Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:31 am (PDT)
Dear all -
As events unfold in Mindanao, I join many Filipinos in feeling helpless and
in the dark at how violence escalated to an unconscionable degree. The loss
of lives and the violence that we see cannot and should not continue. I hope
that we take time to look at the issues and speak with genuine stakeholders.
Where lies Mindanao in our national consciousness? How do we truly seek the
path of peace and solidarity with Muslims in Mindanao - they whose rich
culture and heritage also show us a glimpse of what it is to be Filipino?
Because of my recent sojourn in Mindanao and the work that I do on electoral
reform, many of you have asked me what is really happening over there. As a
reply, please allow me to share an interview aired on ANC yesterday (url
link and transcript below). This interview is with Atty. Zainudin 'Zen'
Malang, Executive Director of the Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy.
Hopefully, amidst the cacophony of voices, we begin to discern better and
appreciate in a more nuanced manner all the issues that Mindanao faces. I'll
forward other statements and similar interviews as I also try to discern
with you how we can all do our part in keeping Mindanao close to our hearts.
Sincerely,
Tatine
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all..."
================
http://abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=128716
Malang: We might end up becoming the Darfur of southeast Asia ** *ANC's
Tony Velasquez interviewed on August 18, Zainudin Malang, executive director
of the Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy, on the clashes that have
erupted in parts of Mindanao and on the prospects for peace in the south.
Malang has been a close observer of the peace process with Muslim
separatists. *
Q. What was your expectation after the signing of the Memorandum of
Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in Malaysia, had it pushed through?
A. I was expecting optimism on the ground, not what we are seeing here, not
what we saw today. I was expecting the complete opposite after they had
signed the MOA.
Q. Are these recent clashes in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte an
offshoot of the failure to sign the MOA-AD?
A. I cannot help but arrive at that conclusion. You know, there are only two
ways to resolve the conflict: either through military means or through
negotiations. And apparently, after the cancellation of the signing of the
MOA, the product of a dozen years of long and hard bargaining on both sides,
perhaps, there are armed groups who feel it will already be hard to resolve
the conflict by way of negotiations.
Q. Do you think the government and military should have anticipated that
this would be the backlash from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)?
A. I'm sure they've always been aware of the possibility of this happening.
This situation is not new to them.
Q. Does it help the MILF if they undertake this kind of hostilities granted
that they may have been frustrated?
A. I have to go back to the sentiments on the ground, both civil society as
well as sentiments of people within the MILF as well as the other
revolutionary movement, the MNLF. You have to bear in mind that the Mindanao
peace process is three decades old. This started in 1976. The feeling on the
ground is that, they had this 1976 Tripoli agreement, there was a 1996 peace
agreement, but where did these end up? It ended up in failed implementation.
When the MILF leadership undertook negotiations with the government, many in
their ranks were already asking: why negotiate with the government when all
the past peace agreements have never been implemented? So there's always
been skepticism among the [MILF] ranks in the peace process. And then at
each stage of the peace process, each stage of the exploratory talks and
formal talks, there has always been good results that both the MILF and
government could present to their respective constituencies. But after all
of those hard bargaining, those long years of negotiations, after they
arrived at an agreement on how to resolve the conflict, suddenly, the
Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) was blocked. So the
skepticism that was present before is alive again. I think that's what we're
seeing now.
Q. Were you privy to the details of the MOA-AD that was to be signed in KL?
A. There were several instances when I had attended very public forums where
members of the GRP [government of the Republic of the Philippines] as well
as members of the MILF gave the audience updates on what was going on.
Q. What about the contents of the draft MOA-AD?
A. We were given updates on what were the pending issues they discussed,
they had resolved. My friends in the Mindanao People's Caucus, for instance,
organized several of these forums in Davao City , in Marawi City , and these
very public consultations. And I also recalled that every time that the GRP
and the MILF panels are about to meet, they always announce, they make a
public announcement that we are about to meet.
