SPECIAL REPORT: THE PRICE OF PEACE

By Ryan Rosauro
Philippine Daily Inquirer


Cannon fire brings war’s horrors to Mindanao schools 

First of four parts; 09/25/2009 


DATU PIANG, MAGUINDANAO — Sometime in mid-June, just days after the new school year opened, classes at Datu Gumbay Piang Central Elementary School broke up as cannons boomed from an Army firebase 25 meters away.

Teacher Noime Pua said that with every volley, “our pupils would go out of the classroom, some would go home to the evacuation center, others were fetched by their parents.”

“Those left behind could no longer concentrate on our lessons,” Pua told a group of peace advocates, humanitarian workers and journalists.

School officials asked the soldiers to move their two 105-mm and one 155-mm howitzers elsewhere but the Army was not inclined to give up its strategic position. One officer instead advised the school to look for a new location.

The incident seemed to illustrate the supremacy of military objectives over any other considerations after fighting broke out with Moro rebels last year following the collapse of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

Today, both sides are trying to revive the stalled negotiations brokered by Malaysia. Hopes are that with the end of the Muslim fasting season of Ramadan, talks could begin anew in the next few weeks.

Sharing the blame

The aborted deal on ancestral domain called for an expanded Bangsamoro homeland in parts of Mindanao and Palawan, to be governed by Muslims or by a so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

It was the symbol of a generations-old hope among Moros for self-rule, nourishing countless revolts that have bedeviled every government in the fractious archipelago.

Blame for the renewed fighting fell on everyone.

Angry at the aborted signing of the accord, guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked Kolambugan and Kauswagan towns in Lanao del Norte in August last year, reigniting large-scale clashes after five years of relative lull.

The MOA-AD crowned talks on the sensitive issue of ancestral domain. Both government and the MILF regarded it as the biggest gain of the 11-year peace negotiations aimed at ending an insurgency that has claimed some 150,000 lives, by some estimates.

Mea culpa

Tension boiled after local officials warned of a political backlash from communities that would be covered by the Moro homeland. Critics slammed what they called “juicy” concessions to the rebels.

Weeks before the August attacks on civilian areas in Lanao del Norte, smaller skirmishes had erupted in Midsayap town in North Cotabato. The military used bomber planes in the fighting.

By Aug. 18, the battleground had widened to include Maasim town in Sarangani.

“We are man enough to acknowledge that we started the fighting in Lanao del Norte,” MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told reporters.

Fighting escalates

But while conceding that “we violated the ceasefire, especially in Lanao del Norte,” Iqbal also pointed out that the later clashes were “worse than what was started.”

Iqbal denied accusations that the MILF had bombed major localities, killing civilians. He said the MILF was open to an investigation, preferably by the International Monitoring Team (IMT), and urged the Armed Forces to submit to the same process.

The IMT, formed in 2004 and headed by Malaysia, monitors compliance with the 1997 ceasefire agreement. From 2004 to July 2008, encounters had drastically gone down. The biggest number (16) occurred in 2004.

In mid-2007, both sides also edged close to a full-scale fighting after Moro rebels beheaded 10 Marines in an encounter in Albarka, Basilan. The Joint Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (JCCCH), where both sides are represented, defused the tension.

Self-defense

With the resurgence of fighting in August last year, the military launched a manhunt for three “rogue” MILF commanders blamed for the atrocities in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato.

The search for the three commanders—Ameril Ombra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar, alias “Commander Bravo,” and Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian—took the Armed Forces beyond Lanao del Norte to the Liguasan Marsh towns in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

In its pursuit, the government unilaterally lifted the ceasefire in three of 19 areas in Mindanao where the MILF has armed units.

At one point, the government went to the extent of disbanding its peace panel to show disgust at MILF strikes. As usual, the MILF said it was merely exercising its “right to self-defense.”

Children in midst of war

The humanitarian tragedy that has befallen civilians, who fled their homes to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, has put into question all justifications for waging war.

Teacher Noime Pua’s schoolchildren may be too young to understand the horror of the war but they certainly felt it that June day in their classrooms as the Army guns thundered around them.

This town is now a major evacuation site and Pua’s wards are among the nearly 600,000 civilians displaced by the conflict. For nearly a year since the resurgence of fighting, the frightening sound of artillery guns was almost a daily fare for them.

Last July, the government and the MILF finally agreed to cease hostilities.

It may be another of those shaky truces in the long running war but for now Datu Gumbay Piang’s schoolchildren can study their lessons in relative peace. 

Correcting ‘historical injustices’ 

Second of four parts; 09/26/2009


MARAWI CITY, Philippines — AT A RALLY OF thousands of Maranao people demanding resumption of peace talks, a man in his mid-50s came forward and urged the mostly young crowd to “be prepared to fight to win back our homeland.”

“I have warned you before: This government is only toying with our aspiration for self-determination,” the man cried out. His two sons had died as warriors in the Moro rebellion.

The scene was a plaza in Marawi and the rally was in 2006 soon after the peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hit a snag over the issue of territory.

The impasse in the talks spurred a reemergence of extremist thinking in Lanao del Sur, according to an MILF member who translated the man’s thundering speech in Maranao for the Inquirer.

Thus, the crafting of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) two years later, in 2008, was seen in predominantly Muslim communities, including Marawi, as a historic breakthrough in the peace effort.

The accord marked the boldest attempt yet to redraw the country’s sociopolitical landscape and accommodate the hopes of a minority people.

Ironically, the MOA-AD also became a great source of peril for the peace process.

Opposed in many non-Muslim communities, it sparked renewed fighting in several Mindanao provinces. Amid the uproar, the Supreme Court struck down the accord as unconstitutional “in its present form.”

Mindanao State University Prof. Rudy Rodil, former vice chair of the government peace panel, said the MOA-AD could have paved the way for a comprehensive settlement because it embodied a “totality of solutions” to the Bangsamoro problem.

‘Mother agreement’

An earlier accord signed in Libya in 2001 under the auspices of the Gadhafi charitable foundation set out the framework for a political solution.

Called the “mother agreement,” the Tripoli accord cited ancestral domain as one of the three key issues the government and the MILF needed to reach a consensus on. The others were security and rehabilitation of war-torn communities.

The three issues were considered necessary to make self-determination a reality for the Moro people. A consensus on ancestral domain would correct “historical injustices” against the Moros, experts on Moro affairs said.

Bangsamoro (Moro nation) refers to the collective identity—equal to nationhood—of 13 ethnolinguistic tribes in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan bonded by Islamic faith. Owing to its historical roots, it is an identity distinct from being Filipino.

As a political entity, the Bangsamoro predates Philippine statehood.

3 states, not 1

Rodil, a historian, said that when the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain was signed in 1898, there were formal three states existing in the archipelago—the sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao, and the Philippines.

The Sulu sultanate was established in 1450, around 70 years after the Islamic faith was introduced in the region, while the Maguindanao sultanate arose in 1619, a little over a century after Islam reached the Mindanao mainland. Philippine independence was declared in 1898.

With the American pacification campaigns, the Moros and Filipinos became intertwined in a similar political fate, Rodil stressed.

Torrens title

Rodil said the Americans watered down the political strengths of the traditional leaders. With relatively effective control of the islands, they also introduced the alien Torrens titling system.

This meant invalidating the land rights granted by the traditional leaders in favor of state-sanctioned rights.

Rodil said major public land laws passed in 1919 and 1936 went against the Moros and leaned toward homesteaders who were primarily Christian migrants from the Visayas and Luzon, and to corporations.

These accelerated migration into Mindanao, driving away the Moros and indigenous peoples from their “untitled” lands.

Referendum after 50 years

In 1924, Moro leaders issued the Zamboanga Declaration asking the United States to declare Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan as “unorganized territories.”

They also called for a referendum to be held 50 years later to determine the peoples’ political future—much like the US protectorate state arrangements in Guam, Saipan and Puerto Rico.

The declaration was issued in light of a US plan to hand over rule of the islands to Filipinos, starting with a Commonwealth setup.

Moro liberation advocates considered immoral the “annexation” of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan into Philippine territory through the 1935 Constitution and the 1946 independence grant.

Thus, the structures of subjugation persisted, the experts on Moro affairs said.

National identity

Datu Michael Mastura, a senior member of the MILF panel, said the Moro people were only demanding to secure “what is left of us now” by seeking to reverse “lopsided” policies in the state’s current legal framework.

These historical tidbits explain the discomfort of Moro rebel leaders when discussions touch on the Constitution.

“They are very sensitive to that word,” Rodil said.

If the Moro rebels acquiesce to the Constitution, they will be seen as bowing to the terms of colonial subjugation, instead of defending the Moros’ national identity.

Even then, they are Philippine citizens by legal reality, Moro lawyer Musib Buat said.

Meaning of freedom shows deep rift in Moro issue

Third of four parts; 09/27/2009


MANILA, Philippines—So contentious were the talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the issue of ancestral domain that the two sides took nearly four months to agree on the meaning of the word “freedom.”

The Malaysia-brokered talks kicked off in April 2005. It took the negotiators more than three years to craft a deal, called the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

Ready for signing, it collapsed to the sound of gunfire.

Maulana Alonto, a member of the MILF panel, recalled the haggling “started with a compromise: That the government stop invoking its Constitution and the MILF drop its independence bid.”

The compromise allowed the panels to reach a consensus beyond the strictures of the Constitution, which they agreed was not designed to accommodate the “legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro,” according to former Mindanao State University Prof. Rudy Rodil, then vice chair of the government panel.

“It took three months and 23 days to discuss the word ‘freedom,’ making sure that the provisions using such word should not sound like independence,” Rodil said.

When asked to describe the language of the agreement, Rodil said: “It is constructive ambiguity.”

“What is written is not necessarily understandable to the layman, but it reflects the sense and substance of the negotiation with sensitivity to the feelings of the groups involved,” he said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo highlighted that sensitivity in a letter to then Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on May 6, 2008.

Ms Arroyo told Badawi that “the principle of self-determination for the Bangsamoro shall preclude any future interpretation to include independence, even as parallel strategies are explored on how these commitments can be fulfilled, either through the existing legal framework or under efforts to amend it…”

The discussion on territory was the longest, taking 14 months, with the MILF originally demanding that a proposed Bangsamoro homeland cover 3,978 barangays.

