04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly centuries later converted to either Islam or Christianity, belong to the same ethnic Malay race. Even the settlers from Luzon and Visayas belong to the same ethnic Malay race. Declaring the Bangsamoros alone as the single "First Nation" is a historical anomaly. If ethnicity alone is the criterion in declaring a First Nation, then all peoples of Mindanao belonging to the Malay race are the First Nations. If resistance to foreign beliefs is the criterion in declaring a First Nation, then the 18 Lumad groups in Mindanao are the First Nations. When asked during the oral arguments why the MOA-AD declares the Bangsamoros as the single "First Nation," the Solicitor General answered that "the MILF requested that they be considered a First Nation."[95] The GRP Panel should not readily agree to include in the text of the agreement, an official document, anything that the MILF Panel wants. Claims to historicity must be verified because historical inaccuracies have no place in a peace agreement that resolves a dispute rooted to a large extent in historical events. The Cost of Reparation Could Bankrupt the National Government The MOA-AD recognizes that the Bangsamoro's ancestral domain, homeland and historic territory cover the entire Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan areas.[96] While the MOA-AD recognizes "vested property rights,"[97] other than licenses or contracts to exploit natural resources which are revocable at will by the BJE, the MOA-AD requires the Government to provide "adequate reparation" to the Bangsamoro for the "unjust dispossession of their territorial and proprietary rights, customary land tenures, or their marginalization."[98] Such unjust dispossession includes not only the lands taken from the Bangsamoro since the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521, but also all the natural resources removed from such lands since 1521. In short, the Government must pay compensation to the BJE for all titled private lands, as well as all natural resources taken or extracted, in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan. If the lands are still State owned -- like public forests, military and civil reservations, public school sites, public parks or sites for government buildings -- the Government must return the lands to the BJE. The MOA-AD further states, "Whenever restoration is no longer possible, the GRP shall take effective measures or adequate reparation collectively beneficial to the Bangsamoro people, in such quality, quantity and status to be determined mutually by both Parties." The cost of reparation could bankrupt the Government. The Executive branch never consulted Congress, which exercises exclusively the power of the purse, about this commitment to pay "adequate reparation" to the BJE, a reparation that obviously has a gargantuan cost. Of course, under Philippine law Congress is not bound by this commitment of the Executive branch. Under international law, however, the Philippines is bound by such commitment of the Executive branch. There is no Disarmament under the MOA-AD Respondents have repeatedly claimed during the oral arguments that the final comprehensive peace agreement will lead to the disarmament of the MILF.[99] However, paragraph 8 on Governance of the MOA-AD allows the BJE "to build, develop and maintain its own x x x police and internal security force." Clearly, the BJE's internal security force is separate from its police. The obvious elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 105/203