By Office of the National Vice President for Internal Affairs
United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD)
Cotabato City, Mindanao, Philippines
How
many innocent civilians must have to be displaced? How many lives of
innocent civilians – women, children and elderly -- will become
collateral damage in the armed conflict? How much agricultural
products and properties must have to be damaged? And how long will be
the list of students who must stop attending school in order to stop
the conflict in the Bangsamoro homeland, Mindanao, Philippines?
The questions are being addressed to the Government of the Republic
of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Further, these wake up calls are also for all the peace loving people,
politicians, business sector, church, media entities, international
communities to support the peace process between the GRP and the MILF.
On
the other hand, if the Philippine government has an intention to
resolve the conflict in Mindanao, it is but a drop of ink that must be
realize the already initialed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral
Domain (MOA-AD) and it will cost not even a dollar in contrast to the
huge amount of expenditures that have been spent in war.
The
realm of negotiation lies now in the hand of the government whether it
wants to salvage the peace process by honoring the MOA-AD or just to
continue its new framework for the talks, the Disarmament,
Demobilization, and Reintegration or DDR which only connote insincerity
and lack of political will of the state to resolve the Bangsamoro
problem.
The Moro problem is rooted in the so-called right to
self-determination that is legally acceptable and granted in the 1987
Philippine Constitution and recognized by the international laws as
legitimate rights of the minorities in the region.
The root
causes of the conflict in the southern Philippines are totally unique
from that of other countries that have a political turmoil like
Afghanistan, Darfur, Sierra Leone, among others, wherein Security,
Sector, and Reform (SSR) and the DDR are both said to be an approach of
the state and international organizations working in these countries.
Though, the approaches are quite controversial, too. For example, in
the disarmament, the incentives for those who have surrendered their
firearms are given more than the price of the weapons that they have
returned. In which, logically, they could buy again another guns better
than the previous arms they used to have.
With this, it may not
be a guarantee that conflict and violence could be stopped. It should
be better when the conflict is mutually addressed by the conflicting
parties through peace negotiation with, of course, the facilitation of
international communities and come up with an agreement. In this way,
we could have an assurance that long lasting peace will be attained.
Thus, DDR in the first place will no longer work at this stage.
The
issue of DDR, the press statement of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Ghazali Jaafar dated 5th
September 2008, emphasized that DDR is part of the successful conflict
resolution among of conflict affected countries in the world. However,
in the case of GRP-MILF peace talks, DDR will be possible in the latter
part of the implementation of the agreements. If government will insist
this kind of approach, it gives only a motive that military approach is
paramount in the talks.
As included in the calls that have been
cried out by the Moros and the Filipinos who are jointly gathered
peacefully last 18th February 2009 in Mindanao and Manila spearheaded
by the Mindanao Alliance for Peace (MAP), a non-political and
non-violent alliance of civil society groups in Mindanao; the “military
approach” has been proven many times as an ineffective solution to the
Bangsamoro problem in Mindanao. It will only recruit more Moro freedom
seekers.
Way back in the ‘2001 gentlemen’s agreement’, the
parties agreed that in the resumption of the peace talks; the
government should not limit the talks within the parameter of the
Philippine constitution.
In response, the MILF also lowered its
demands from independence to open up a new formula so that there will
be a chance to find new options -- solutions that are viable and
acceptable to both parties. However, accordingly, it doesn’t mean that
it will abandon the quest for freedom and independence for the
Bangsamoro people.
There is an official agreement that was
reached in the GRP-MILF talks, this is the 7th July 2008 initialed
MOA-AD but the Philippine Supreme Court restrained the government
negotiators to finally sign it in 5th August last year due to a
question on its constitutionality. But how come that it is
unconstitutional when in fact it was already agreed upon by both
parties and witnessed by the Malaysian government, as mediator of the
peace talks? And it was then initialed by the members of GRP panel. The
GRP panel is tasked and mandated by the government to represent the
state. It manifests that once again, the government is not negotiating
faithfully.
The government should face and continue its
commitment because this is the essence of the negotiation. It always
associated with the term “give and take enterprise.”
Again,
according to the MAP, that convened hundreds of thousands of people in
the peaceful rallies in the mainland provinces of Mindanao, the aborted
final signing of the MOA-AD in Putrajaya, Malaysia is a betrayal of the
guaranteed right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro people.
It
should be noted that the MILF is just a representative of the greater
Bangsamoro and the Indigenous people (IP) who lived since time of
immemorial in the land where the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity
(BJE) will be established.