It was such a ticklish issue that it was not discussed frontally, Rodil said. Position papers had to be coursed through the Malaysian facilitator.

Homeland area

Using a mix of parameters, the two parties pared down the list to the final figure of 735 barangays. They were to be added to the core homeland area comprising six Lanao del Norte towns that voted for inclusion into the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in a 2001 plebiscite and the present ARMM.

A “special intervention area” was identified comprising 1,459 villages.

One parameter is the historical geographic expanse of the sultanates using maps developed from studies on the subject. This explains the inclusion, among others, of villages in Iligan and Zamboanga cities.

Another parameter is the predominance of the Moro population in a given village.

Plebiscite required

Rodil emphasized that a plebiscite was to be held for 735 villages within 12 months from the signing of the MOA-AD, and within 25 years for 1,459 villages.

The plebiscite would determine if the residents would like to be included in the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the expanded self-governing territory.

“It was still unthinkable for me why the MILF agreed on a plebiscite, which is a constitutional process, when it has consistently refused to use or refer to such word,” Rodil said.

He said the MILF’s approval hastened the deal.

“We had so many moments of darkness … The big step that we were looking for was having the MILF sign [the MOA-AD],” Rodil said.

Rodil said mutual trust enabled the two sides to hurdle the thorny issues.

But the success came to naught when sensitive provisions of the MOA-AD—previously undisclosed—were published, sparking a political uproar, re-igniting socio-cultural tensions and resurrecting supposedly forgotten biases.

The claim of the Bangsamoro people for respect of what remains of their ancestral homeland is distinctly political. But the issue has split not only the people of Mindanao but the nation as well along religious lines, principally between Christians and Muslims.

Rodil said that historically, “religion was just an accident to the division; it was more of colonialism, the Christian Spaniards, and later Americans, colonizing and the Moros resisting.”

Little understanding of Mindanao

Peace activist Gus Miclat said biased views were largely borne by a lack of understanding of Mindanao’s social dynamics owing to poor knowledge of its history.

The constituency of those opposed to the MOA-AD was so huge that Ms Arroyo was apparently shaken.

A strong anti-Arroyo lobby also militated against Charter change before 2010, which supporters of the deal said could have been an opportunity to carry out a “constitutional correction” to accommodate the peace process consensus.

In an unexpected reaction to the upheaval against the accord, Malacañang went to the extent of seemingly disowning involvement in producing the fruit of a laborious process.

Palace washes hands

Rodil recalled that during the oral argument in the Supreme Court on the MOA-AD, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera told the magistrates that the government panel had no authority to sign the proposed homeland deal.

“There was nothing that we committed in Malaysia that did not pass through a battery of lawyers [or was] not considered by the Palace,” Rodil stressed.


 
Numbers play won’t solve Moro problem 

Last of four parts; 09/28/2009


SULTAN KUDARAT, MAGUINDANAO—“History has shown that war cannot resolve this conflict which continues to spawn the Moro struggle. Neither can we defeat the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”

The words came from Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panel who has spent more than three decades in the Moro liberation struggle.

“The most civilized way (to end the conflict) is through a negotiated political settlement,” Iqbal told journalists in July during an Army offensive against rebel positions.

Iqbal’s remarks suggest the equal primacy the MILF places on negotiations to achieve its revolutionary objectives after 32 years of rebellion.

In his book, “The Long Road to Peace,” MILF official Salah Jubair wrote that the MILF considers its conflict with the government not in the “nature of eternal contradiction but political—which can be resolved politically.”

Another Jubair account said that since its inception, the MILF “had firmly valued, as a matter of policy, the wisdom of conducting dialogues in lieu of armed confrontation in the resolution of even the most difficult cases of conflict.”

Moving from war

Today, as the rebels prepare for the resumption of another round of talks, the issue of ancestral domain—which relit the flames of hostilities last year—will likely be the same platform from which the talks could move forward, unless a new framework for negotiations replaces the 2001 Tripoli accord.

Restarting the process soonest will be an opportunity for measuring the rebels’ word—and the firmness of the “all-out peace” policy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose term of office ends in nine months.

Primarily, the peace panels will have to contend with the Supreme Court ruling that the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) “in its present form” is unconstitutional. In a meeting in July, the two panels committed to “reframe the consensus points” of the ancestral domain agenda.

As a result of the MOA-AD debacle, the MILF has sought a guarantee mechanism, likely from the international community, to ensure that both parties to a consensus comply with their commitments.

‘Law follows reality’

“A final peace agreement will require constitutional changes to accommodate the legitimate demands of the Bangsamoro people. The present Charter is not designed to accommodate these,” said Rudy Rodil, former vice chair of the government panel.

Marvic Leonen, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, stressed that the Constitution must recognize the “multiethnic, multidimensional, polyvocal character of Philippine society” and embody “what we can aspire for.”

“Law follows reality,” Leonen told an international conference on Mindanao in March.

In her May 6, 2008, letter to then Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Ms Arroyo spelled out the opportunity that Charter change offers for a negotiated peace settlement.

“… Issues of a constitutional nature, excluding independence, can be taken up with the framers when such an opportunity becomes evident. Such an opportunity may come soon because 16 senators have signed a resolution for constitutional change and a large number of members of the House of Representatives have expressed support for it,” Ms Arroyo said.

Firestorm of controversy

But suspicions that amending the Constitution might be a ploy to prolong Ms Arroyo in power beyond 2010 stirred a firestorm of controversy and derailed the Cha-cha.

Even peace advocates oppose changing the Charter until a new president sits in 2010. This has somewhat tempered expectations on when peace would finally dawn.

Soliciting public support for a negotiated political formula is another challenge.

“What we are solving here is a minority problem. It cannot be worked out through the traditional process of superiority of numbers which is, after all, sham democracy,” Rodil said.

Importance of plebiscite

Some have called for transparency at every turn of the negotiations.

“If it (negotiation) was opened from the very start, it would have been shot down earlier,” Rodil said.

He cited the need to define “consultations,” the supposed lack of which had angered local politicians—and which might have helped impel the Supreme Court to nullify the MOA-AD.

There is nothing more consultative than a plebiscite, which takes into account the opinion not only of the political leaders but also the people, Rodil argued.

Clarifying a previous statement attributed to him, Rodil stressed that as far as the two panels could perceive as of now, the MOA-AD was a comprehensive compact with the government—not merely an accord on ancestral domain—that should embody the “totality of solutions” to the Bangsamoro problem.

Oblate priest Eliseo Mercado Jr., a veteran peace activist, said the issues of credibility and legitimacy that had hounded the Arroyo administration made it difficult for some to accept bold political initiatives on Mindanao.

Like Blair

For Iqbal, a comprehensive compact is still possible “if Ms Arroyo has political will.”

He noted that the Good Friday Agreement that settled the conflict in northern Ireland was reached in the twilight years of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s incumbency.

Still, despite Ms Arroyo’s unpopularity, her administration has succeeded in moving forward the negotiations. A year after then President Joseph Estrada declared an “all-out war” against the rebels, Ms Arroyo revived the talks with the MILF.

It was also during the Arroyo administration that the 2001 Tripoli Agreement on Peace was signed. Critical mechanisms were established, including the third-party role in monitoring ceasefire violations and an ad hoc group to curb the activities of lawless bands, such as the Abu Sayyaf bandits.


Challenge ahead

Rodil said both sides had also made sure there would be no conflict between a peace deal with the MILF and the 1996 accord with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

The envisioned pact with the MILF would even enhance the 1996 agreement, he said.

It has been 13 years since Manila forged peace with MNLF chief Nur Misuari. Now the door is open again for a settlement with another major separatist group.

Whether peace will finally flower in Mindanao after decades of conflict and the squeals of happy children replace the booms of Army cannons near Datu Gumba Piang Elementary School is the challenge facing Ms Arroyo, or the new president after her.

URL’s:

Cannon fire brings war’s horrors to Mindanao schools (First of four parts)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090925-226809/Cannon-fire-brings-wars-horrors-to-Mindanao-schools

Correcting ‘historical injustices’ (Second of four parts)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20090926-226949/Correcting-historical-injustices

Meaning of freedom shows deep rift in Moro issue (Third of four parts)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090927-227084/Meaning-of-freedom-shows-deep-rift-in-Moro-issue

Numbers play won’t solve Moro problem (Last of four parts)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090928-227237/Numbers_play_won%92t_solve_Moro_problem

More children missing school due to wars: study shows

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / September 25) – Four out of 10 children and youths in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao are missing school due to armed conflict, according to E-Net Philippines, a non-government organization based here.

The ratio, according to E-Net Philippines project director Addie Unsi, is three times higher than the national average, which is 14 percent.

Some of these children and youth, of ages three to 25 and who are out of school are considered illiterate due to their inability to read and write, it said.

Today, there are about 15 million illiterate Filipinos, about 27 percent higher than in 2003, the E-Net Philippines said.

The illiteracy rate is expected to increase as more and more children are dropping out of schools due to armed conflict, Edicio de la Torre, president of the Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net), said.

When armed skirmishes broke out in North Cotabato and Maguindanao in August last year, 4,652 pupils were denied access to education, data showed.

These children, reports added, were also exposed to other harsh conditions, including viral infections, in the evacuation camps.

In 2008, seven children died due to infectious diseases at the evacuation camps in Maguindanao, the E-Net Philippines said.

“The statistics tells us that the greatest impact of war is on the lives of the internally-displaced children, their health, education and future,” E-Net Philippines project associate Jinky
Flogimon-Boholst said in a press statement.

The group has called on the Philippine government and other stakeholders to do something to reduce the effect of wars on children.

To drumbeat their plea, representatives from the Local School Board (LSB) and Local Government Units (LGU) of Tulunan town in North Cotabato; Datu Paglas and Paglat towns in Maguindanao; and Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat will tour different concerned agencies in Metro Manila.

The tour will start this Sunday and will culminate on October 3.

As part of their lobbying, the trip also includes dialogue and forum with officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) as Local School board officials from the region call on the national government to look into the plight of the internally-displaced children in the
region.

