Opinion: Beginning again?

Opinion piece in the Surveil column of Amina Rasul posted to BusinessWorld (Oct 28): Beginning again?

The Muslim ethnic groups of the South have long awaited a Filipino government that truly understands the situation in Mindanao. Finally, a President who hails from Mindanao has been elected, one who has deep and personal ties with the Muslims. You can just imagine the joy felt by the Bangsamoro, especially when President Rodrigo “Digong” Roa Duterte lectures about the injustices committed against the Muslims. Muslim liberation front leaders as well as community and religious leaders felt that the peace process would finally be completed.

Today, leaders are feeling twinges of uncertainty as the Duterte administration pays so much attention and provides historical support to the Communist insurgency while the peace process with the Muslim liberation fronts seem to be in limbo. The Left has been given three major, powerful departments -- Labor and Employment, Social Welfare and Development and Agrarian Reform -- as well as the National Anti-Poverty Commission. Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza has spent much time abroad, dialoguing with leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Meanwhile, the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) -- which, by all accounts, had been more fruitful than the peace process with the CPP over the past three decades, is nowhere. True, an MNLF leader has been appointed to chair the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) with a cabinet rank. But MinDA is a planning and coordinating body, mandated to ensure that there is an integrated Mindanao development plan. Certainly not a powerful department such as DoLE, DSWD, and DAR.

Further, MinDA Chair and former Ambassador Abulkhair Alonto is not associated with MNLF Chair Nur Misuari who has, in the past, been the main obstacle to a unified peace process with both liberation fronts. Misuari had signed the peace agreements with the late President Ferdinand Marcos in 1976 granting autonomy to the Mindanao Muslims and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with former President Fidel V. Ramos. Misuari is known as the Father of Muslim Autonomy.

Former Senator Nikki Coseteng invited me to give a talk last Wednesday at the Diliman Preparatory School, which she founded. I thoroughly enjoyed my session with the high school students, who asked such thoughtful questions. One asked which negotiation would be more successful, the one with the MILF or the one with the Communists. Hmmmm....

Let us refresh our memories.

The Tripoli Agreement paved the way for the creation of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the end of the war for independence waged by the MNLF. However, Misuari accused Marcos of betraying the agreement by his unilateral action to create two autonomous regions -- one for Central Mindanao, which included Maguindanao and Maranao provinces and one for Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula, Sulu, Tawi-tawi and Basilan). The MNLF went back to the mountains. Meanwhile, the late Ustadz Salamat Hashim, opposing the peace talks and suspicious of Marcos, had left the MNLF, later organizing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

It would take President Corazon C. Aquino to jump-start the talks with the MNLF.

Under the late President Cory, the Philippine Constitution included the creation of two autonomous regions: in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras. Congress passed Republic Act No. 6734, “An Act Providing For An Organic Act For The Autonomous Region In Muslim Mindanao” on Aug. 1, 1989. Again, Misuari opposed the unilateral action of government and went back to the mountains. Meanwhile, a plebiscite was conducted but only Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-tawi joined ARMM.

President Fidel V. Ramos continued the peace talks and succeeded. The government and MNLF signed the final peace agreement (FPA) on Sept. 2, 1996 providing for, among others, the strengthening of and expansion of the ARMM. RA 9054 -- and the integration of MNLF combatants into the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. The signing of the FPA was the first peace agreement signed in Asia, earning for FVR and Misuari the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize from UNESCO.

In the 2001 plebiscite, Basilan and Marawi City voted for inclusion in the ARMM. Misuari was elected Regional Governor. (Later, Misuari would be jailed for starting a rebellion with the Zamboanga Siege of November 2001. He was freed for lack of evidence. However, the second Zamboanga Siege erupted on Sept. 9, 2013 that caused the burning of Muslim dominated barangays and the displacement of more than 100,000 people. Misuari, who had stated that the government had violated the FPA, is in hiding.)

Under former President Benigno S. C. Aquino III, the peace process with the MILF had positive results. The Comprehensive Agreement for the Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed on March 27, 2014 in Malacañang between the government and MILF peace panels. The CAB included Bangsamoro Parliamentary Government, socioeconomic programs and transitional justice mechanisms to bring in peace and heal wounds from past conflicts in Mindanao.

The Aquino administration also implemented an initiative started by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: the preparation of the Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP), to be coordinated by the MILF’s Bangsamoro Development Agency. The BDP would flesh out the socioeconomic programs of the agreement. Government and development partners fully supported the move and the BDP was discussed fully at the Philippine Development Forum (PDF) last year, an annual dialogue between government and its development partners. The BDP took two years to complete, laying out the foundation for development in the Bangsamoro areas upon full implementation of the CAB.

For the agreement to be fully implemented, the drafted Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) needed to be passed. However, Mamasapano happened and the BBL was the major victim.

As all of these positive moves took place on the road to peace in the Muslim South, what was going on with the CPP-NDF-NPA negotiations?

From the time of President Cory to Aquino, some 40 rounds of talks have been conducted and some 1,300 political detainees released. What else happened?

There are NPA-controlled areas that the military cannot enter, bombings of electrical installations and mining camps that government could do nothing about. If these attacks had been at the hands of the MILF, you can be sure that reprisals would be swift.

Folks, you answer the question of Senator Coseteng’s student. What do you think?



 [Amina Rasul is a democracy, peace and human rights advocate, president of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy.]
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