(YEARENDER) Prospect of achieving lasting peace brightens under Duterte administration

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 22): (YEARENDER) Prospect of achieving lasting peace brightens under Duterte administration

While the six-month administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is well-known for its massive campaign to eliminate the drug menace, corruption and criminality, equally significant is the President’s quest for permanent and lasting peace.

Ever since he took over the helms of government, the President has made all effort to reach out to Muslim insurgents and communist guerrillas alike to end decades-long warfare and bloodshed.

During his first state of the nation address last July 25, President Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire in the government’s campaign against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA) and its political umbrella group, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in a bid to end a decades-long conflict that he said was “getting bloodier by the day.”

The CPP/NPA has been waging a Maoist-inspired guerrilla warfare against the government since 1969 making it the longest running communist insurgency in Southeast Asia and one of the longest in the world.

“All of us want peace, not the peace of the dead, but the peace of the living,” he said.

“To immediately stop violence on the ground, restore peace in the communities and provide an enabling environment conducive to the resumption of the peace negotiations, I am now announcing a unilateral ceasefire with the CPP/NPA/NDFP effective immediately,” Duterte said.

He subsequently authorized the release of at least 21 detained consultants of the NDFP who were covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) paving the way for the resumption of peace talks.

The talks were suspended in 2011 by then President Benigno Aquino III over a stalemate on the release of political prisoners.

The first round of talks was held last August 22 to 28 in Oslo, Norway with the NDFP declaring its own unilateral ceasefire during its conclusion.

For the first time since 1986, the government and the NDF declared a separate unilateral ceasefire as a goodwill measure.

The indefinite unilateral ceasefire issued by both parties are still holding up to this day.

Meanwhile, the second round of talks was held from October 6 to 10, also in Oslo, which coincided with the President’s 100th day in office.

The talks ended with both parties agreeing on the framework and outline of the proposed agreements on socioeconomic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

But there are also several factors that contributed to the success of President Duterte’s peace initiative with the Left.

Among them is the President’s decision to appoint left-leaning leaders to his Cabinet, his pursuit of an independent foreign policy and his nationalistic outbursts -- all of which are publicly supported by the NDFP.

Meanwhile, President Duterte has also made big strides in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro people as a whole.

Being the first president from Mindanao and of Maranao-Kamayo ancestry from his mother’s side, Duterte called on Moro insurgents to set aside centuries of “mistrust and warfare” and vowed “to correct the historical injustices committed against the Moro people.”

Duterte said he ran for President “on the platform that there will be a structure that must be acceptable to the people of the Republic of the Philippines… one that must be adopted willingly by the Moro people of Mindanao.”

“The best structure that would be acceptable to all would be a federal setup,” he said.

Thus, he committed to immediately step down from power if the shift to federalism is done before the end of his six-year term, and a new Constitution is ratified.

In the meantime and while waiting for Congress to hammer out the needed changes in the Constitution to effect the shift to federalism, Duterte has issued an executive order that increases the membership of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) that would draft a revised Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Duterte signed the EO last November 7 in Malacañang in the presence of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, and Irene Santiago and Mohagher Iqbal, chairs of the government (GPH) and MILF peace implementing panels.

The BBL failed to pass during the 16th Congress following the Masasapano massacre which left 44 Special Action Force troopers dead in a lopsided fight against members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the MILF.

The slain SAF commandos were part of a Philippine National Police operation to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, on January 25, 2015 in Maguindanao.

The BBL is supposed to pave the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro, a new autonomous political entity that the government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had agreed upon in the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (ARMM).

The passage of the BBL is crucial in moving forward the decommissioning of combatants and weapons and the other aspects of the CAB.

Meanwhile, the government’s quest for peace got a big boost when Misuari emerged from three years of hiding and vowed his full support to help push the peace process. The President also met Misuari in Malacañang.

This was made possible after a court in Pasig City suspended the warrant for the arrest of Misuari on the request of the government.

The arrest warrant stemmed from Misuari’s alleged involvement in the three-week siege of Zamboanga City in September 2013 that left 220 people dead, 254 others wounded, and more than 100,000 people displaced.

More than 10,000 homes were destroyed in the fighting between government forces and Misuari’s followers.

When Duterte took over the helms of government in the middle of the year, among his first statements was to say that his “first job as an elected leader and commander-in-chief was not to go to war but to bring peace.”

Just six months into the six-year term, the Duterte administration has already outperformed its immediate predecessors in terms of achieving the lasting peace that has eluded the Philippines for generations.

And with five and half years more to go before President Duterte’s term end, the prospect for permanent and lasting peace has indeed grown brighter.

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