What’s in Navarre, Spain?

Angela Casauay

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A delegation led by the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles embarked on a trip to Spain to study the local police mechanisms in Navarre that can serve as a model for the future Bangsamoro police force.

Navarre's police system can provide lessons that will guide the future Bangsamoro police set up

MANILA, Philippines – The government is looking for techniques from the local police set up in the “chartered community system” of Navarre (or Navarra) in Spain to guide the future establishment of the Bangsamoro police force. 

A delegation led by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process left for Madrid Tuesday, October 23, and is expected to be in Navarre Wednesday, October 24. The “study trip” is part of preparations for the next round of talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in November.

“The study visit is a tool. We are not saying that we will replicate the Navarra model, but knowing the benefits and risks in an already existing structure and mechanism can definitely keep our minds running in so far as imagining what ‘normalization’ will look like on the ground, implementation-wise.” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles Deles said in a statement. 

One of the requirements of normalization under Section 8 of the Framework Agreement is the establishment of a “police service (that is) professional and free from partisan control.” 

Government Peace Panel Chairman Marvic Leonen said Navarre became the chosen destination because the government of Spain had a long-standing invitation for the Philippines but he stressed that the government will not necessarily adapt the system used by Navarre’s Policia Foral. 

“It is not the model that we will be following. We are just going to study their system, that’s all. We are studying all possibilities that may be consistent with our Constitution,” he said. 

Spain has a unique form of political system, where territories are divided among 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities. Although the “sub-units” still fall under one parliament, each autonomous community has its own form of laws known as Statutes of Autonomy.

Author Tanja Borzel in her book “States and Regions in the European Union” wrote that the Spanish State of Autonomies is “assymetric” in nature, which means that autonomous communities are self-governed and the powers transferred from the central government vary depending on two factors: (1) their right to be granted special privileges because of rights rooted in events that transpired in history, and (2) their socio-economic needs.

The term “assymetric” is also used in the Framework Agreement between the government and the MILF to describe the relationship between the central government and the Bangsamoro’s “ministerial form of government,” details of which are still to be threshed out by both parties.  

Navarre is one of two autonomous communities in Spain that has “historical rights” dating back to the 19th century, which allows it to collect its own taxes and levies, and only send a pre-arranged amount to the central government. 

All autonomous communities in Spain have their own police force with its own set of systems.

Photo by Karlos Manlupig

From traffic to institution

Unlike the Muslim Mindanao region, which is historically linked to armed groups, Navarre’s provincial police force evolved from being a traffic police body to “a civilian armed institution” in the late 1920s.

It was established after the approval of the Spanish Constitution in 1978, and was continually developed after the Parliament of Navarra passed the Law for the Reintegration and Improvement of the Regional System in 1982.

MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal earlier admitted that the provisions on “policing” was the most difficult aspect of the Framework Agreement. Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief, has also voiced concerns over the creation of a separate police force in the Bangsamoro region.

Members of the delegation to Spain include Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, peace panel members Miriam Coronel Ferrer, Hamid Barra, Senen Bacani and Yasmin Busran Lao, as well as representatives from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the Senate, Congress, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Leonen will also join the group this week. 

Meanwhile, Deles also spearheaded an ad-hoc inter-agency meeting on Monday, October 22, that deliberated the details of the peace agreement’s provisions on normalization.

Present in the meeting were Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, AFP Rear Admiral Miguel Jose Rodriguez, Political Affairs Undersecretary Chito Gascon, and ARMM Governor in-Charge Mujiv Hataman. 

Section 8, Article 1 of the Framework Agreement defined normalization as the state when “communities can return to conditions where they can achieve their desired quality of life, which includes the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods and political participation within a peaceful deliberative society.” – Rappler.com

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