Posted to the Moro National Liberation Front Website (May 27):
Guest Editorial: Memorandum to President Duterte from MNLF Reverend Absalom Cerveza
MEMORANDUM:
TO: PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. DUTERTE
FROM: REVEREND ABSALOM CERVEZA
“HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE THE MINDANAO
WAR?”
DAYS BEFORE, AFTER MAY 9, 2016 POLITICAL STORM
After
hibernating for quite sometimes searching for the freshness and vigor of
idealism and youth that included the possible solution by all peaceful means
the nagging Philippines-Bangsamoro war in Mindanao, this representative of the
Bangsamoro youth in Filipino-colonised Mindanao has again sought the advice and
counsel of the Mindanaoan elders – Christian, Lumad and Muslim.
Today, the
Bangsamoro youth are just inspired by the promising political events generated
by the recent May 9, 2016 national elections. After all, under currently forced
and oppressive Philippine colonialism, the colonized victims are affected
sometimes by the political events dictated by ‘Imperial Manila’.
Parallel to a
loud thunderbolt that registered a deluge of tsunami votes, a Christian
Mindanaoan “political rock star” emerged triumphant on a platform of radical
reformative change. His political rise has repudiated absolutely the
Luzon-based colonialist land-grabbers that have continued the “rotten political
system” of massive corruption and pork barrel system.
The
reality cannot be lightly dismissed that the highly-centralized
America-introduced decadent Philippine socio-economic political system has no
doubt metamorphosed the disturbing Filipino-Moro war in Mindanao
and the conflagrating AFP-NDF/NPA war throughout the whole region.
On
these two devastating threat to security, peace and public order coupled with
other social ailments marked by escalating mass poverty and hunger, massive
corruption in government, drug trafficking/addiction menace, criminality, etc.,
the Manila government has only but introduced artificial and cosmetic
preventive measures. Military Solution. Divide-Rule-Destroy.
Cooptation-Accommodation. Monetary Dole-outs. Promises. And more
Promises.
Truth
to tell, the Aquino II government incensed by its “daang matuwid”
self-serving hype has only patronized war and injustice instead of peace and
justice. Worst, just like its predecessors – the Marcos, Aquino I and Arroyo
regime – it has betrayed again Mindanao peace.
Clearly,
on this other malevolent crusade of ‘Imperial Manila’, it has only deceived
both Chairman Murad Ebrahim-led Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and UMNO
Prime Minister Najib Razak-led Malaysian government. It has also “taken for a
ride” (quoting incoming Philippine Congress speaker Congressman Pantaleon
Alvarez) the Filipino and Bangsamoro peoples, Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) member-states and the whole humanity.
Thus,
moving on to discuss some tangible points toward peace solution to the
worsening endless Philippines-Bangsamoro war in Mindanao, the youth dynamic
idealism has to be harnessed and sharpened to critique the controversial issue.
On
this lightning water-shed, the crystal lens of the Bangsamoro youth has this
time around spotlighted on the known “man of God” and spokesman of Mindanao peace – Reverend Absalom Cerveza of the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF).
FROM
PRESIDENT BARACK H. OBAMA TO PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. DUTERTE
On
the novel quest to contribute positive ideas towards the final resolution to
the Mindanao war, the Bangsamoro youth also in
the past took the liberty of writing U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama. He was
directly asked how he could help solve peacefully the Philippines-Bangsamoro
war in Filipino-occupied Mindanao that has
been raging for almost half a century now.
It
was pointed out to him that the naked historical injustice committed by the U.S. government
was the fabrication of the “Philippine Republic” in 1946. In global history,
the so-called Philippine Republic illegally and immorally annexed the
Bangsamoro homeland of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan (MINSUPALA) and the Igorots’
Cordillera Region (‘Mountain
Province’).
The
Christian American-Filipino sinister conspiracy glorifying then colonial
land-grabbing has today resulted in restiveness and hostilities in the two
ancestral homelands of the Indigenous Peoples of this part of the world.
On
this note, the American president responded with somewhat a positive attitude,
insinuating that the possibility of achieving Mindanao peace and ending
Mindanao war could be effectively initiated by a third party.
As
a face-saving devise that America could not publicly admit, but could not
directly help, could the “third party” refer to be the United Nations (UN),
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), European Union (EU), Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other active peace advocating Non-Government
Organizations (NGOs)?