The tour, accordingly, is part of the support system provided by the project dubbed Partners in Education for Community Empowerment (PIECE), a consortium of four NGOs, including the E-Net Philippines, Oxfam Great Britain, Community of Learners Foundation (COLF), and
Balay Rehabilitation Center.

The partner NGOs help facilitate delivery of service, capacity building, information campaign, and advocacy for education in conflict-affected areas.

“The tour aims to learn good practices and to lobby at the Central DepEd and congress the right to education of IDPs in armed conflict areas through policies, policy action,” the E-Net Philippines said. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)


Source: http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7032&Itemid=75

STOP DISRESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF CIVILIANS

PRESS STATEMENT
September 21, 2009

STOP DISRESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF CIVILIANS

We, the undersigned leaders of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), Inc., condemn the bad timing and indiscriminate way by which military operations were launched by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly the Philippine Marines, in barangays Kagay, Marang, Bud Timahu, Laum Siang, all part of the municipality of Indanan, Sulu on September 20, 2009.

According to local sources, this operation commenced with artillery fire from such areas as Bud Kagay and Bud Tumantangis where US troops who are part of the Balikatan exercises are known to be positioned, among others. This was followed up by an airstrike composed of bombs from OV-10 planes and rocket launchers from helicopters. The air strike was said to have lasted for eight (8) hours.

Although we acknowledge that this operation was against the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), we question the procedure by which the Philippine Marines had made such an operation. We also question its timing. As part of the civil society sector, the foremost concern of CBCS are the safety and security of civilians.

Many civilians live in the targeted barangays. While during the kidnapping of ICRC volunteers, the military exerted all efforts to coordinate with local government officials and barangay chairmen and even exacted their support to ensure that the lives of the three kidnap victims not put to more risk, now the military did not make such effort of coordinating with the local chief executives to ensure the safety of the civilians prior to the operations.

This clear and obvious lapse, or even disregard, to procedure has caused the displacement of about two thousand (2,000) families. People whose safety and lives the military are supposed to protect. They are now found in Buansa Talatak, Indanan.

A high level of precision, competence, efficiency, and sense of humanity is expected of government agencies that are authorized to have their personnel carry weapons that have the ability to threaten the lives of people. If this military operation is another of the AFP’s “surgical operations”, then we do not consider it as “surgical” enough. We have yet to see a surgical operation done by the military that is true to form. What may be “surgical” to the AFP is seen as “very messy” to the general public.

The military operation was also done at the very time when the civilians in the targeted areas were busy preparing food and about to go to prayer to celebrate the holy day of Eid’l Fitr. Because of the operations, they were unable to perform their religious obligations and instead had to flee for their lives. This action is seen as a blatant disrespect to Islam, the religion and way of life of the Bangsamoro people.

We hate to think that this is a grandiose design by some ranking men in uniform to sabotage the impending resumption of the GRP-MILF peace talks and the tripartite review of the implementation of the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement. Likewise, we hate to think that this is a part of a grand plot to derail the peaceful conduct of the forthcoming national elections. Moreover, we hate to think that this situation will ultimately escalate to mindset the general public that there is a threat to national security, validating future potential moves for the military to take power under the pretext of protecting the state.


We, therefore, call on HE Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to take strong action in disciplining her troops in Sulu and to be vigilant as Civilian President and be watchful of her generals in her capacity as Commander in Chief of the AFP. If indeed the government sees all in Mindanao as part of its constituency, regardless of religion, then these people have the right to have their safety and lives protected by the military. They have the right not to be mistreated, or not to be treated as collateral damage. They also have the right to be respected of their religion and religious practices.

Signed this 21st day of September, 2009 at Cotabato City, Southern Philippines.



(sgd.) (sgd.)
SAMMY P. MAULANA TEMOGEN “Cocoy” TULAWIE
Secretary-General Chairperson, CBCS Lupah Sug Region
(Sulu)


(sgd.) (sgd.)
NATHAN B. INSUNG MUNIB KAHAL
Chairperson, CBCS Basilan Region Chairperson, CBCS Samboangan Region
(Western Zamboanga Peninsula)


(sgd.) (sgd.)
SULTAN MAGUID MARUHOM DR. DIPUNUDUN MARUHOM
Chairperson, CBCS Sibugay Region Chairperson, CBCS Ranaw Region
(Eastern Zamboanga Peninsula) (Lanao)


(sgd.) (sgd.)
RAHIB KUDTO SAMAON BUAT
Chairperson, CBCS Kutawato Region Chairperson, CBCS Dabaw Region
(Cotabato) (Davao)


(sgd.)
OSCAR SULAIMAN
Chairperson, CBCS Rajah Buayan Region
(SOCSKSARGEN)

Basilan, Tawi-tawi execs want Japanese, German agencies in ICG

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/19 Sept) -- Local executives in Basilan and Tawi-tawi are endorsing the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) to play key roles in the international contact group (ICG) set up by the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The government and MILF signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last Tuesday a framework agreement on the establishment of the ICG, which will consist of “interested countries accompanying the peace process preferably drawn from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union (EU) as well as accredited INGO(s) to be invited by the Parties in consultation with the Third Party Facilitator.”

Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City said they want JICA to be given a big role in the ICG. “JICA has many projects in areas where there are MILF forces. These projects are flourishing now and are benefiting Muslim and Christian residents in many parts of Mindanao,” he said.

Ustadz Farid Solaiman Adas, chief of the Madaris Education Bureau in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said JICA, in fact, just started winding up its multi-million study of essential road network that would link trading centers in the ARMM to far-flung, underdeveloped towns.

Tawi-Tawi’s vice governor, Ruby Sahali-Tan, said they also want the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) of Germany to participate extensively in the ICG.

The KAS, through its local partner, the Institute on Autonomy and Governance, has been helping hone the public administration skills and “civilian protection capability” of local leaders, officials of the MILF, the police and the military through capacity-building projects and continuing cross-section dialogues among all stakeholders in the Mindanao peace process.

The KAS and IAG have jointly initiated dozens of peacekeeping workshops for soldiers, policemen, MILF leaders, elected officials in the past four years.

Supt. Danilo Bacas, spokesman of the ARMM police, said they are in favor of JICA becoming a “pioneer member” of the ICG.

“The only non-Muslim country that deployed a representative to the International Monitoring Team (IMT) that helped enforce the ceasefire between the government and the MILF from 2004 to late 2008 was Japan,” Bacas said.

Both JICA and KAS have been helping in the peace process in Mindanao. But the two peace panels, however, have yet to come up with guidelines on accreditation of INGOs or the admission of interested countries into the ICG.

The ICG, according to the Sept. 15, 2009 agreement will perform the following functions: “attend and observe the face-to-face negotiations upon invitation by the Parties with the concurrence of the Facilitator; conduct visits, exchange views, and give advice on discreet basis in coordination with the Parties and the Facilitator; seek out the assistance of recognized experts, resource persons or groups on specific issues in order to support the Parties; and meet upon request by any of the Parties at various levels to help resolve substantive issues based on agreed agenda.”

“Mindful of the interests of the stakeholders to benefit from and expect significant peace dividends from the ICG mission, the Parties will designate INGOs that will be accredited along with their named local NGO partners,” the Framework Agreement says.

In relation to the functions of the ICG, the INGO, it said, will perform the following roles: “engage and act as a bridge between the Parties, ICG, Facilitator and their local partners and civil society in support of the peace process; exchange views, provide research inputs, give feedback and advice to the Parties in coordination with the Facilitator; and establish communication channels in furtherance of peace process advocacy.” (Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews with reports from MindaNews-Davao)


Source: http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6994&Itemid=190

Eid’l Fitr, a day for reconciliation, personal transformation and unity

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 Sep) – Eid Mubarak!

With the sighting of the new moon on Saturday night, Muslims in the country will celebrate on Sunday Eid'l Fitr or Hariraya Puasa, marking the end of their month-long fasting, Ramadan.

Muslim eaders urged Muslims in the country to foster unity, reconcile with those they have disputes, and transform into better persons as they celebrate Eid’l Fitr.

Malacañang had earlier declared September 21 a non-working holiday.

Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam. A fasting person abstains from eating, drinking, and engaging in sexual acts from the break of dawn till sunset.

“When a person fasts, he also keeps his mind free of lustful or evil thoughts and keeps his tongue free from foul languages,” Sheikh Abdulbayan Laguialam, of the Muslim Supreme Council for Religious Affairs, pointed out.

“Thus, fasting is one way of training Muslims to become obedient, well-disciplined, and they also become more God-fearing,” he added. He said that after fasting, it is expected that “those who are bad become good and those who are good turn into better persons.”

Sheikh Saleh D. Musa, country director of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth-Philippines, wishes that Eid’l Fitr will inspire every Muslim to help each other and be united as Islam mandates them. He also hopes that discrimination against the Muslims will soon vanish for it paves way towards a “real peace” among the citizens in the country.

Imam Mantil Kudanding, president of Islamic Care Association, said that this holiday is the best time for settling disputes and pursuing reconciliation. He reminded every Muslim that reconciliation is mandatory in Islam.

Ustadz Badrusabah Alangan, president of Gensan City Madaris Federation, urged Muslims to forget all the sentiments and hatred in their hearts while their bad characters should be taken away during Eid’l Fitr.

Rajah Muda Alimudin Hassan, from the Sugoda Buayan Royal House, urged the followers of Islamic faith in the country to have their own Eid’l Fitr resolutions.

“That will be our guide to become a better person,” he explained. “We should assess what we are in the past and initiate change within ourselves so we become more worthy, respectable and God-fearing persons,” he added.

Sultan Tungko Saicol, Sultan of the Dikaya clan of Kabuntalan, wishes that Muslims in the country will unite to strengthen brotherhood in the name of Islam.

Samira Gutoc-Tomawis, of the Young Moro Professionals Network, wishes that Eid’l Fitr will be a reminder of Muslim virtue and sacrifice that they too are part of Philippine rooted polity sprung from a civilization. “We hope that the Moro grievances be heard by our Filipino brethren,” she said.

