3rd of three parts
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/24 June) – Before the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestal Domain (MOA-AD) on August 5, 2008, ceasefire mechanisms were in place, the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, the Joint Coordinating Committees on Cessation of Hostilitie and Ad Hoc Joint Action Group of the Philippine government (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were functional, the armed skirmishes were getting fewer and the country was well on its way to forging a negotiated political settlement.
Records from the government’s CCCH show that from 698 armed skirmishes between the military and the MILF in 2002, the number went down to 569 in 2003 even as war broke out in February that year. Progress in the negotiations and the deployment of the IMT in 2004 was reflected in the records with only 16 incidents of armed skirmishes. The number dropped to 10 in 2005, rose to 13 in 2006, dropped to 8 in 2007, increased to 218 in 2008, most of that after the aborted signing of the MOA-AD, and as of June 1, 2009, dropped to 72.
From 8 in 2007, 12 incidents were recorded by the CCCH from January to July 2008. By August, however, the number had risen to 77.
Brig. Gen. Rey Sealana, deputy commander for peace process of the Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) and head of the government’s CCCH in a presentation in Davao City October last year said they recorded only one incident in January 2008, zero in the months of February, March and April, two in May, four in June, five in July, 77 in August and 39 in September
He said 66 of the skirmishes were initiated by the government which launched punitive operations against what the military claims to be “recalcitrant” MILF commanders Ustaz Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar aka Commander Bravo and Aleem Solaiman Pangalian, while 62 incidents were initiated by the MILF.
Sealana said there was no ceasefire against the three commanders and their men but ceasefire was continuing between government forces and the 16 other base commands of the MILF.
Ten months after the aborted signing of the MOA-AD and millions of pesos’ reward money for their capture, notwithstanding, not one of the three commanders has been arrested. While the military and government peace panel refer to them as “rogue” or “recalcitrant” or “renegade,” MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal maintains they are “legitimate MILF” and “not rogue.”
Peace negotiations have not resumed even as the government had dropped its earlier precondition for the MILF to surrender the three commanders first and even when it no longer forced the issue of DDR – disarmament, demobilization and reintegration as the first step.
What contributed to the impasse was government, too, when it dissolved its peace panel on September 3 and announced a policy shift – that henceforth, it would deal with armed groups only on the basis of DDR (disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration). It also stressed “authentic dialogues” with communities.
It was only in early January when peace panel chair Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis announced that his newly-constituted peace panel would not impose any precondition for a return to the negotiating table.
“We are ready to resume talks with no preconditions,” he said.
A week earlier, on December 26, the MILF’s Central Committee issued a five-point declaration on the resumption of talks, signed by MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, calling for an “international guarantee” that both GRP and MILF will honor the agreements; that the MOA-AD issue be resolved; that the IMT be allowed to investigate all violations of ceasefire since July 1, 2008; that the Armed Forces of the Philippines “immediately cease military offensive in Mindanao against the MILF even in the guise of running after its three ‘rogue commanders,’” and that Malaysia will remain as facilitator of the peace talks.”
MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal told MindaNews “a starter stance from the government” could break the impasse.
Seguis said government is “determined to pursue the peace process with the MILF given the parameters for the negotiations.”
“While formal talks have yet to (resume), informal efforts are continuously being exerted by both sides to explore less critical areas where discussions can move on. The Philippine government is also appreciative of the continuous assistance given by other countries to support the peace process,” he said.
“Yes there are challenges but there are still hopes that the 2001 vow (for an “all-out peace”) will be realized as the President is deeply committed and determined to achieving long-term peace and stability for the region of Mindanao and we are confident that talks with the MILF will resume soon. Yes, we can because we will,” he said.
Abhoud Syed Lingga, executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies in Cotabato City, has a very short proposal to break the impasse: “amend the Constitution and allow power sharing.”
While many may agree with Lingga, they say it is the wrong time given the House of Representatives’ moves to amend the Charter even without Senate participation.
Meanwhile, the Bishops-Ulama Conference’s community dialogues on the peace process are ongoing in Mindanao, as are consultations by several peace advocacy groups. What the communities’ proposed solutions or suggestions are, the organizers have yet to collate and present.
Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo could not have put it more appropriately in late December when he reiterated his call for an end to conflict and return to peace negotiations:
Quevedo said the situation has become a “chicken-egg” problem and that “action-retaliation” by both sides is merely a “symptom that inflicts massive tragedy to thousands of civilians and to its combatants.” He wondered if what was happening in Gaza was now being replicated in Mindanao.
“In contemporary history,” he said, “ever since the 1967 war, the Palestinian-Israeli problem has been one of action and retaliation” and “very often the initiator of the action to which retaliation is a response is quite blurred because of propaganda on both sides.”
“I wonder if this is now being replicated in our region... the massacres and raids by MILF elements just before Christmas being reportedly justified as a retaliation to alleged government troops’ incursion into those villages. Which happened first? Who actually did the ‘incursion’? The people in those villages would know,” he wrote.
“Individual (violent) incidents have become a problem of ‘chicken-egg,’” he said, adding that what should be denounced is “not so much individual incidents but the entire problem of conflict of which ‘action-retaliation’ is a symptom, but a symptom that inflicts massive tragedy to thousands of civilians and to its combatants.”
“What should we tirelessly promote,” he said, is “ peace: restart the talks and end the conflict.”
“How shall we promote such peace - first by not imposing preconditions that make it impossible for parties to resume talking; second, by urging the parties to go into talks by including the ‘impossible’ conditions part of the peace talks but also urging the parties to look into what is really essential (for it could be that some ‘impossible’ pre-conditions may not really be essential); third, by making sure that both parties consult their constituents before and during the peace talks; fourth, by making sure that no violent incident initiated by any hothead would distract the process,” Quevedo wrote. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)
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