Surely,
all these truth-and-peace-advocating international organizations have already
outlawed and banned ‘colonialism’ in all its ugliest form. But, unfortunately,
most of them have become supportive of pro-war governmental establishment at
the expense of the oppressed and colonized humanity.
In
continuing today the Bangsamoro youth’s initiative to help find a curative
‘blue pill’ towards Mindanao peace, the
Bangsamoro Freedom Solidarity (BFS) has sought the counsel of foremost
Mindanaoan freedom fighter Reverend Absalom Cerveza. He is recognized as the
official spokesman of the MNLF peace panel and trusted leader of the MNLF
Christian members. The BFS also found out that Reverend Cerveza was the first
Christian MNLF member nominated and elected Prime Minister of the Bangsamoro
Republik that was proclaimed in 2001.
As
a respected freedom fighter whose commitment to the MNLF-launched liberation
struggle for independence and self-determination of the Lumad and Muslim natives
as well as conscious Christian settlers of Mindanao has become his passionate
vocation in life, Reverend Cerveza has given his piece of mind to solve the Mindanao conflict. He has directly addressed his
unsolicited but timely advice to the present highest Mindanaoan national
government leader – President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte.
“HOW
DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE THE MINDANAO WAR”?
This
is the first unsolicited “Memorandum” for presumptive President Rodrigo R.
Duterte from Reverend Absalom Cerveza. And possibly too from the oppressed and
colonized Bangsamoro people suffering under ‘Imperial Manila’ brand of
colonialism.
Aside
from being the first official MNLF coordinator for Lumad, Christian and Muslim
affairs in Mindanao, Reverend Cerveza also
served the oppressed Bangsamoro people as the first elected Prime Minister of
the Bangsamoro Republik. The independent Bangsamoro government was declared by
the MNLF-sponsored Bangsamoro People’s National Congress of different sectoral
representatives held in Cabatangan Complex, Zamboanga City,
on April, 2001.
Consequently,
the burning sentiments of the Bangsamoro general assembly for independence and
self-determination was concretised by a formal petition addressed to the Kopi
Anan-led
United Nations Organization. The official petition was submitted to the New
York-based UN Decolonization Committee by the MNLF legal representative for
international affairs – Atty. Ely Velez Pamatong – on December 10, 2001
This
was after the betrayal of Mindanao peace by
Philippine colonialism under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who did not
implement the September 2, 1996 GRP-OIC-MNLF Jakarta Peace Agreements. The
Arroyo regime instead unilaterally created the farcical 5-province Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), transforming it merely into the “cheating
capital of Philippine elections”, according to Philippine media.
Under
the Arroyo watch, the first political robbery in national scale was transacted
by the Benjamin Abalos-led COMELEC by stealing the presidency from the
perceived winner – the legendary Philippine movie king Fernando Poe, Jr. The
broad daylight political robbery was legitimized by the joint Philippine
Congress pork barrel-conscious ‘lawmakers’ with the proclamation of
“comelected” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the night tide unholy
hour in Batasan Pambansa halls.
Assessing
the current events evolving around the incoming Duterte government, Reverend
Absalom Cerveza has called on presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte to
sincerely solve the decades-long Mindanao war.
He has reminded the first Mindanaoan Philippine president that the
Filipino-Moro conflict is an embedded and deep-seated colonial structure that
smocks of glaring “historical injustices” (borrowing the words of then Davao
City Mayor Digong Duterte) against the Lumad and Muslim natives as well as
conscious Christian settlers of Mindanao.
He
emphasized that a comprehensive permanent solution to the Mindanao problem
should be seriously considered and not used only for political dramatic
hyperbole as shown by the Luzon-based pro-war and anti-peace pseudo-leaders or
colonialist dealers.
RECALLING
THE DISMAY OF MIM CHAIRMAN REUBEN R. CANOY
As
a progressive MNLF Christian leader, Reverend Cerveza has reminded the incoming
Duterte government on the precautionary words of Chairman Reuben R. Canoy of
the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM). In 1975, the Mindanaoan patriotic
freedom fighter and martyred hero once said:
“With
the inauguration of the Commonwealth in 1935 and the attainment of full
Philippine independence in 1946, it was assumed that the Mindanao policies
instituted by past colonial regimes would be scrapped…To the dismay of the
Mindanaoans, the Manila government turned out
to be a worse colonizer.”