Lawyer Adel Tamano wishes that the Muslims in the country will give each other the blessings of forgiveness, tolerance, and respect. He also wants to convey his apology to his brother Muslims for his own shortcomings.

“May we all work together for the welfare of all Filipino Muslims and let us also pray for peace and brotherhood in Mindanao,” the Senate hopeful said in text messages.

Wahida Abtahi, from Katiyakap, Inc., hopes that the occasion will unite the Bangsamoro people and “that they can move forward to achieve a progressive homeland.”

Aleema Abaira Badrodin, a prominent Madrasah educator, prays that the Bangsamoro people will be given the chance to live peacefully in their beloved homeland.

From the Young Moro Professionals Council, Abdul K. Silongan said: “Let us see peace, unity, reform and Islamic values among us all.” He wishes that joy and abundance of blessings be with the Muslim citizens in the country.

Soraida Macadatar, from Balabagan in Lanao del Sur, urges Muslims who are faithful or not to repent for their sins. (Gandhi C. Kinjiyo / MindaNews contributor)


Source: http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6995&Itemid=50

Ombudsman for Military probes arson, misconduct complaint filed by IDPs vs 6th ID officials

by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews
Saturday, 19 September 2009 00:06


DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 Sept) – The Ombudsman for Mindanao is conducting a preliminary investigation on the complaint filed by internally displaced persons or “bakwits” from some villages in Maguindanao against officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division for alleged destructive arson and misconduct. This is the first time IDPs filed cases against the military in the midst of a war. “I am happy something is being done about these complaints,” said the Quezon City-based Sr. Arnold Maria Noel of the Mindanao Solidarity Network.

Facing preliminary investigation are at least five officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, including its chief, Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton.

Aside from Cayton, the IDPs charged in their complaint Col. Medardo Geslani, chief of the 601st Infantry Brigade; Col. Bonifacio Sembrian of the 46th Infantry Battalion; Lt. Col. Aderito Navata of the 54th IB “and a certain Lt. Col. Libutan” of the 75th IB.

Emilio Gonzalez, deputy ombudsman for the military, gave the respondents 10 days to file their counter-affidavits.

MindaNews sought Cayton for comment but as of presstime, Cayton had yet to answer.

The cases were filed by IDPs from barangays Nunangen, Datu Anggal town in Maguindanao and Sitio Patulan, Linamunan, Talayan, Maguindanao against the officers and elements of the: 46th Infantry Battalion under Sebrian; 54th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army under Navata; and 75th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army under Libutan “all under the direct command and control of Colonel Medardo P. Geslani, Brigade Commander of 601st Brigade by way of command responsibility; and Major General Alfredo S. Cayton, Commanding General of the 6th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army by way of command responsibility, the unit involved being under his direct command and responsibility.”

Two sets of affidavits were filed in June and August 2009 by the complainants.

In their affidavits, the complainants cited the burning allegedly by the military, of the Nunungan Public Market and neighboring houses on May 7, 2009; the burning of some 100 houses in Sitio Patulan and the burning of some 79 houses in Barangay Pagatin, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, on Eid’l Fitr, or the end of Ramadan on September 30 last year.

The National Disaster Coordinating Committee (NDCC)’s latest update, dated July 14, said 3,801 houses were damaged, 3,077 totally and 724 partially.

The NDCC added that 1,039 houses were rehabilitated, 459 of them totally and 580 partially.

The NDCC recorded a total of 745,763 persons IDPs from August 10, 2008 to July 7, 2009.

While it has yet to release its August and September reports on its website, NDCC’s July 14 report said that as of July 7, 51,326 families or 254,119 persons were still languishing in evacuation centers or with their relatives.

The government declared a suspension of offensive military operations on July 23, and was reciprocated with a suspension of military operations by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on July 25. The two sides have since met twice to prepare for the resumption of the formal peace talks.

Despite the SOMO and SOMA, however, thousands of IDPs have yet to return home. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)



Source: http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6993&Itemid=50

GRP, MILF sign agreement to involve interested countries and int’l NGOs in peace process

by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews


DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/15 September) – The government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels signed at 10 p.m. Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur a framework agreement on the formation of the International Contact Group (ICG), in recognition of the role that interested countries and international non-government organizations (INGO) can play in the peace process. According to the agreement, the ICG will consist of “interested countries accompanying the peace process preferably drawn from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union (EU) as well as accredited INGO(s) to be invited by the Parties in consultation with the Third Party Facilitator.”

The agreement “on the establishment of International Contact Group (ICG) of groups of states and non-state organizations to accompany and mobilize international support for the peace process” was among four things the two peace panels agreed to do during the meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 28 and 29, the meeting that ended the year-long impasse after the controversial aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

The three other things the two panels agreed to do in July were:

- sustain both the Government’s Suspension of Military Offensives (SOMO) and the MILF’s Suspension of Military Actions (SOMA);

- acknowledgment of MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed document, and commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement; and

- work for a framework agreement on the establishment of a mechanism on the protection of non-combatants in armed conflict.

Peace Process Assistant Secretary Camilo Montesa, government peace panel spokesperson, quoted Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis, chair of the government peace panel, as saying that “the engagement of the ICG is a major breakthrough in the pursuit for a durable peace in Mindanao and hopes that this will now pave the way for the formal resumption of the Talks.”

Montesa told MindaNews by phone that the negotiation for the ICG was “tough but in the end, the paramount interest of securing a peaceful and bright future for the people of Mindanao triumphed and was affirmed by the parties.”

MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal told MindaNews by phone that they had “just signed the framework on ICG and talks are still ongoing on civilian protection.”

The ICG , according to the framework agreement , is “ad-hoc in nature and issue-specific in its engagement consistent with an international dimension in aid of the consensus that will effectively enable them to exert proper leverage and to sustain the interest of the Parties as well as maintain a level of comfort that restores mutual trust.”

It will draw its mandate from the negotiating panels and the Third Party Facilitation which, according to Montesa, will remain to be done by Malaysia.

The ICG shall coordinate and work closely with the Facilitator. Coordination between the ICG and the Facilitator will be carried out by the representative designated by the former.
According to the Agreement, the ICG will perform the following functions:

- To attend and observe the face-to-face negotiations upon invitation by the Parties with the concurrence of the Facilitator;

- To conduct visits, exchange views, and give advice on discreet basis in coordination with the Parties and the Facilitator;

- To seek out the assistance of recognized experts, resource persons or groups on specific issues in order to support the Parties; and

- To meet upon request by any of the Parties at various levels to help resolve substantive issues based on agreed agenda.

The ICG is also tasked to “invite and engage the OIC, the EU and eminent persons to participate in its activities.”
“Mindful of the interests of the stakeholders to benefit from and expect significant peace dividends from the ICG mission, the Parties will designate INGOs that will be accredited along with their named local NGO partners,” the Framework Agreement stated.

In relation to the functions of the ICG, the INGO, it said, will perform the following roles:

- To engage and act as a bridge between the Parties, ICG, Facilitator and their local partners and civil society in support of the peace process;

- To exchange views, provide research inputs, give feedback and advice to the Parties in coordination with the Facilitator; and

- To establish communication channels in furtherance of peace process advocacy

The framework agreement’s “confidentiality clause” states that “All information, data or opinion generated or exchanged in connection with the work of the ICG shall be strictly privileged and confidential.”

The two parties also agreed to “extend the applicability of the GRP-MILF Agreement on Safety and Security Guarantees dated March 9, 2000 to the ICG herein set up.”

The framework agreement, which takes effect on the date of signing (September 15), “shall be subject to revision upon signing of the Comprehensive Compact to extend the function and role of the ICG in the implementation phase.”

The framework agreement was signed by Seguis for the government, Iqbal for the MILF and Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak, the Malaysian facilitator. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)


Source: http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6976&Itemid=190

PAGMULAT PARA SA DI PAGLIMOT

Ni Rogelio Braga


Ako ay isang Filipino na nangungusap ng Bangsa Moro. Lagi ko itong inilalahad sa tuwing may magtatanong sa akin tungkol sa napanood nilang dula ko. Malinaw sa akin ito at hindi ako magbabalat-kayo. Minsan sa ganitong perspektibo nakakakuha ako ng hindi kaaya-ayang reaksiyon - sa Moro man o kapwa Filipino na nasa aking harapan. 'Bakit iba ba ang Moro sa Filipino? Hindi ba sila ang 'Filipino Muslim?''

Mabuti na lamang mahaba ang aking pasensiya sa mga ganitong sitwasyon, dahil maging ako man noong una kong narinig na 'iba ang Moro sa Filipino' sa anibersaryo ng Jabidah Massacre sa Corregidor, Bataan ilang taon na ang nakararaan ay hindi rin naging kumportable. Isa itong perspektibo na inilatag sa aking harapan at nagtulak sa aking lakbayin papaloob ang aking sarili. Nagkaroon din ako ng maraming mga tanong na minsan nga, sa pinakamalalim na bahagi ng aking pagkatao ay kinatatakutan kong malaman ang sagot.

'Iba ang Moro sa Filipino' - napakagandang perspektibo dahil winawasak nito ang lahat-lahat na itinuro sa akin sa paaralan, ang padron ng pag-iisip sa kung paano ko titimbangin at huhusgahan ang aking daigdig, padron na nilikha ng kolektibang kamalayan sa aking lipunan, ng aking kasaysayan. Hindi ito mahirap tanggapin dahil sa bansang ito na pinatatakbo ng hindi maturol-turol na mga multo at kasinungalingan sa aking kasaysayan, mas mabuti nang laging walang tatanggapin kaysa may isang palaging panghahawakang katotohanan.

Binalikan ko ang kasaysayan at binuksan ko aking mga mga tenga sa kuwento ng mga Moro na masasalubong sa daan, makakasama sa opisina, kahuntahan sa mahahabang biyahe sa bus at mga bagong naging kaibigan. May 'Moro' na pala bago nabuo 'Filipino'. May mga kuwento na hanggang ngayon pilit pa ring itinatago sa daigdig dahil sadyang mahirap tanggapin halimbawa ang Tacub Massacre sa Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. Na puwede ka palang mamuhay sa dikriminasyon at marginalisasyon habang tahimik na nakamata ang daigdig sa iyong sitwasyon tulad ng mga Meranao sa Lanao del Norte. Na nabubuhay pala ako sa isang lipunan na tila national pastime (kasunod ng boksing, pulitika, showbiz) na ng sambayanan ang pumatay ng Muslim. Na maraming perspektibo ang sinusupil at patuloy na pinatatahimik dahil mahirap silang tanggapin.