Q. I guess the people back then should have already known about the more
contentious issues such as the resource sharing agreement with the GRP-MILF,
the inclusion of 700 barangays in an expanded Bangsamoro homeland. All of
these were made public.
A. Some of these were made public. The forums I attended, these were
staggered. They occurred over time. So depending on what the status of the
negotiations at that time, that was what was divulged.
Q. Sen. Mar Roxas and Frank Drilon actually have an initialed copy of the
MOA-AD, and they're taking exceptions to several provisions there. For
example, that the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity can now enter into separate
treaties with foreign governments. And now, they're saying that that's
totally unheard of for an autonomous homeland, to have that kind of
sovereign power. Was that ever included in the consultations?
A. I think they refer not to treaties or all kinds of treaties. They
referring to economic treaties, and this is not entirely unheard of. This is
the kind of arrangement that they have in Belgium . For example, the Flemish
region in Belgium is allowed to set up trade missions or enter into economic
treaties with other countries.
Q. Like Quebec in Canada .
A. Yes, so let us bear in mind that the Philippines is not the only one that
has an internal conflict in the whole world. So maybe we should learn at how
this kind of problem has been tackled in other parts of the world. So I
think that's what the GRP and the MILF panels have borne in mind. And if I'm
not mistaken, they've also mentioned Northern Ireland , for example, when it
comes to a need to reexamine the Constitutional framework to resolve the
conflict.
Q. It's good you mentioned the Flemish territory in Belgium . But doesn't it
cause a lot of tension within Belgium ?
A. The tension that I've heard in Belgium is actually being managed by these
sort of accommodations or arrangements. Because the Waloon region [of
Belgium] can always tell the Flemish, why go for separation when you already
enjoying these sovereign privileges? And I guess that's what both the GRP
and MILF panels had in mind when they agreed on this MOA-AD. I suppose what
they were thinking was that, there would be no use, for now, to secede
because all of these genuine...sort of tools would now be afforded or
accorded to you rather than paper autonomy.
Q. But look at what's happening now, when you see the MILF acting in a
belligerent way, just because they're frustrated, ,maybe this, to them,
hopefully a hiccup in the peace talks, and then they finally give up all
hope and resort to violence again. What does it say about giving a group
like this the kind of powers that are contained in a MOA-AD? Isn't it
dangerous?
A. I will be frank with you. We ourselves are finding it hard to pacify
these armed forces. We need to appeal for them to hold back, all the armed
groups because, as they were saying, 'We thought you said we should give
negotiations a chance. We've been talking already for 12 years. We've
already faced two all-out offensives already and then it ends up nowhere.'
We in civil society are finding it hard to pacify these armed groups. And
I'm not just talking about the MILF, I'm also talking about the AFP. Our
work is made much harder when we hear about much-publicized statements from
our political leaders who say, if the MOA-AD is signed, there will be
bloodshed, which we find completely illogical. Because what they're saying
is, if there's a peace agreement, there won't be peace. There will not be
any peace. Whereas we are saying, if there's a peace agreement, there will
be peace.
Q. Let me play devil's advocate. If you say it's hard to pacify these
groups, what we've seen is it's the MILF that has been provoking these
all-out wars. So it's the MILF that is more difficult to restrain than the
AFP.
A. I don't want to take sides. I just want to say that when it comes to
military solutions…we hear so many people say now, it's time to go all out
against the MILF. What I want to remind everyone is that every time we adopt
a military solution, it never works. Remember that in the 1970s, we were
under martial law, and President Marcos, with all the resources and powers
he had in his hand, could not crush a hastily organized rebel army with very
little training, with no battlefield experience, with very minimal
equipment. And the military went against them during martial law. Here we
are, three decades later, they are far more experienced, they have more
equipment, what makes us think that they cannot put up a fight? What I'm
afraid of is, they fought for two weeks in North Cotabato , we already have
160,000 internally-displaced refugees, extrapolate then. Let's assume they
continue fighting for two or three months. How many thousands or millions of
refugees will we have? Remember, in year 2000, we had one million
internally-displaced people, and these were World Bank and government
figures. In comparison, Bosnia only had 600,000, East Timor only had
300,000. What I'm trying to say is, if we do not deescalate the situation,
we might end up becoming the Darfur [in Sudan] of southeast Asia.
