Two assemblies have recently been convened by the group, one in Lipa City (Luzon), and another in Cebu (Visayas). The third assembly was convened yesterday, November 11, 2014, in Butuan City (Mindanao).
The National Transformation Council believes that the nation's most pressing business "is a regime change and a total overhaul of the electoral system as a condition sine qua non for the holding of the next election". Sympathetic groups on the other hand have likewise expressed that the immediate jailing of those involved in the misuse of the unconstitutional multi-billion peso Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) will bring about the needed regime change.
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| The Butuan Assembly, November 11, 2014 |
THE BUTUAN DECLARATION:
PEACE AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE COUNTRY
SHOULD BEGIN IN MINDANAO
Recalling the two assemblies convened earlier by the
National Transformation Council in Lipa on August 27, 2014, and Cebu on October
1, 2014, and desiring to seize the momentum and build upon the gains achieved
by those assemblies, we who broadly represent the various concerned sectors and
constituencies of Eastern and Northern Mindanao, together with our allies from
other parts of Mindanao, from Basilan, the Sulu Archipelago, and from Luzon and
the Visayas, have come together in Butuan City this 11th day of
November 2014, to proclaim our support for and contribute to the immediate
realization of the declared aims and objectives of the National Transformation
Council.
We commend the initiatives of the two previous assemblies,
express full and unequivocal support for the Lipa Declaration – “AN URGENT CALL
FOR NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION”- of August 27, 2014 and the Cebu Declaration—“DEFINING
THE FIRST STEPS TOWARD NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION”— of October 1, 2014, and bind
ourselves to undertake the necessary steps to help bring them to fruition.
Gathered here in Butuan so close to the First Anniversary of
Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, which flattened Tacloban City and devastated much
of the Visayas and the Calamianes on November 8, 2013, and the 7.2 earthquake
that earlier destroyed centuries-old churches, public buildings and homes in
Cebu and Bohol on October 15, 2013, and on the eve of the Second Anniversary of
the floods that killed and injured hundreds of people, and displaced thousands
particularly in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley on December 4, 2012, and
sharing the suffering of the victims of these tragedies and their families who
have waited in vain for adequate government support in their recovery and
rehabilitation, we raise our voices in solidarity with the people of these
communities to thank all those who came to their aid and comfort during their
hour of greatest need, and to express grave disappointment with the way the
Aquino Administration has failed to respond adequately to these crises.
We join the people of Tacloban, the VIsayas, and the
Calamianes in demanding a full and accurate accounting of the money and other
forms of Assistance, which the Aquino Government has received from foreign
governments, multilateral institutions, and other donors, and how, where and
when they were used for the benefit of the victims.
At this time of serious difficulties for the people of
Mindanao, we express grave concern over the cavalier way the Aquino administration
has treated the “Mindanao Problem”. We are determined to find a just and
lasting solution to this problem, one that will bring about true and lasting
peace, and a radical change for the better in the lives of all our people.
With greast sadness, however, we must say that the proposed
Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), now pending in Congress, is not the fruit of honest
and sincere consultations with our Muslim brothers and their Christian friends
and neighbors.
This threatens to falsify our people’s deepest longing for
genuine self-management of their own affairs, and instead to create new
divisions, disunity and discontent, both among those who are part and those who
are not part of the new entity to be created under the BBL.
We therefore ask the National Transformation Council to
intensify genuine consultations with all stakeholders in order to come up
with real solution coming from the
people themselves rather than from outside sources.
We specifically ask the Council to consider advancing the
Federalization Agenda for the entire country as the ultimate measure to ensure
the most equitable, simultaneous empowerment and development of all the
Regions, and not just of those in Mindanao alone.
As continued hostage-taking for ranson and other criminal activities
by the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Sulu-Sipadan area threaten to turn our Region
into an ugly counterpart of Somalia, the home country of the most notorious
perpetrators of piracy and kidnapping in the Indian Ocean and the Horn of
Africa, we call upon the National Transformation Council to demand a creative
approach to this problem that will draw the various groups involved in these
activities into lawful and lucrative pursuits, with the support of the various
communities in the area.
As the worsening energy situation threatens to throw
Mindanao back into a new Dark Age, we likewise call upon the National
Transformation Council to intervene and demand a solemn commitment from th
Aquino Regime that it will put an end to monopolistic activities which is
trying to seize control of power distribution in Mindanao and beyond, through
the use of political influence, intimidation and force.
In direct relation to the foregoing problem, we manifest our
Solidarity with the millions of member-consumers of authentic Electric
Cooperatives all over the country, whose rights of ownership by virtue of their
capital contribution are being ignored and violated by government officials who
act to protect some big businesses rather than the people’s interest. The actuations
of the Regime’s officials show their contempt for the cooperative movement and
the latter’s function of correcting social inequity, promoting social justice,
and enabling their millions of members to attain sustainability in their
endeavor to enjoy the basic life-blessings that make for a dignified life of
frugal comfort.
In the face of the evident increasingly severe deterioration
of the moral, social and political fabric of our society, we call upon the
National Transformation Council to speed up its effort to compel President
Benigno S. Aquino 3rd to relinquish his position, so that the
earnest work of national transformation could begin. More than ever, we believe
that Peace and Good Governance in the country must begin in Mindanao.
DONE IN THE CITY OF BUTUAN, THIS
11TH DAY OF NOVEMBER A.D. 2014 / 18th DAY OF MUHARRAM A.H. 1436.