Marami palang perspektibo na hindi nakarating sa akin. Masyado sigurong malayo ang Maynila sa Mindanao o di kaya'y masyadong matataas ang bakod ng mga unibersidad na aking pinasukan. Ngunit tulad ng responsibilidad na nais na ipataw ng Darangen ikuwento mo ng walang patid ang talambuhay ng iyong mga ninuno at bayan, ang kuwento ay ang bayan at ang bayan ay ang kuwento kaya dalawang silang bibitbitin mo sa gitna ng labanan. Wala kang iiwanang isa.

###

Lahat tayo, sa mga Moro o sa Filipino man, ay naghahanap ng isang lipunan at masang kritikal. Isang lipunan na pinatatakbo ng mga ideya, damdamin, at pananampalataya. Isang lipunan na bukas sa sanlibo't sandaang mga pananaw na kung hindi man umaayon ay nagtutunggalian sa isa't isa. Lahat tayo naghahanap ng papasulong na kabihasnan dahil lahat tayo may perspektibo at walang maliw tayong naniniwala sa sangkatauhan.

May bigat sa akin ang halaga ng mga perspektibo dahil naniniwala ako sa sangkatauhan at mahalaga ang perspektibo sa aking pagsusulat at sa aking Sining. Naniniwala rin ako sa papasulong na kabihasnan at sa isang kritikal na lipunan at masa. Palagi ko ngang sinasabi na ang mismong pagpapalabas ng mga dula sa mga tanghalan ay isang payak na imbitasyon sa mga manonood sa isang bagong perspektibo. Hindi ito dula kung wala itong bagong perspektibo na ihahain sa mga manonood. Ang mga dula, kuwento, at alin mang uri ng masining na pagpapahayag, maging ito man ay dayunday performance sa pinakaliblib na pook na maiisip mo, ay mga uri ng imbitasyon sa mga perspektibo na nais nang pakawalan sa daigdig.

Kaya mabigat ang responsibilidad na pinapasan ng isang mandudula (o ng isang manunulat) sa kanyang lipunan at sa kanyang kabihasnan. Ito rin ang responsibilidad na ipinapapasan ng epikong Darangen sa kanyang mga mang-aawit, sa mga alagad ng Sining, sa mga manunulat at kuwentista ng ating bayan, at sa atin mismo: ikuwento natin nang walang patid ang talambuhay ng ating mga ninuno at ng ating mga bayan na may pagpapahalaga sa maratabat ng ating mga mahal sa buhay at sa atin mismong maratabat at sarili, na ang bayan ay ang kuwento at ang kuwento ay ang bayan kaya't hinihikayat tayong huwag isuko hindi lamang ang ating mga bayan kundi ang ating mga kuwento, na ang Kagandahan ay ang kalayaan ng pag-iisip, ng mga salita ngunit kaakibat nito dapat ang pagpapahalaga sa sarili at sa kapakanan ng komunidad at nakararami.

Kaya sa mga oras na dinadalaw ako ng takot sa aking pagsusulat at nitong uri ng agam-agam 'sa mga oras ng di matiyak na misteryo ng Sining' binabalikan ko ang Darangen at ang mga pundasyon kung saan nakatayo ang kanyang mga kuwento: malayang kamalayan at pagpapahayag, kritikal na lipunan, Kagandahan ng Buhay at ang kalayaan.

Ang Darangen ay isang matikas na torogan na nakatayo sa gilid ng daan na aking tinatahak na laging nagpapaalala sa akin na ang mga perspektibo na nagsasabi ng Katotohanan at Kagandahan ay nanatiling may saysay kahit sa loob ng ilang daang taon. Hindi ito papanaw dahil wala namang tutunguhin ang katauhan at kabihasnan kundi papasulong.

Kasing laki ng buhay ang mga perspektibong dala-dala ng Darangen dahil ang mismong epiko ay isa nang perspektibo, isa nang kabihasnan.

***

***

Hindi lang minsan na kung nagugulat ako sa kasalukuyang ginagawa ng mga institusyon ng midya na pag-aari ng mayayamang pamilya, mga principalia, sa salita ni Dante Simbulan, kung paano nila tinuturuan ang taumbayan na kilalanin ang sarili sa punto-de-bista ng Nasyunalismong Filipino. Bayan ni Juan ('Juan' bilang katunog ng 'one' o 'iisa') ang bandera ng isang istasyon ng tv. Mga artista at showbiz personalities ang nagsasalita sa taumbayan kung ano ang kanilang nasyunalismo. Paano si Akbar, Norayda, Saliha sa Bayan ni Juan?

Sa komersiyal na ito na pagbibigay depinisyon sa Nasyunalismo maraming pespektibo ang nailalagay sa gilid. Sila pa rin ang kumikita. Hindi pa rin nabibigyan ng sagot ang ilan sa pinakamahahalagang tanong sa bayan: Sa Nasyunalismong ito na ilang dekada nang niyayakap ng mga Filipino, sino mas nakinabang at patuloy na nakikibang?

Kaya naghahanap ako at sa aking mga akda sa kasalukuyan ng isang perspektibo kung paano ko titimbangin ang Nasyunalismong Filipino. At maari, sa ngayon, siguro mas mabuting tingnan ang Nasyunalismong Filipino sa punto-de-bista ng Bangsa Moro. Marami pa akong dapat na malaman at mahalaga sa kasalukuyan ay nakikita ko ang halaga nito sa aking buhay at aking mga gawain. Isang perspektibo para sa akin ang 'Bangsa Moro.' Para sa akin hindi lang ito pakikipagtunggali ng mga Moro sa isang politikal sa pagsasarili - mahalaga ito sa akin dahil isa itong pakikipagtunggali upang makamit ang kalayaan ng tao. Human freedom. Ang kapayapaan. 'Walang kapayapaan kasi walang kalayaan.' Kaya mahalaga ito sa akin bilang isang Filipino. Kaya mahalaga ito sa akin bilang isang alagad ng Sining. Bilang isang tao na niniwala sa perspektibo at sangkatauhan.


Si Braga ay isang propesyonal na manunulat para sa teatro base sa Cebu City.

Lanterns and bazaars for Ramadan

By GONARANAO B. MUSOR


Having worked in other countries, I have had the privilege of observing Ramadan in three countries with three unique ways of observing the Holy Month – the Philippines, Egypt and now Malaysia.

In Egypt, I remember growing quite fond of all those beautiful lighted Ramadan lanterns, called fanoos, displayed in front of houses to commemorate the season. They reminded me of the lanterns during Christmas in the Philippines.

Here in Malaysia, I have seen many Eid cards sold in local bookstores and gift shops. I first heard about these Eid cards through my colleagues in YMPN (Young Moro Professionals Network), who made their own Eid cards and tried to sell them to fellow Muslims as a fund-raising project for Ramadan. Back then, I ignorantly assumed that it was an original idea of theirs that no other Muslim in the world has probably heard of. But surprise, surprise, someone from the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs later sent me one (made in Singapore of course!) which made me realize that there is actually a market for these cards. Come to think of it, if you can give a birthday, anniversary, congratulatory, or Christmas greeting card, why not give an Eid Card to your dear Muslim friend?

Just like any other widely-celebrated holiday like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, Ramadan in Malaysia has become a hugely commercialized occasion. There are many Ramadan buffets in restaurants and hotels at a special discounted price, and Ramadan bazaars that remind me of Christmas tiangges in the Philippines. Breaking your fasting in Malaysia can be such a gastronomic experience because of all the delicious food.

Speaking of eating, one thing that Malaysia does not have and which Egypt has that I truly appreciated is the free iftar (communal meals to break the fast) on the streets of Cairo. A few hours before iftar, people start setting up tables and chairs on the side streets, and at sundown, anyone can just grab a table and have their iftar for free.

In the Philippines, I haven’t really seen any unique or defining feature in the way Moros celebrate Ramadan. That is the disadvantage of being a Muslim in a country where we are the minority. Aside from the usual declaration of a non-working holiday during Eidl Fitr, there’s not much that ordinary Filipinos know about fasting or Ramadan. When you ask them what they know about this important Muslim holiday, they would probably say, “di ba yun yung walang pasok pag matatapos na?"

In the media, there’s not that much effort to feature Ramadan. The only thing I can remember when I was still in the Philippines was when GMA-7 did a series of feature reports about Ramadan on SAKSI and coincidentally the reporter had a Muslim-sounding name. I also remember GMA-7 showing an “Eid Mubarak" greeting during a commercial break, but it was shown in the early hours of the morning, when not that many people were awake to see it; I did not see the greeting again later in the day. Oh, and there’s also the usual news article that appears in major broadsheets about the beginning and end of Ramadan.

In my own small way, I try to promote my religion and culture whenever I can. Once, I wrote an article that gave a blow-by-blow account of a day in the life of a fasting Muslim UP student that got published in our student newspaper the Philippine Collegian. The narrative gave UP students a glimpse of the personal struggles of a Muslim as he tries to go about his daily routine while staying faithful to his religious tradition.

In our family, we started a tradition of showcasing the Holy Month with pride. During Christmas, a typical Filipino neighborhood would be very bright in the evening because of all the dancing Christmas lights and colorful lanterns. Using the same Christmas lights, my uncle made a “Happy Ramadan!" sign bathed in bright, colorful, dancing lights and displayed it in front of our house. What made it stand out was that for once, we were the only house in our street with Christmas lights, and it wasn’t even December!

Although this family tradition is a borrowed one, I am still proud of this effort to give the observance of Ramadan in the Philippines our personal and unique stamp. I hope that through this practice, non-Muslim Filipinos would have an image in their memory they could associate with Ramadan in the Philippines, in the same way that non-Egyptians (like me) associate the fanoos with Ramadan in Egypt.