The MOA-AD is a legitimate product
of the GRP-MILF negotiation. This is only the key and or a ladder for a
peaceful resolution to the decades old problem of the government in the
South of the Philippines. Therefore, in order to move forward, the
government itself must have a political will to recognize and honor
what was previously agreed upon in the peace talks especially the
MOA-AD. Otherwise, peace may become elusive in the Land of Promise,
that is Mindanao.
The UNYPAD is a non profit, non partisan youth organization based in the Philippines.
Civilian populace condemned the raids by the troops of the Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday on residences at Barangay Salvo and
Tatapan in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao.
Reports
to Luwaran.com said owners of the houses chided the raids by the
government military as deplorable, even cited as illegal as without
adherence to due process.
“There was no search warrant or any written authorization presented
by the military as they forcibly entered civilian residences,” said the
report.
Some owners were insisting that their rights and due process be respected but the militaries totally ignored their insistence.
Even
houses of government officials and employees were also raided by the
militaries. Accordingly, the raids yesterday, which were already the
nth time, were part of the search and destroy operations by the AFP
against the MILF and even civilian communities.
Relatedly,
reports pointed out that civilians were showing to the government
soldiers information and educational materials / kits that spelled out
the preponderance of respecting international humanitarian laws, human
rights and protection of civilians during times of armed conflict.
However,
since the launching of the government military offensives in August
last year, recorded human rights violations committed in impunity by
the government armed forces, to include armed civilian volunteers and
paramilitares, were beyond comprehension.
Thousands of civilian
houses were down and food blockade were deliberately perpetrated by the
AFP troops. Illegal arrests, forced evacuation, socio-economic
dislocations, indiscriminate air and artillery strikes, killings and
massacres against innocent civilians and communities were inflicted
without iota of hesitation on the government authorities – perpetrators.
Meanwhile,
four (4) AFP troops and two (2) paramilitary elements were killed and
some others were wounded in a clash with the MILF freedom fighters at
Barangay Paradise in Banisilan, Cotabato Province yesterday.
Firefight
transpired around 1am and lasted for about 30 minutes as the MILF
fighters withdrew to safety after inflicting casualties to the
government forces.
The MILF forces shifted to active defense and
guerilla offensive after engaging the AFP in conventional armed
confrontations beginning first week of August following the launching
of AFP offensives few days after the government was restrained by the
Philippine Supreme Court to sign the initialed GRP – MILF Memorandum of
Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
Since then the peace
process between the government and MILF has been in dilemma and
uncertainty, with confidence and hopes of the people eroding
inevitably, primarily due to the abandonment of the MOA-AD and
launching of military offensives instead by the government against the
MILF and civilians.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) troops conducting combat patrol
were ambushed by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) freedom fighters
at around 11am yesterday at Sambulawan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan,
Maguindanao.
Fierce gun battle ensued that lasted for almost an hour in the area
approximately a kilometer away from refugee concentrations and camps.
MILF
commander involved in the ambush and firefight reported that they
inflicted undetermined number of casualties on the AFP troops. No
casualty on the side of his fighters, he said.
The engagement
area was heavily bombarded by AFP using various artillery assets and
four (4) war planes, including OV-10 Bomber planes.
Artillery assaults lasted until evening and the aerial bombardment stopped around 2pm, report said.
Barangays
Sambulawan, Dagading, Tee, Andavit and Gawang in Datu Saudi and Datu
Piang, Maguindanao were immensely hit by the AFP air and artillery
strikes.
Thousands of refugees in the area who had been
displaced from their residences and evacuation centers oft repeatedly
had again panic and rushed to safer grounds to avoid being hit by stray
bullets and artillery and aerial bombings.
“Enough for the
civilians, pity them, military confrontations should be stopped for the
sake of the civilians especially the children who had been languishing
and dying in a totally inhumane circumstances,” contained in text
messages received from civilians in the area.
AFP operations
that had not at all spared civilians and in fact created a clear and
present situation of humanitarian crises had been going on since August
last year. More than half a million civilians, mostly Muslims, had been
displaced from their homes, socio-economic activities and sources of
livelihood.
Worst, given the fact that this failed government
could not cope with the relief and rehabilitation of communities
affected by the war of its instigation, government armed forces had
been banning media, humanitarian and international groups and
non-governmental organizations to reach the affected citizens in order
to deliver their goods and services.
Undeniably, the government
is feeding bombs and bullets instead of food, basic services and hopes
to these peoples. But can the government tailored-fit cruel intents and
motives forced its will and thrive? Big NO, NO, NO!