Thus,
it’s never surprising why ‘Imperial Manila’ has had been looked upon by the
oppressed Indigenous Peoples as an oppressive colonial government sharing the
same war-freak tag of the past Spanish, American and Japanese colonialist
invaders.
On
the saddest plight of the Muslim natives of the Bangsamoro homeland, an Igorot
thinker, Joseph F. Fallon, in 1987 clearly illustrated:
“At
the start of the U.S.
occupation of Moroland in 1913, the Muslims represented approximately 98% of
the territory’s population. Virtually all of the land was owned or occupied by
the Moros. As a result of half a century intensive, systematic Filipino
colonization, the Moros are now a dispossessed minority in their own land. They
constitute only 40% of the current population (Filipino sources claim they are
just 22%), own less than 17% of the land, most of it barren land in remote,
mountain areas, and have had 80% of their people reduced to the status of
landless tenants…After so many decades of abuses and betrayal, for the Moros
and Igorots to trust Manila and to remain with the Philippines would not only
be naïve, it would be suicidal.”
The
tragic reality today is the manufacturing and continuation of the fake
autonomous ARMM and so-called autonomous Cordillera Region as the most
impoverished and depressed colonies of the Manila-based “Christian Filipino
colonialist slavers”, who only take pride in perpetuating the colonial slavery
of the colonized natives of Mindanao and Cordillera (source: mnlfnet.com
‘Bangsamoro Historical Notes’).
OIC-MEDIATED
1996 JAKARTA
PEACE AGREEMENT AND MALAYSIA-BROKERED BBL
Commenting
on the controversial PGH-MILF-Malaysia Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and the
MNLF-OIC-GRP Jakarta Peace Agreements, Reverend Cerveza has viewed the two
agreements as substantial roadmap to Mindanao
peace.
While
the BBL was crafted with the direct collaboration of the Filipino and Malaysian
colonialist leaders with the end view to find per se “just and lasting peace”
for war-torn Mindanao (yet both parties have hidden agenda on its final
outcome), the 1996 peace agreement on one hand served an acid test for the
Filipino colonisers to show strong political will to solve the decades-long
Mindanao conflict.
Reverend
Cerveza has diagnosed that both Philippine and Malaysian colonialism have
hidden agenda on the final outcome of the GPH-Malaysia-MILF peace parley that
led to the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB), Comprehensive Agreement on
Bangsamoro (CAB) and finally BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law).
From
the beginning, it was observed that the hidden motive of Malaysian colonialism
under exPrime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was just to divide the Bangsamoro
freedom fighters, pitting the MNLF against its splintered group MILF.
It’s
common knowledge that the MNLF under a Tausug (Suluk) leader Chairman Nur
Misuari could never compromise on the status of Sulu Sultanate-owned North Borneo. Until today the North
Borneo territory has been forcibly colonized by the federal
Malaysian government justifying “under its sovereignty” the immoral possession
of the colony. But, in truth, similar to Philippine’s thievery, the proclaimed
“sovereignty” is based on land-grabbing because North
Borneo was leased to a commercial British Company represented by
Gustavus Baron Overbeck and Alfred Hill. The Sulu Sultanate-owned territory was
leased to a private British Company during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Jamalul
Alam of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo (SSNB) on January 22, 1878.
The
SSNB sovereign ruler decided to lease Sulu Sultanate-owned North
Borneo to the British Company in order to raise monetary resources
in purchasing war weapons needed to defend the Sultanate domain against the
piratical Spanish colonialist invaders.
North
Borneo was never leased neither to the British government nor to the federal Malaysia
government that was only founded in 1963 after gaining independence from
British colonial rule.
In
recent modern history, the continued Malaysian land-grab on the Sulu
Sultanate-owned North Borneo resulted to the 2013 Lahad Datu (Sabah) war
between the federal Malaysian soldiers and royal forces of the Sultanate of
Sulu and North Borneo.
Now
under Prime Minister Najib Razak, it is perceived that violent hostilities may
erupt anytime in the future between the Tausug colonized victims and Malaysian
colonisers. This cannot just be discounted if the federal Malaysian government
would remain indifferent to conduct peaceful dialogue with the legitimate
owners of North Borneo to peacefully settle
the immoral land-grabbing controversial issue.