Regardless of the unique traditions and practices we put into our observance of Ramadan, one thing should remain constant – Ramadan is a time of sacrifice, reflection, and giving back to others. For me this is the essence of Ramadan whether you are in the Philippines, Egypt or Malaysia.



Gonaranao B. Musor has written articles for various publications and was the former editor of www.bangsamoro.com, an online magazine. A Maranao born and raised in Manila, he loves to write about his culture and dabble in humorous non-fiction.


Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/172251/lanterns-and-bazaars-for-ramadan

Pact allows int’l groups to help Muslims in RP

International Islamic humanitarian organizations can now send assistance to Muslim communities without being suspected of helping anti-government groups with the signing of a pact between the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA) and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).

OMA Executive Director Datu Ali B. Sangki cited the significance and urgency of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) which he forged with Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. in securing assistance for victims of natural and man-made calamities befalling Muslim communities, including floods, typhoons, and war, especially the hundreds of thousands of evacuees or internally displaced persons (IDPs) because of the Mindanao conflict.

The OMA official assured that with OMA as partner, Islamic humanitarian agencies need not fear being linked with anti-government elements.

“With the agreement which OMA signed with NDCC chaired by Secretary Teodoro, international Islamic charity organizations such as the Red Crescent, IIRO (International Islamic Relief Organization) and other relief agencies from the Muslim world can help the victims of the civil strife in Mindanao without suspicion of giving aid to elements fighting the government by making OMA a conduit with DND-NDCC,” said Sangki.

IIRO is the relief arm of Saudi Arabia’s Rabitatul Alam Al-Islamie (Muslim World League). IIRO’s Philippine branch was closed in 2006 after it was linked by the United States to groups fighting the government.

Presently, Islamic relief agencies with operations in the Philippines are Libya-based Gathafi International Foundation for Charity Associations (GIFCA) chaired by Saiful Islam and the World Islamic Call Society (WICS) headed by Secretary General Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Sharief.

"IDPs will now be attended by the Rabitah and WICS and other international relief agencies through OMA as conduit," said Sangki.

With the closure of Rabitah and IIRO, Some Muslim leaders said Libya and Iran have overtaken Saudi Arabia in responding to concerns, either religious or material, of Muslim Filipinos.

Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/220602/pact-allows-int-l-groups-help-muslims-rp

COMMENT: Critical but Overlooked, Avoided

By Patricio P. Diaz

On Misuari

(Part I: On Misuari)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / September 4) – Two online discussions in Kusogmindanaw were most enlightening and revealing. One centered on Nur Misuari as a major Bangsamoro leader and on his objection to Malaysia as facilitator of the GRP-MILF peace negotiation because of the Sabah question; the other, on blaming the Manila government and the Christian majority for the Moro frustration over the failure to implement the Sharia in Moro communities and to realize the Bangsamoro Right to Self-Determination (RSD).

What is revealing? The Bangsamoro leaders know what they want but they cannot put their acts together and prioritize what they want. This reminds me of Ralph Allison’s commentary on the Negro problem in his novel, The Invisible Man.

I. On Nur Misuari

The discussions on Misuari and the Sabah question in relation to Malaysia as GRP-MILF peace talks facilitator, the GRP-MILF peace negotiation and related issues brought out the critical but sadly overlooked (or, avoided?) issue: The unity of Bangsamoro leaders behind the Bangsamoro RSD.

The discussions also affirmed that Malacanang, other Manila leaders and Christian political leaders in Mindanao have exploited tribal jealousies and differences to keep the Tausugs, the Maguindanaos and the Maranaos divided.

The most primary concern for the Bangsamoro now is how to attain according to their RSD the true self-government -- not necessarily an independent state -- that will fulfill the Bangsamoro political, economic and social aspirations and redress the historical injustices they have suffered.

How can this be attained?

Past Efforts

Efforts in the past to do it did not work.

On July 12, 1975, President Ferdinand E. Marcos instituted Regional Commissions IX and XII to appease the growing Moro discontent and defuse the Moro rebellion. These existed until 1977. 

These did not work.

On July 15, 1977, President Marcos in his Proclamation No. 1628 declared autonomy in Southern Philippines and created the Provisional Government which was organized on April 23 following to supplant the Regional Commissions. That failed to attract the MNLF and other Moro liberation fronts despite the three – out of seven – slots allotted to them in the PG including the chairmanship offered to Misuari. This did not work.

On July 25, 1979, President Marcos decreed the creation of Regional Autonomous Governments IX and XII -- also known as LTPs (Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook) -- a unilateral, Marcos version implementation of the Tripoli Agreement of 1976. They existed until 1989. These did
not work.

President Marcos used the RAG or LTP leaders to weaken the MNLF through a divide-appease-and-reward program. That netted Commander Ronnie (Amelil Malaguiok), the KRC (Kutawatu Revolutionary Committee) chairman, and several of his top area commanders. That did not weaken the MNLF.

On August 1, 1989, President Corazon C. Aquino, on signing R.A. 6734, established the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. R.A. 6734, the ARMM Organic Act, was originally crafted by Muslim, Christian and Indigenous People delegates to the Mindanao Regional Consultative Commission. That did not win over the MNLF and MILF. It was inadequate
to fulfill the Bangsamoro RSD.

On September 2, 1996, President Fidel V. Ramos's government signed the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF with Manuel T. Yan (GRP Panel Chair) and Nur Misuari (MNLF Chairman and head of the MNLF Panel) as signatories. The day was hailed as the beginning of lasting peace in Mindanao.

Unfortunately, the expectation turned out not to be so. Except for a few provisions, the 1996 FPA was a rehash of R.A. 6734 and those "exceptions" were either omitted by Congress from R.A. 9054 or, if included, were not fully implemented -- now the subject of a still unfinished Tripartite review. The 1996 FPA has not fulfilled truly the Bangsamoro RSD.

In 1997, the GRP-MILF peace negotiation took off through the initiative of President Ramos.. On July 27, 2008, the GRP and MILF panel chairmen initialed the MOA-AD, a framework for final negotiation in the Comprehensive Compact. Its August 4 signing was aborted. The present troubles in Muslim Mindanao especially in Maguindanao and Lanao Sur are the aftermath.

This brief summary of efforts to establish self-government for the Moros, if read fully, would reveal the paradox: the same efforts have circumvented the fulfillment of a truly Bangsamoro Self-Government according to their RSD. And the more that the same fulfillment is being diverted to other concerns now.

Other Concerns

What are these other concerns?

1. The Senate, through Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, wants the resumption of the GRP-MILF peace talks postponed until some issues are clarified.

2, The ARMM governor wants the ARMM to be involved in the peace talks.

3. The MNLF leaders and sympathizers want the 1996 FPA to be fully implemented first.

4. Misuari has raised the Sabah question to block further participation of Malaysia as facilitator in the peace talks and as the key leader of the International Monitoring Team.

5. Christian political leaders like :Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Pinol and Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat want the peace talks to be localized.

6. Some Tausug leaders say that there is no MILF in Sulu and that the GRP-MILF peace negotiation is centered in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

The establishment of the Bangsamoro Self-Government according to the Bangsamoro RSD is completely lost. This primary concern is the challenge of Bangsamoro leaders.

The Leaders

Who are the Bangsamoro leaders?

l. The traditional leaders now ruling the ARMM and representing the Moros in Congress.
They toe the Malacanang line and President Arroyo has made sure they will continue toeing the line.

2. The MNLF now fractured -- a predominantly Tausug faction that together with Misuari loyalists recognizes Misuari as its head and a predominantly Maguindanao and Maranao faction that has Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema as its head.

3. The MILF.

The loyalty of the traditional leaders to President Arroyo, factional differences, and the historical traditional Tausug-Maranao-Maguindanao jealousies are keeping these leaders from uniting -- making it easy for Manila and Christian political leaders to keep them divided.

The Challenge

Do these leaders sincerely want to secure for the Bangsamoro people a genuine self-government according to the Bangsamoro RSD? If they do, they must:

1. Forget their differences and pledge their loyalty, first and foremost, to the Bangsamoro people.

2. Realize that the 1996 FPA complements R.A. 6734 but Congress did not fully include all the complementing provisions in the amendatory act, R.A. 9054; and what have been included have not been fully implemented, as complained of by the MNLF.

3. Realize also that MOA-AD complements the 1996 FPA and R.A. 9054. In so doing, the MOA-AD asks for more economic resources, a more comprehensive and bolder political settlement, and the institution of the BJE (Bangsamoro Juridical Entity) which is a much stronger
self-government than the ARMM.

In demanding the expansion of the ARMM as the territorial area of BJE, the MOA-AD essentially reiterates a provision in the 1996 FPA that could have expanded the ARMM according to Art. X, Sec. 18 of the Constitution which Congress ignored in enacting R.A. 9054 as it did in enacting R.A. 6734.

4. Realize further that the MOA-AD is not as unconstitutional and as contrary to law as the Supreme Court has ruled in its Decision. A very close and careful reading of the MOA-AD and the Supreme Court Decision would show that some provisions declared unconstitutional and contrary to law are in RA 9054, the 1996 FPA and the Constitution. One instance is the much-criticized "Foreign trade mission"

The unconstitutional provisions are not indefensible and beyond remedy. Proof of this: The Supreme Court in its Decision suggested a renegotiation of the MOA-AD -- which is what the GRP and MILF panels agreed to do in their July 29 Joint Statement..

5. Unite in one voice and effort to establish the BJE or a BJE-like Self-Government -- whether through the negotiation of the MOA-AD into the Comprehensive Compact or through another instrument. With one voice they can weather opposition to the fulfillment of the Bangsamoro
RSD.

When they have secured a genuine self-government -- not a mendicant and submissive autonomy that the ARMM is -- they can settle their leadership difference, if there are any, and after that tackle the Sabah issue -- an entirely different matter with ramifying issues.

Divided, they only serve their own self-interest and that of their patrons and play into the trap of intriguers and anti-Moro politicians at the expense of Bangsamoro people. Will they respond to the challenge? 

