FREE THE BANGSAMORO IN MINDANAO

Continuing Struggle for Rigth of Self-detemination and Freedom of the Bangsamoro.

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MILF Statement

Struggle in Mindanao can be for generations, MILF says

February 2, 2008

The war in Mindanao can last for generations if the current search for genuine solution cannot be found by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). This was the view of one senior member of the MILF Central Committee, who spoke to Luwaran on condition of anonymity. He said the MILF has achieved the necessary foundation for protracted warfare even if it lasts for years after years, citing the ideological line rooted in Islam expounded by the late MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim in his book: “The Guidelines to Bangsamoro Mujahid” published in Mindanao long before he died on July 13, 2003.

He also said that the correct political line was also set in that book, which is to pursue the objective of the MILF through the interplay of armed jihad and unarmed jihad.

Jihad is an Arabic term mistakenly interpreted as “holy war”. In Islam there is no holy war and it defined jihad as an utmost striving in the way of Allah. Negotiation falls within the category of unarmed jihad, which is equated to the modern view of political warfare.

Salamat also sometimes used the term “da’wah” in place for unarmed jihad, which at all times is complimentary or supplementary to armed jihad.

The MILF officer also disclosed that the historical perspective of the MILF is clearly stated in the book of Salah Jubair, Bangsamoro: A Nation Under Endless Tyranny”.

Jubair is the nom de guerre of one of the senior leaders of the MILF.

“What remains to be done by the MILF is to train future leaders who are prepared ideologically, politically, and organizationally,” the officer stressed.

“The other thing,” he said, “is to train dedicated fighters that would fight for the cause of the Bangsamoro people and from whom some of the future leaders would emerge.”

He criticized the undeclared government policy of delay, delay in the peace talks because the leaders of the MILF are aging.

“This is a policy based on fallacious assumption.”

But he also admitted that at present the MILF has a string of commanders who believe in quick victory mentality rather than the protracted nature of jihad or revolutionary struggle.

“We encountered obstacles in restraining them,” he confessed.

He also said the MILF has problems in tactical adjustment of our combatants in fighting the enemy, who violated the ongoing ceasefire in Mindanao.

“Our fighters are used to positional warfare,” he said, “which is not effective against a superior adversary.”

UNYPAD Press StatementSeptember 21, 2007

MARTIAL LAW IN RESTROPECT

President Ferdinand Marcos started his dictatorship when he signed Proclamation 1081 on September 21, 1972. The said Proclamation, which he announced in the evening of September 23, 1972, placed the entire Philippines under Martial Law. That marked the beginning of a dark age in the Philippine history.

Marcos, then, virtually discarded the Philippine Constitution by blatantly violating its provisions, particularly, the Bill of Rights (Article III). He ordered the military to pick up and detain thousands of his critics. Most of those who were detained were tortured by their captors. Many of them just disappeared and never surfaced again. Even without the benefit of undergoing trials, some were kept in military detention camps for years.

As far as resolving the conflict in Mindanao , Marcos knew only of a militaristic solution.

At the height of that martial rule, the Marcos regime brought to Mindanao 75 percent of its military might to quell the legitimate Bangsamoro struggle for self-determination and independence. Such militarism succeeded not in resolving the conflict in Mindanao but in bringing the Bangsamoro cause to the attention of the international communities. It also recruited more determined Bangsamoro youth to push through with the struggle by whatever means.

Not having learned lessons from his predecessors, then President Joseph Estrada committed the same mistake when he launched an all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro people seven years ago. Indeed, militarism never solved the conflict in Mindanao .

President Gloria Arroyo does not want to be outdone by Marcos and Estrada. She is presently engaged in her war-on-terror that usually victimizes the innocents.

We deplore the prevailing situations in the country that are reminiscent of the dark Martial Law days.

Among them are the following:

The Bangsamoro people remain easy suspects of terrorism. Their communities are often subjected to unlawful search and raids by the military on the pretext of flushing out suspected terrorists.

War continues in most parts of Mindanao . It leads to endless pursuit of suspected enemies that usually displaces the Bangsamoro civilian population. Bangsamoro communities are bombarded with heavy artilleries some of which are just used in international warfare. Displacements, eventually, disrupt the studies of school children. They dislocate the livelihoods of the people and force them to seek refuge in evacuation centers to suffer from various kinds of health hazards.

Cases of torture among detainees remain unabated.

Many political detainees still languish in jail.

Involuntary disappearance and extra-judicial killings continue.

