Finding the good in bad news Mindanao 2009

by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews
Saturday, 09 January 2010 00:36


DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/07 January 2010) – Not everything that happened in Mindanao in 2009 was bad even as the Ampatuan Massacre on November 23 of at least 58 persons, 31 of them journalists, will be among the most unforgettable crimes in the country’s history.

Already, it is “the biggest single atrocity against journalists in recent history,” according to the International Federation of Journalists.
The Ampatuan Massacre came just as the country was still raging over the beheading of Gabriel Canizares, principal of Kanague Elementary School in Patikul, Sulu, who was abducted on October 18 and whose severed head, placed in a sack, was found near a gasoline station in Jolo, Sulu on November 9, his body retrieved in a sitio in Patikul on November 14.

At dawn of November 12, Fr. Michael Sinnott, kidnapped from the Columban House in Pagadian City on October 11, was set free in the outskirts of Zamboanga City.

But there were good things that happened in Mindanao in 2009, among them the resumption of the peace talks a year after the botched signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in August 2008, and the findings of the Bishops-Ulama commissioned year-long Konsult Mindanaw! community consultations that confirmed Mindanawons from all sectors prefer peace talks over war.

Konsult Mindanaw! project director Fr. Albert Alejo said a total of 4,916 participants from the Catholic, Muslim, Protestant and Lumad sectors in 311 focus group discussions (FGDs) were asked four questions: “What is your vision of peace? What are your recommendations on the peace talks between the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front)? What can you recommend on the broader peace process? What can you personally contribute – or even sacrifice – for peace in Mindanao?”

For Redemptorist Brtoher Karl Gaspar, the other good things that happened in Mindanao in 2009 were the ban aerial spray campaign and the Sumilao farmers finally tilling their own land.

The ban aerial spray campaign that started in Davao City, then moved to the Court of appeals in Cagayan de Oro in 2008, became a nationwide advocacy campaign in 2009 with the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (MAAS) people waging their campaign right in Metro Manila. A bill has now been filed in Congress and has had hearings to allow all voices to be heard.

“The Sumilao farmers' struggles and their subsequent small victories. Year 2009 saw them tilling their acquired land. In turn the Sumilao farmers have been sought by other communities struggling for their own causes e.g. for MAAS,” Gaspar said.

The continuing campaigns against mining from Surigao to South Cotabato to Zamboanga peninsula are good news, too, says Gaspar, as they show the level of awareness of residents in the areas that will be affected by mining.

Road construction all over Mindanao in pre-election year 2009 is now making travel a bit more comfortable for commuters, he adds.

With better roads, more comfortable air-conditioned buses are now serving commuters across Mindanao.

Also, airconditioned passenger vans can now ply comfortably the East Coast highway from Davao Oriental to Surigao del Sur. There are portions between Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte that may take yet another pre-electoral year to complete construction.

On the cultural side, Gaspar said the network of Mindanao theatre through the Tanghalan research project under the NCCA-CDA (include Kaliwat Theatre Collective, Sining Kambayoka, Sining Kapapagariya, Iligan Performing Arts Guild and others) have begun “to write their own histories and documentations will be made available for interested parties in 2010.”

Historian Rudy Rodil, a member of the Regional Consultative Commission and later the peace panels of the government in the negotiations with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) says “maybe the trick is not only to search for good news but also to find the good in every bad news.”

The Ampatuan Massacre, he said, “reeks for its badness but out of that, many people have realized in unmistakable terms that warlordism in the Philippines does not exist by itself and in isolation. Malacanang and its principal occupant usually sustain it with largesse, political power and guns. Let's stop pretending we have a democracy where Malacanang maintains a symbiotic, mutually supportive relationship with provincial warlords.”

After the massacre, Rodil noted, “more than ever, one sees the need for universal disarmament all over the country. Creating a gunless society will now be a political agenda for succeeding administrations. I am in favor of constitutionally outlawing possession of firearms among the civilian population.”

“Ehem (anti-corruption movement) is expanding its ranks... the massacre accentuated the need for an honest to goodness election with absolutely no vote buying and selling of votes. Enough of Garci,” he said.

Rodil also found significant the findings of the Commission on Human Rights team that monitored the military during martial law in Maguindanao (martial law was declared from 9 p.m. of December 4 to 9 p.m. of December 12) -- that those doing frontline work committed no human rights violations.

“The resumption of the peace talks” is a common response on what good news happened in Mindanao in 2009.

The government’s declaration of a suspension of offensive military operations (SOMO) on July 23 and the MILF’s declaration of a suspension of military action (SOMA) on July 25 put the peace process back on track, ending a year-long impasse that triggered mass evacuations and displaced some 600,000 residents starting August 2008.

It was the “biggest new displacement in the world” out of 4.2 million newly displaced in 2008, the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said in its April 2009 report.

On July 28 and 29, the two panels finally met again in Kuala Lumpur, agreeing, among others, to sign the 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 three other things the panels agreed to do were:
- sustain both the Government’s SOMO and the MILF’s 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.

The ICG has been set up and the parties was set up in early December, initially composed of three countries and four international non-governmental organizations: United Kingdom, Japan and Turkey as member-countries and The Asia Foundation, the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, the London-based Conciliation Resources and the Indonesia-based Muhammadiyah as INGO members.

The ICG had, in fact held its first organizational meeting on December 4, 2009 in Manila.

In a joint statement after their peace talks on December 8 and 9 in Kuala Lumpur, the two panels said the mechanisms that were functioning before the talks collapsed in August last year, are being returned and even expanded.

The two parties agreed to request renewal of the Terms of Reference for the International Monitoring Team (lMT) that would monitor ceasefire and other humanitarian, rehabilitation, development and civilian protection agreements.

The panels agreed to invite again Malaysia, Japan, Brunei and Libya into the IMT and to invite NGOs such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Mindanao People's Caucus (MPC) and the Non-Violent Peace Force (NVPF).

“They also agreed to revive the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) to continue efforts in coordinating the interdiction and isolation of criminal and lawless elements.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)