On Blaming

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/6 Sep) -- The first of this two-part Comment was the edited version of my intervention in the series of exchanges by four young Moro professionals in Kusogmindanaw. To this a fifth discussant, also a young professional, reacted: 

“What I think everyone is missing here is the obligation of every Muslim to ensure the full implementation of the Shari’a in its entirety and not just some parts of it, in the Muslim Community. More than half a century has passed and still the GRP or majority of the Filipinos is doing everything to prevent this from happening.”
He clarified: 

“It is a cardinal rule, by the way, that the Shari’a CANNOT be imposed on non-Muslims. Even in the ‘dreaded’ Islamic Republic of Iran, the Shari’a is not imposed on NON-MUSLIMS.”

He deplored: 

“The Bangsa Moro cannot help but cry out for Justice and RSD, only because of the unwillingness of the majority Filipinos for us to have this Right. Always, the non-Muslims in Mindanao or in Manila use the Shari’a as their defense in opposing Bangsamoro freedom [which] is not for [them] but for the MUSLIMS ONLY.” 

He pleaded: 

“The way to peace is understanding, so, PLEASE, try your best to understand our need to be governed by ISLAMIC law.”

Justifiable But … 

The charge and the plea are justifiable as matters of Moro right. Indeed, they deserve proper and urgent attention. But do the Moros always have to blame their frustrations over the non-implementation of the Sharia and the failure to realize the Bangsamoro RSD on the GRP and the majority Christians? They may be partly to blame. But are the Moro leaders blameless? 

How many of the Moro leaders have catered to the whims of Manila, used the common Moros as pawns in electoral chess to protect the Kings and Queens in Malacañang that they -- the traditional leaders in power -- can remain in power and enjoy the perks from their patrons? How many of the Moro leaders -- past and present -- have, by their crab mentality, prevented their unification to focus on the attainment of the Bangsamoro RSD? 

Look at what happened to the MOA-AD. The MILF negotiators have crafted the formula for realizing the Bangsamoro RSD -- the institution of a genuine Self-Government. Where were the Moro leaders when the MOA-AD was questioned in the Supreme Court and abandoned by the President? Had the Bangsamoro leaders risen in unison to defend it, the Supreme Court might have thought otherwise and President Arroyo could have stood by the MOA-AD.

But many Moro leaders could show only apathy to the MOA-AD. Moro representatives in Congress and leaders in the ARMM were completely silent. The MNLF leaders were indifferent because they obviously deemed the MOA-AD a nemesis of the 1996 FPA. Tausug leaders were obviously lukewarm because the MOA-AD was the brainchild of the Maguindanaos and Maranaos in the MILF panel.

What they failed to see was the complementariness of the original Organic Act (RA 6734), the amended Organic Act (RA 9054) and the 1996 FPA and the MOA-AD. RA 9054 and the 1996 FPA sought to reinforce the original ARMM and RA 6734; the MOA-AD, to remedy the inadequacies of the first two instruments in order to have a genuine Self-Government. 

Their thinking focused on their respective interests not on that of the entire Bangsamoro people -- the realization of their RSD.

Divided, they have become easy prey to machinations from Manila and intrigues from Christian political leaders. United, they could prevail over Manila to grant a genuine Self-Government -- not a mendicant and submissive autonomy that the ARMM is -- as a matter of Bangsamoro RSD. After the establishment of the genuine Self-Government is the time they will be able to implement the Sharia.

It is easy for the Moro leaders to blame their failures on the Manila government and the Christian majority. This tendency prevents them from seeing the degree of blame that they should take. The Manila and other Christian leaders can divide, manipulate and frustrate the Moros only if by their lack of unity, focus and resolve, they allow Manila and the Christian leaders to easily do so.

While responses to the repression of the Moro RSD vary among Moro leaders – from resignation to radical protests and rebellion -- the fact stands: Still the destiny of the Bangsamoro people is in the hands of their leaders. 

More Responses

This response elicited more responses. One of the first four discussants, while agreeing “with your observation re-disunity” noted the following: 

First, the disunity is a national problem. 

“The lack of common purpose, if you will, or the fragmentation of the Bangsamoro leaders is the same ill which makes the entire Philippines electorate subject to the mercy of the Palace denizens. Same-same (sic) tayong lahat. Sectors have been pitted against each other in the classic game of divide and rule. 

Second, this disunity was planted by the past and has been cultivated by the present. 

“Having said that, let us address the ills of the minority. I can’t argue with your notes except to say that the rot brought in by decades of rule by warlords, ushered in by the martial law years, have not been cured. Worse, the rot has been actively cultivated by national politicians.  

“Although it can be said that there are no tyrants where there are no willing slaves, still I must
hark back to pre-martial law days when we had much more respect for national government systems – justice, elections, etc.—as compared to today. 

Third, the problem can be remedied but the Moros are left alone. 

“The question is: Can we still reverse the process of decay? I think so. I think it is happening, slow as it may be. And the process of reform, of renewal, needs to be nurtured.  

“Unfortunately, we are in this all by ourselves. Make no mistake. The Manila/national leaders really do not think of us at all, even as they put together reform agenda. 

Fourth, Tausug leaders knowledgeable of the MOA-AD defended it. 

“On Tausug leaders who did not support the MOA-AD: Many Tausug leaders who knew what the MOA-AD was all about came out in defense of the MOA-AD, even conducting forums to educate the majority about it. If you are referring to Tausug political leaders who are in government, no comment ako diyan. Tausug leader Misuari? He has his own axe to grind against the government. 

Fifth, reiterating her admission of the “fragmentation” problem, she raised some doubts about the Supreme Court. 

“Even if all the Bangsdamoro leaders rose in unison before the SC to defend the MOA-AD, I doubt very much whether it would have swayed the SC -- largely because, perhaps, the very human members of the SC were also playing to the masses. 

“Having said all of that, I still agree with you re-fragmentation and ask you what your thoughts on attaining common ground.” 

Insistent 

The fifth discussant – with a sixth joining him – insisted the failure to implement fully the Shari’a cannot be blamed on the Moro leaders. 

“But we are a minority. The issue on the Shari’a cannot be blamed on the Bangsa Moro leaders since most if not all did their part in having the Shari’a integrated into Philippine law, but only the civil aspect since the Constitution does not allow further. So why would we put the blame on our ‘leaders’ when it is clearly the will of the majority that prevails and not theirs? …  

“Since the creation of the Republic to the present, the Majority still has not allowed the enforcement or integration of the Shari’a as a whole. Time and again it was proposed, but has been rejected outright. Can’t you see that this issue alone is the cause of the conflict ever since the Spaniards came? …  

“Is it really that hard for Christians to allow us our right of being governed by God’s laws? And the ‘real’ opposition to the MOA-AD by the majority is not the territory, not the control, but the full implementation of the Shari’a. 

“These are not failures of the Bangsa Moro leaders but rather victories of the Philippine majority in ‘defense of the Constitution’ as they say it. What I’m trying to say here is: Understand our need for the Shari’a. The sooner the majority accepts this, the easier it will be to have peace.”  

Reiteration 

The insistence is most understandable. But correct prioritization of Moro agenda is imperative.
These frustrations and misgivings are the very reason why the Moro leaders -- the traditional, MNLF, MILF, professionals, young and old -- should all make a common stand and speak in one voice to have a genuine Self-Government established -- not like the mendicant, submissive ARMM. The MOA-AD has the formula to form that genuine Self-Government -- it may be called JBE or by any other name. This is the rallying point.

The first task is to secure that genuine Self-Government. If the peace talks as agreed pushes through, there will surely be the negotiation of the Comprehensive Compact. That is where the Moro leaders should make their united stand and speak in one voice for the Bangsamoro cause. If the peace talks do not push through, seek other means. Once the genuine Self-Government is secured, the Sharia can be implemented as agreed.

Can the Moro leaders do it? History tells that minorities united have won concessions -- major concessions -- from the ruling majority. Now, international laws under the aegis of the United Nations are sympathetic with the cause of the minority. As a last recourse, the Bangsamoro minority can go to the UN. The many precedents are encouraging. 

Blaming hardly helps. But Manila and the Christian majority should not just dismiss the facts and reasons behind the blame. And the Moro leaders must see their share and do their part.  

("Comment" is Mr. Patricio P. Diaz' column for MindaViews, the opinion section of MindaNews. The Titus Brandsma Media Awards recently honored Mr. Diaz with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his "commitment to education and public information to Mindanawons as Journalist, Educator and Peace Advocate." You can reach him at patpdiazgsc@yahoo.com.)

The Moro Wars: ‘Vacuum war’ in Mindanao-Sulu-Borneo Zone?

by Datu Michael O. Mastura


Writing portentously could induce grandiloquent vocabulary of terms quarried from chain of events for predictable changes. But the rate of change—and for that matter change itself—could also become the very trigger issues for ‘vacuum war’ on the front lines of instability. The portent of change is a phenomenon of the Obama trail to Washington. How could Arroyo’s recent impressionistic visit to the Obama White House cast “the intervention dilemma” in humanitarian aid and “the utility of force” in armed conflict in Mindanao to keep pace with conceptual changes in geopolitics of cooperation for regional security just to push the
State responsibility to protect people?

For years a critical stage in the “war on Islamist extremists” has turned Mindanao borders and its adjacent Islands—Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Palawan—embracing the Sulu archipelago into the front lines of instability. But Malaysia has truly absorbed its learning curve from mid-1950s communist insurgency that the struggle is not military but political. Yet few doubt cross-border security cooperation helps to pinpoint only lawless southern Philippines as a regional training base for the jihadists, even if the reality is Indonesia serves to implant the Islamist strategic depth.

Yet it helps explain when instabilities materialize into “ungovernable territories” the State then weakens into a condition of lawlessness and violence. Moral distance is a violence-enabling factor in all kinds of warfare to justify one’s cause; indeed, after a transition from radicals to pragmatists, real MILF revolutionary appeal is one to claim the Bangsamoro people’s homeland for which they are willing to fight with arms. But of course the Moro march to modernity has already swept through. This informs how UP Professor Randy David writing his progressive opinion pieces saw as the other arc MILF travelled as a united Islamic front. Thoughtful Muslims believe that the DNA root cause of historic injustices underpinning their legitimate grievances has empowering impact on Bangsamoro collective memories. Today they are less inclined to prioritize national identity over their religious one; yet their way of life and cultural roots remain deep says a survey conducted by The Asia Foundation in 2008.

