asia and Pacific
  
• Agreement name

  Joint Technical Working Group Meeting on Territory
• Date

  6 Feb 2006
• Agreement status

  Multiparty signed/agreed
• Interim arrangement

  Yes
• Agreement/conflict level

  Intrastate/intrastate conflict ( Philippine Insurgencies (1968 - ) )
• Stage

  Pre-negotiation/process
• Conflict nature

  Government/territory
• Peace process

  Philippines - Mindanao process
• Parties

  Nasser Pangandaman, GRP;
  Abdulla Camlian, MILF
• Third parties

  -
• Description

  Agreement by the Technical Working Groups (TWGs) on the Strand of Territory, which provides for compilation and presentation of technical maps, lists of Settlements, Industrial Forest Management Agreements (IFMA), Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADCs), and Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs), and other data in order to determine which areas will delimit the Bangsamoro homeland. The Parties agreed to elevate the question of Bangsamoro borders to the Panels for resolution.

• Agreement document

  PH_060206_TWG on Territory.pdf | Download PDF

Groups

Gender

State definition

Governance

Power sharing

Human rights and equality

Rights related issues

Rights institutions

Justice sector reform

Socio-economic reconstruction

Land, property and environment

Security sector

Transitional justice

Implementation

Confidential

JOINT TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP MEETING ON TERRITORY 06 February 2006

GRP Side

Nasser Pangandaman (Chairman)

Jannette Serrano

Mercedita Tia

Ryan Mark Sullivan

MILF Side

Abduila Camlian (Chairman)

Benjamin Dumato

Jaime Casinto Sr.

1. The meeting started with a review by both parties of the five (5) consensus points on the strand of territory during the 7th Exploratory Talks.

2. Mr Camlian formally submitted the following initial data gathered by the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the MILF in compliance to the agreement reached during the joint TWG meeting in the 7" Exploratory Talks for both parties to come up with detailed maps, locations and related data, referred to by the MILF in its position paper:

Major land Mass (inland, maritime and alluvial domains), Mountains and Mountain Ranges, and Sedimentary Basins forming part of the Bangsamoro Homeland and Ancestral Territory.

Lists of Islands in the Mindanao and Sulu Seas that formed part of the Bangsamoro Homeland and Ancestral Territory,

Delimitation of the Territorial Areas of the Bangsamoro Homeland and Ancestral Territory

Maritime and inland Bodies of waters that formed part of the Bangsamoro Homeland and Ancestral Territory, and served as their Transportation and Communication Highways and Byways.

Hunting and Fishing Grounds of the Bangsa moro people and indigenous communities,

List of Settlements (from the Bureau of Muslim Settlements):

List of industrial Forest Management Agreements (IFMA) (from Department of Environment and Natural Resources - DENR):

List of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC) issued as of June 6, 1998 for Mindanao Basilan and Palawan.

3. On the list of CADCs submitted by the MILF-TWG, Chairperson Serrano noted that said document also contains a list of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs) issued by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

4. For reference purposes, Dr. Dumato proceeded to explain the details of the maps outlining the delimitation of the Bangsamoro areas which the MILF-TWG identified, particularly the geographic areas covered since the period of the Sultanates, the 1903 Moro Province the 1914 Department of Mindanao and Sulu, the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 GRP-MNLF Accord which constitutes the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

5. The MILF-TWG also submitted its list of specific geographic areas and settlements in Mindanao that form part of the Bangsamoro homeland.

For her part, Chairperson Serrano stated that the GRP also has a list of CADCs, CADTs, IFMAs and other settlements which are still in the process of being updated

6. Sec.

Pangandaman gave a presentation of the maps prepared by the GRP TWG for reference purposes.

The presentation also detailed the Bangsamoro areas the GRP TWG identified since the period of the Sultanates, the 1903 Moro Province, the 1914 Department of Mindanao and Sulu, the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 GRP-MNLF Accord which constitutes the present ARMM.

The presentation likewise included a map of identified Muslim majority areas outside the ARMM based on the 2000 Census.

7. The parties agreed to submit all of the data presented by the GRP and MILF TWGs to the Malaysian Secretariat for future reference by the GRP and MILF Panels.

8. In reaction to the GRP presentation the MILF-TWG stated its observation along the following points.

The provinces of Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur were part the Sultanate of Maguindanao;

The Southern portion of Palawan was included as part of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu sometime in 1915;

The MILF TWG is approaching the discussions on "territory" along the point of geography and not on demography.

The term "Bangsamoro" is not only confined to the Muslim group but it also includes the non-Muslim native inhabitants in Mindanao.

9. Chairperson Serrano cited Consensus Point No.

1, Par 2 on the strand of Concept adopted by the GRP-MILF TWG during the 7" Exploratory Talks.

Both parties reaffirmed this point

10. With the technical maps, lists and other related data formally submitted and/or presented to both sides, the group reached an agreement to elevate to the Panels for resolution the question of which areas indicated in their respective presentations will be delimited as part of the Bangsamoro homeland.

11. There being no other matters to discuss, the meeting adjourned at around 12:30 p.m.

12. The group agreed to reconvene at 2:00 p.m. to finalize the highlights of the discussions.

For the GRP:

NASSER PANGANDAMAN

For the MILF:

ABDULLA CAMLIAN