· The Human Security Act of 2007 gives power to the government to justify and legalize state-terrorism. The law does not safeguard basic freedom and liberties of the people.

Besides, what disturbs the minds of the Bangsamoro youth today is the fact that the Philippine Government finds it difficult to resolve the conflict in Mindanao in its peace negotiations with the MILF especially on the issue of territory. The MILF has practically reduced its demands for a territory to only the areas where the Bangsamoro people predominate.

The United Youth for Peace and Development, Inc. (UNYPAD) refuses to believe that the present peace negotiation is just being used by the Philippine Government as another ploy of deception against the Bangsamoro people. Along the same vein, it strongly believes that the Philippine Government needs genuine sincerity and strong political will if it has to resolve the conflict in Mindanao , or this same conflict will be here to stay and remain unresolved in the foreseeable future.

We, the officers and members of the UNYPAD, are calling upon the Philippine Government to revisit the past and learn from it. If it is serious enough in resolving the conflict in Mindanao , it must address the root cause of the problem by respecting and upholding the inherent right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro people. Militaristic solutions did not work and it will never do.

It is our belief that resolving the conflict in Mindanao will ultimately redound to the benefit not only of the people of Mindanao but that of the whole country. Conversely, keeping the conflict unresolved and turning a blind eye to the sufferings of the people here will be detrimental to the interest of the entire archipelago.

We are crossing our fingers and hoping that in the near future, the Bangsamoro people, as Secretary Silvestre Afable once put it, can “finally live in a homeland rather than a rented territory paid for in blood and suffering.”

ANWAR UPAHM

Vice President for External Affairs and

Spokesperson, UNYPAD

Contact No.: (064) 390-3184

Mobile Phone No.: 0926-2607768

Analysis on the Peace Talk between GRP-MILF

Analysis on the Failure of the GRP-MILF 15th Exploratory Talks

By Rahib Kudto

National President, United Youth for Peace and Development, Inc. (UNYPAD)

Did the Philippine Government ever dream of resolving the Bangsamoro problem? Is it the Bangsamoro people the problem? Is the government really true in its efforts in doing some development activities in the Bangsamoro Homeland?

These questions have to be answered in the hope that they will in turn be found to be the answers to the question, “What prompted the government to renege from the consensus points in the four strands of Ancestral Domain Aspect which led to the failure of 15^th Exploratory Talks.”

Mindanao is explicitly understood to be one of the richest islands in the South East Asia. Undeniably, the Philippine government is getting from Mindanao 50 to 70 percent of its resources and bringing it to Luzon. Yet, in fairness, these resources are also being brought back to Mindanao but already converted into bullets.

Being a weak and corrupt government, it has never dreamt of providing a just political solution that finally addresses the structural cause of the problem. Instead, it really does its best to find ways that the Bangsamoro people’s right to self determination will be denied as it, perhaps, believes that the Philippines be reduced to a barren country should it lose Mindanao. This belief is wrong as the Philippines is going to be continuously brought down if intermittent wars remain unabated.

I strongly believe that there are two problems in Mindanao. First, the government problem: It is the struggle of the Bangsamoro people for self determination. The government knows only one solution to it -- to offer a political solution within the bounds of the Philippine constitution. Once the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF) concurs, the government shall have already touched the finishing line. This has been successfully done to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Second, the Bangsamoro problem: usurpation of their freedom and right to self determination. This problem requires a single solution -- to restore everything usurped.

It is wrong to believe that the Bangsamoro people are the problem of the government. Surely, since the immoral annexation of the Bangsamoro Homeland to the Philippine colonial government, the Bangsamoro people started see the government as their problem. Thus, the Bangsamoro struggle for liberty.

It is again wrong to believe that war ends if the MILF agrees to a solution short of total freedom. It can’t control the groups that will come to existence to continue the wrestle till the final political settlement of the problem will be achieved.

Looking at this situation, there is no room to believe that the effort of the government to put up development projects through the Bangsamoro Development Agency is true. Rather, it is an effort to entangle the Bangsamoro freedom fighters and disunite them. This is being advanced with the hope that those who had not been captured in the battle ground will be captured by development activities that will lead to their neutralization.

Having said all these things, it is not a surprise to me that in the course of the ongoing peace negotiations, the Philippine government will renege from its previous commitments as expressed in the consensus points it crafted earlier with the MILF. Never mind if it can put at stake its honor and dignity. Reneging from a previous commitment by an individual is bad enough. But for a state like the Philippines not to be true to its commitments – as it always does – is worse.