Washington officials misunderstand what Islamic movement leaders and intellectuals really don’t want forced on them is regional geopolitics influencing US policy by default. MILF spiritual leaders are not only calculating but are pragmatists who operate openly on the battlefront and exert rational influence over a civilian population. MILF fights for Bangsamoro nationalist cause and so fits the definition of a nonstate actor or guerrilla force, not a terrorist group. It is the Christian leaders who showed up in the Obama White House (as if the colonial days of the Commonwealth had not much changed over). Leaders of business in tandem with media owners and managers nurse a neo-colonial grudge and their opinion makers color Washington’s view of the border region. Pentagon’s decision to keep 600-troops for counterinsurgency missions in Mindanao stirred concerns but it is remarkable how few have spoken up. Progressives say it could spell US ‘permanent stay’ in violation of the VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement) and the Constitution because “it is open-ended” in extension.

More to the point, MILF leadership felt a sense of bafflement about the New York Times story that the CIA and SOF (Special Operations Forces) were “instruments in successes by the Filipino armed forces in killing and capturing leaders of the militant group Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.” There’s an inherent contradiction in the round of events that did nothing to endear Americans to the Muslims in Mindanao. Military campaign this Ramadhan is one fought by DND chief Gilbert Teodoro for the headlines of the newspapers instead of what he and the Americans could do to right history.

Are ordinary people up to believe it when Navy Lt. First Grade Nancy Gadian speak of the critical US role in combat operations against ASG and the MILF? Gadian’s accusation of corrupt misuse of the Balikatan funds in 2007 demands a response in relation to the issue of the moment. Joint military meetings “where US officers conducted briefings on combat intelligence information” about ASG and MILF punctuated her expose. To put it roughly she confirmed how US forces often plan and undertake various operations without the knowledge of their Philippine counterparts. So far as it goes, bigotry has entered Gibo Teodoro’s press statements on rooting out ASG because they “don’t anyway observe Ramadhan” and it shows his flawed understanding of this armed conflict. Why does Teodoro take a dismissive stance when he could have seized the moment to make a lasting mark on foreign policy or security and defense pragmatism that befits a serious presidential aspirant? Snobbery has no mass appeal. A plausible leader like Ramon Magsaysay has no historical analogous moment for his own learning lessons in how to stay relevant to media events and geopolitics.

In time the challenge to social harmonies—or call it the lack of social cohesion—is a context of vacated stability. If Arroyo’s game plan is to postulate only her ‘securocrats’ seem out of step in its failure to pull the swing toward “the politics of stability” after its fall out with China (In re: lobbying scandals and dubious deals).

What is the morality of politics to judge against one angling for the presidency with a client press? If you ever heard of “client journalism” as a kind of conspiracy, it has moral consequences for winning minds and hearts with spin-doctors away from the public eye. What is outside the reach of press manipulation? The “dirty” business is not about a major policy decision on deficit military spending to boost centralizing power. It is rather that misplaced confidence in manipulative populism to stimulate the political gains that secure alliance with media classes whose general line comes from the government without reporters going after and following the full story for electoral advantage.

When it comes to Moro wars/peace coverage the complicity between political journalists and their political taskmasters is to feed on press releases and staircase briefings. Journalists no longer focus on reporting raw events in real time in a detached way. Electronics TV media and website bloggers do it in a fastidious manner. You read the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Manila Times newspaper editorials that set out the element of the Moro menace while it is the PDI’s cartoons that heap anti-Muslim ingredients to paint the grotesque imagery. Political journalists of the Philippine Star (or any other broadsheets) suffer from the same attitudinal media bias as the kind which embedded reporters attached to fighting units in the field are prone to do. Political reporting for interview outlets, radio airwaves, or TV clips shared misleading assumptions of the politicians as a whole during the MOA-AD litigation when they started to see the controversy through the lenses of the oppositions they report. Early intro to the presidential bid of Senator Mar Roxas capitalized on “virtual dismemberment” as the heart of opposition to MOA-AD reeled off by spin-doctors of political journalism to take hold on public life. This backstage conspiracy backfired being removed from reality to whose prejudices Roxas et al was trying to appeal.

Now I think we know the latest paroxysm of the Moro wars is the op-ed stuff that plunges neo-con types for the possibility of a “vacuum war” scenario in the “MILF-controlled territory.” This issue commented on by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in opinion-editorials about the Philippines as a “failing nation” is not for me puzzling at all. It may be the unspoken thought among journalists, but it deserves to figure out in security write ups. Ramon Farolan summarized in his column space the main attributes that characterize a “failed state.” What lies beneath the synch dogged this retired naval chief turned diplomat columnist to write: “Reveille: ‘MILF territory’—are we a failed state?” (PDI, 08/24/2009)

Why the Philippines still fails to act as a national state is hardwired into the mindset of the Islamic movement that this Catholic country is unwilling to share power with the Muslims. We’ve looked for a new formula in MOA-AD because it is a fragile country. All this point to the unresolved discrepancy between the territorial boundaries under the Treaty of Paris—one defined in the Constitution—and the geographic mapping of the coordinates detailed in the Strait Baseline Law for purposes of complying with the UNCLOS. Like it or not this country’s borders are porous which puts in question the very territorial integrity of the Philippines. Conventional wisdom says a failed state is associated with terrorism, ethnic cleansing and atrocities given the humanitarian tragedies or tragic problems: poverty, disease, famine, displaced persons or refugees flowing across borders, and so on. In terms of geopolitical importance and human suffering, the conspiracy theories feed opinion pieces depending on your own political preference. Right wingers and centrist voices echo the failure of the national state as a potential source of big power competition leading to confrontation, crisis and war.

Until national leaders are better prepared to grasp the metamorphosis of the Moro wars, the competition over failed state can create “vacuum wars” to fix the stability outcome. Government’s failure to exercise its “responsibility to protect” resulting in one-year-toll of 600,000 civilian victims of atrocities is what supporters of RP2 can cite to argue for “non-indifference” to large-scale crimes demanding “re-territorialization” to protect people from inhumanity.

Thwarting the MOA-AD frustration that morphed into retaliatory attacks and treating Muslim civilian populations as “enemy reserve force” of MILF are sources of the instability coupled with impunity of AFP-body count mentality (thinking of the enemy as numbers). This clash of arms also brings a kind of collateral damage to human rights of non-combatants. This is the flip side of AFP’s collective punishment motivation. The moral advantage for the MILF is simple affirmation of Bangsamoro homeland with gaps filled by a worldview of its military “occupation.” MILF was not founded in a vacuum. What is portent is that the Moro Islamic movement views vital interests via the prism of history and so is a source of stoutly pride for many ordinary people to fight for it since they look at geography differently.

Government-MILF peace talks bear no signs of political fatigue but a ripeness phase for formation of a contact group (ICG) and a civilian protection mission (CPM) to restore mutual trust. Peace processes are essentially third party creations to draw the parties out of conflict, so only they can change the Malaysian facilitation by mutual consent. Speaking seriously of humanitarian intent this is what merits Senator Rodolfo Biazon’s full Senate investigation because “mutually hurting stalemate” invites justifiable intervention.

(Datu Michael O. Mastura is a lawyer, historian, a former representative of Maguindanao to Congress and now a senior member of the MILF peace panel.)

MILF: Gov’t to change Office of Muslim Affairs to Office of Muslim Filipino Affairs?

September 15, 2009 - A bill has been filed in Congress that would change the name of the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA) into Office of Muslim Filipino Affairs (OFMA) and would be directly under the Office of the President, instead of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

This was reported to www.luwaran.com/net by an informant in the Senate who is privy to working of the Philippine Congress.

This website is still validating the report and an attempt to reach out to the OMA in Manila failed. OMA Executive Director Datu Ali Sangki cannot be reached for comment.

However, an unnamed source disclosed that the OMA, after one of its key officials attended the Senate hearing on the proposed bill, told senators that if there is a change in the status of the OMA, it should be for the better; meaning, make it a department with porfolio and not just part of the litany of abolition and replacement of agencies that managed Moro affairs.

“We were not even consulted by the proponent of the bill except only now in the final stretch when we our views would be hardly heard,” complained the OMA official, “and we are the most affected people and agency of government.”

The source also disclosed that Senator Nene Pimentel and Congressman Pax Mangudadatu supported the OMA’s view that the OMA be elevated to a full department status.

The report said that Senator Miguel Zubiri, who hails from Bukidnon, sponsored bill in the Senate.

Commenting on this, Mohammad Ameen, chairperson of the MILF Secretariat, told this website in an interview that the struggle for Moro nationhood has already gain momentum and there is no stopping anymore.

The government, he said, can introduce obstacles but it is our people that could determine the outcome not external forces.

“We are not Filipinos,” he clarified, “because only subjects of Spain rightly fall under such category and the Moros were never under Spain throughout their colonial presence in the Philippines for more than 300 years.

At first only Spamniards borne in the Philippines were called Filipinos but during the 1996 Philippine Revolution, as a consolation to the revolutionaries, Spain also called them as such and subsequently applied to the entire population of Luzon and Visayas. Before this, they were pejoratively called “Indios”, while those in Mindanao and Sulu were called as “Moros”.

Ameen told the government not to be so scared of Moro becoming a nation, saying that other countries especially the United States have many nationalities within their bounbdaries and actually benefitted therefrom.

“It is not bad to have two nations, Filipinos and Bangsamoros, in this country,” he assured, adding that the latter would be given the chance to prove that they are equal to every nation on earth.

Meanwhile, a Moro analyst based in Manila, who requested anonymity, described the pending bill as a calibrated attempt of the government to stamp out any trace of Muslims as distinct and separate from the so-called larger Filipino nation.

He said this effort is in every aspect a follow up of government integrative policy while at the same ensuring that religious divide is maintained and friction-prone.

“The government is simply diluting what it already conceded in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) which stipulated that the Moros are not only Muslims but also have already acquired the status of a nation, the Bangsamoro,” he further explained.


Source: http://www.luwaran.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=956:govt-to-change-office-of-muslim-affairs-to-office-of-muslim-filipino-affairs&catid=81:moro-news&Itemid=372