As
the case nowadays, the federal Malaysian government could just silence any
Filipino colonialist president with Sabah
wealth money to shut up related to the Sulu Sultanate-authorized Philippine
claim.
Lately,
the Najib government, which is constantly under attack for possible liquidation
by ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has cut off any barter trading
commercial transactions between the Mindanao-based Tausug Muslims and Sabah merchants. The lame reason given is to stop the
rampant kidnappings in Sabah waters and remote
places without seriously investigating that the abductions could be “inside
job” as revealed by two Malaysian officials in the past.
GAMES
OF THE COLONIZERS’ THRONE
On
resolving the continuity of destructive Philippine colonialism in the
Bangsamoro homeland, Reverend Absalom Cerveza has expressed “strong political
will “ and “good judgment” as golden key to achieving just and permanent
Mindanao peace. He has lamented the lost opportunity given in history to the
present Aquino government that was the ideal dream of the late Filipino
peacemaker, statesman and national hero, Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino, Jr.
Ninoy
Aquino once said: “Study the lessons of history before it is too late…If you
are not sincere, how many will die.”
Instead
of using the “peace process” to sincerely guarantee lasting and durable peace
in war-ravaged Mindanao, the Aquino government
only toyed with “peace process” orchestrated by the notorious Office of the
Peace Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP).
It
proudly conspired with corruption-wracked Najib government to stage series of Kuala Lumpur peace talks in drumbeating Mindanao
peace, but at the end of the day shrewdly betrayed it.
Undersecretary
Jing Deles, the OPAPP only took pride in Malaysia-sponsored window-dressing Kuala Lumpur peace talks
and the disbursement of pork barrel “pamana” funds as monetary dole-outs to
deceive and divide the Bangsamoro people and freedom fighters.
Worst,
the Aquino regime chose to continue the Mindanao war and totally ignored the
GRP-OIC-MNLF September 2, 1996 Jakarta Peace Agreements that the Ramos
government tried hard to implement with the establishment of Tripoli
agreement-mandated 13 province and 9-city Southern Philippines Council for
Peace and Development (SPCPD).
Unfortunately,
the political will initiative of President Fidel V Ramos was undermined by
succeeding presidential war-mongers, President Joseph E. Estrada and Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, who patronized “all-out war” colonial strategy
rather than sincere peaceful dialogue.
Thus,
deception, treachery and promises only became the hallmark of the Aquino
government and OPAPP in dealing with the MNLF freedom fighters, MILF “hopefuls”
and federal Malaysian government.
Unmindful
of the ominous violent events surrounding the March, 2013 Sabah war and the
September 2013 Zamboanga City war, the Aquino government remained insensitive
to seriously solve the Philippines-Bangsamoro war in Mindanao.
It never paid any slightest attention to the Philippine Sabah claim to help the
Muslim Tausug owners of North Borneo. Instead,
it continued the clearest conspiracy with Malaysian colonialism to hoodwink the
Filipino and Bangsamoro sectors as well as MILF “hopefuls” with the imagined
implementation of Malaysia-brokered peace agreement BBL.
However,
with the hidden monetary funds of Sulu Sultanate-owned North Borneo changing
colonial hands and gaining complete trust and confidence of the MILF freedom
fighters, the Aquino government has only to “shoot two birds” with one bullet.
That was the master plan to neutralize dead (or alive) one single “Malaysian
terrorist” (Marwan) with the Malacanang-designed Mamasapano invasion in Mindanao. The rest now is ridiculous history.
On
this controversial end, Reverend Cerveza could only hope with a fervent prayer
that the Duterte government would learn the moral lesson in Philippine and
Bangsamoro history that Mindanao peace, although betrayed repeatedly by
‘Imperial Manila’, could be the monumental legacy of a Mindanaoan president in
world history.
Certainly,
it can never be doubted that Mindanao peace is
to end the “suffering, misery and agony” of the Muslim and Lumad natives, and
too the concerned and conscientious Christian settlers.
http://mnlfnet.com/Articles/BYC_27May2016_HOW%20DO%20YOU%20SOLVE%20A%20PROBLEM%20LIKE%20THE%20MINDANAO%20WAR.htm