Q. Right now, we have a Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of
Hostilities (CCCH). So far, we haven't heard from it. If that committee does
its job, then it should defuse the situation.
A. I remember one instance when I talked to a member of the CCCH. This was
about Cotabato. This was when a Civilian Volunteer Organization and the MILF
were fighting. The MILF were farmers in that area; the CVO members were also
farmers in the barangay. There was fighting and it was reported to the Joint
Ceasefire Committee. The committee came in and it was told by the CVOs, "We
don't recognize any captain. We don't recognize any ceasefire committee."
So, the problem is, the public in Manila who don't know any better, who are
not immersed on the ground, who don't know what's happening, it's very easy
for them to be manipulated. It's very easy for public opinion to be
manipulated nowadays. Because we know that in times of war, the first
casualty is truth. I would advise our friends in media to get a direct line
to the CCCH so we will know what's really happening. Let's not rely…our
sources of information should not depend on groups that are taking advantage
of the conflict. We have so many groups who feel that their interests,
whether economic or political, will be affected negatively by the peace
process. I've always said the reason why there's still no signing of a peace
agreement is that….I've always said that if the government panel, as well as
the MILF panel were left on their own to decide if they should sign the
agreement, they would have done that two years ago. They just couldn't sign
it because they're afraid. There are powerful economic and political forces
who genuinely feel that their interests, political and economic may be
adversely affected by the Mindanao peace process. Because we are talking
here of returning the ancestral domain of the Moros themselves. Now, let's
ask ourselves: who are enjoying now the fruits of these ancestral domain?
Who owns the mineral rights? Who has tens of thousands of hectares per DENR
records in Mindanao ? How would you think they feel, now that the government
is about to return the ancestral domain back to the Moros?
Q. But were they consulted in the first place?
A. If they had been consulted, what do you think they would say? Our friends
in Zamboanga are complaining, they're saying they were not consulted. But
later, they said, they were. And they've said no. Apparently, what they mean
by consultation is, to them, they are consulted if the government takes
their position. In layman's term, when we ask, what do you think? It doesn't
necessarily mean that I would have to adopt your position. But to them, they
say that since they have already expressed their views in a public forum,
albeit informally, their position is, the government should adopt their
position. The problem is, if you're in the GRP or MILF panel, if you try to
accommodate everyone's interest into this agreement, without asking anyone
to make sacrifices or compromises, we will never arrive at any peace
agreement. And what we saw today, it will continue to grow.
Q. How can this be resolved? The President has already ordered an all-out
offensive. The military says it's not going to stop because it's already got
the upper hand. Even local officials say it's got to stop now. When do you
think it's going to stop?
A. I myself am hoping everything dies down, everbody calms down. How is it
going to stop? There has to be…we have to show to everyone that there is a
big constituency for peace. As of now, what's being given air space and
print space are the anti-MOA and the MILF. And both of them are either
saying, if there's no MOA, there's going to be war. Or if there's MOA,
there's going to be war. Right? Perhaps, it's about time, the silent
majority, if there is really a silent majority in support of the peace
process, or the peaceful resolution of the conflict, maybe now is the time,
now more than ever is the time for us to come out and say to everyone, say
to these groups, say to those who would rather resolve the conflict by armed
means, 'Wait, there's a big constituency in support of a peaceful resolution
of whatever grievances, Bangsamoro grievances you have there.'
Atty. Zainudin 'Zen' Malang, Executive Director of the Bangsamoro Center for
Law and Policy, may be reached through mobile +63 928 5000432, and email
address
- END -
--
Tatine G. Faylona
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