04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly as a state before international bodies. It could insist that the MOA-AD is in fact a treaty and justify compliance with its provisions, under the international law principle of pacta sunt servanda. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines would have been compromised. For these reasons, I vote to grant the petitions. Respondents must be prohibited and permanently enjoined from negotiating, executing and entering into a peace agreement with terms similar to the MOA-AD. Although respondents have manifested that the MOA-AD will not be signed “in its present form or in any other form,” the agreement must nonetheless be declared unconstitutional and, therefore, void ab initio, to remove any doubts regarding its binding effect on the Republic. Under no circumstance could the MOA-AD acquire legitimacy and force against the entire nation, and no less than a categorical declaration to this effect should put the issue to rest. I so vote. [1] G.R. No. 171396, May 3, 2006, 489 SCRA 160, 214-215. [2] Alunan v. Mirasol, 342 Phil. 467, 476-477 (1997). [3] Article I, Section 1. The national territory comprises the Philippine Archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas, the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines. [4] 1. The Bangsamoro homeland and historic territory refer to the land mass as well as the maritime, terrestrial, fluvial and alluvial domains, and the aerial domain, the atmospheric space above it, embracing the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan geographic region. However, delimitations are contained in the agreed Schedules (Categories). [5] Article X, Section 1. The territorial and political subdivisions of the Republic of the Philippines are the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays. There shall be autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera as hereinafter provided. [6] The provision states: c. The parties affirm that the core of the BJE shall constitute the present geographic area of the ARMM, including the municipalities of Baloi, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar, Tagoloan and Tangkal in the province of Lanao Del Norte that voted for inclusion in the ARMM during the 2001 plebiscite. [7] Section 15. There shall be created Autonomous Regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras consisting of provinces, cities, municipalities and geographic areas sharing common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage, economic and social structures, and other relevant characteristics within the framework of this elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 88/203