People Power Act to Prevent Outbreak of War

By Norodin M. Makalay

(22-Jan-2008) - Thousands marched nationwide in different key cities to press the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to prevent another war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives already as both field army personnel and MILF are on full alert for any movements from opposing sides in conflict-affected areas in Central Mindanao.

In unprecedented moves uniting civilians, Church sector, MNLF and MILF sympathizers, the peace rallies were held since early this month in the cities of Manila, Cotabato, Marawi, General Santos and later in Iligan, as part of a series of events organized by a network of 164 non-government and people’s organizations of mostly Moros, to break the most serious impasse to stall the peace talks since negotiations started in 1997. Rallies are to be launched in Basilan, Pagadian, Zamboanga and Sulu these coming months.

More than 500 children coming from the different Islamic schools (madrasah) in Barangay Maharlika, Taguig wore green bands (color of Islam) and waved flags, calling for peace in Mindanao in Islamic New Year celebrations (Amoon Jadeed) last January 19.
In Marawi City, civilians filled the public plaza wearing red bands and raised flags with the word, Allahuakbar (Allah is Great).

Foreign observers from the OIC and donor community have also expressed concern in the instability in the peace process.

Foreign observers from the OIC and donor community have also expressed concern on the instability in the peace process.

Talks between the government and the MILF hit a snag last December over disagreements on the coverage of ancestral domain and subjecting it to constitutional process. Secretary Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser on the peace process, assessed the impasse as “among the most serious to stall the rocky talks, a big hump” upon which the GRP has no “magic formula” while “looking for a way out”.

The MILF negotiating panel refused to meet its government counterpart during the 15th exploratory talks last December 15-17 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia because the GRP draft of a proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain supposedly did not contain certain consensus points earlier agreed by the two parties.

The government negotiating panel recently inserted a provision which states that the implementation of the agreement will have to follow “constitutional process.” The setting up of a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) was agreed upon by government and MILF negotiators during exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur last year.

This was aggravated by statements from some of the president’s key officials threatening the MILF with sanctions. Secretary Ronaldo Puno Puno was quoted saying, government should not give in to the MILF’s demand for a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) without a plebiscite. AFP Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Romero stated a condition that peace talks will not continue without MILF’s disarmament.

Negotiations since the all-out war in 2000 progressed because of mutual agreement that government should not refer to Constitution and the MILF would not demand independence.

The Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC) considers the Ancestral Domain agenda in the GRP-MILF peace talks as an “opportunity for Mindanawons to revisit our colonial past and correct the historical injustices committed against the indigenous and Bangsamoro peoples in Mindanao.”

“The peaceful lives of the Bangsamoro were shattered by the tremors brought about by the coming of the colonizers” said Sammy Maulana, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) secretary-general. “We are not begging anything from the Government, we just want to regain our homeland and restore our inalienable rights to self determination, both as people and a nation”.

Cotabato City-based civil society leader Bobby Benito said there is no doubt that the failure of peace talks will lead to violence, chaos and war . . “But the people are tired of war. It is anti-people and violates the very core values of all religions and civil society: love, peace, nonviolence.”

General Santos-based Pastor Frank Bantilan said that the indigenous people of Mindanao have been distressed by the sudden impasse of the peace talks. “Muslims and Lumads (indigenous people) are more than brothers, we feel no different pain.”

“We, in the civil society are aware of the fact that majority of people in the grassroots desire for a meaningful result of the peace process, not only to put an end to the ravages of war, but to address the longstanding political problem in a non-violent way,” Benito said.

Marawi City-based Lacs Dalidig said, “The failure of peace agreements in the past can be attributed mainly to the non-participation of the Bangsamoro people, because non-participation means they do not own a peace agreement. As real stakeholders, their collective voice should be basis of authority and the last word in the solution of the problem.”

In September 1996, the Philippine government also signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), from which the MILF broke away in 1981.

More than a decade after the signed pact, the MNLF and other critics have accused the Philippine government of lacking sincerity, honesty and political will in fully implementing the agreement and in working for attainment of peace in Mindanao.

Last June 2007, Silvestre Afable, the government chief negotiator in the talks with the MILF resigned, saying he did not enjoy the full confidence of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He was replaced by Rodolfo Garcia, a retired general and former Armed Forces vice chief of staff.

The armed struggle of the Muslims in the Philippines can be traced back in history.

Mindanao is the birthplace of Islam in the country. The Muslims in the islands were indigenous peoples converted to Islam by Arab merchants during the country’s pre-Hispanic history.

Muslims resisted Spanish colonization having established sultanates and trade zones.

The 1898 Treaty of Paris was the turning point where Mindanao was ceded by Spain to the United States said to be an “illegal annexation and exploitation without referendum, plebiscite or consent of the people (of Mindanao).”

Human rights groups say a number of Muslims in the country at present have suffered intensive discrimination, illegal arrests and other forms of human rights violations after having to migrate up North due to unemployment in the South because of having been alleged to have links to terrorist activities.