Blood in Her Hands

Yesterday morning I took part in a media forum on how journalists can better report on Mindanao. The forum, or media dialogue, zeroed in on the aborted Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (AD) which triggered the ongoing shooting war, albeit limited at present to certain areas of Mindanao, between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government.

The dialogue also examined the media’s reporting on the conflict and how this exacerbated the distrust and misunderstanding between the different peoples of Mindanao regarding the MOA-AD. Among the speakers of the dialogue was Professor Rudy Rodil, the vice chairman of the dissolved government peace panel.

In the forum, Professor Rodil said the job of disseminating information on the MOA-AD was not theirs alone and in fact they conducted continuous consultations at the local level in the course of the peace talks with the MILF. Talks with the MILF, in fact, started in 1997, one year after the government concluded a peace deal with the Moro National Liberation Front(MNLF) so local consultations have been going on and off for the past eleven years.

On this the Professor is right. Any settlement with the MILF is political in nature and while the panel may have been tasked to negotiate on the government’s behalf, in the end any agreement would have to bear the imprimatur of the President. It must therefore follow that, in explaining the MOA-AD to the various shareholders, media included, the Executive should have taken the lead.

It can be argued, and in fact the point has already been made countless times by various personalities, that the President lacks the political capital to push for the acceptance of such a momentous document, especially since a final peace agreement would necessitate changing certain provisions of the Constitution. There is simply so much distrust on the part of the political opposition, civil society groups and even among members of the media for the President.

Nevertheless a concerted effort should have been made as the issue of a just peace with the Bangsamoro people is more important than the intramurals of the political elite. The problem was, there never was any coherent message coming from the President regarding the context of the MOA-AD and how this may pave the way for an end to the conflict with the MILF. Instead, what emanated from the Executive was a garbled message, a fact that was immediately exploited by politicians with their own selfish vested interests.

What is even worse is, with the dissolution of the government peace panel, there is an impression that the President is leaving the panel members to take all the heat, or out in the cold as the case may be, as if she was clueless to what the panel was doing all these years.

Then, too, the Executive allowed itself to be boxed into a corner by the national media when it could have seized the initiative and explained the nuances of the document to the same. It has always been an admitted shortcoming on the part of the national media to indulge in stereotyping Mindanao stories. That is a sad fact—the national media tends to, at best, sensationalize the periodic violence, or threats of violence, in Mindanao.

I also remember reading about how the peace process is being supposedly used to propel the ChaCha Train days before the President even announced the breakthrough in the peace negotiations with the MILF during her State of the Nation Address last July. Why the President never bothered to explain herself in clear, unequivocal language is beyond me. Instead what we got was often conflicting explanations from various high officials of government.

In the end the inevitable happened—media hyped the many incendiary statements from politicians, there was confusion with regard to just what the MOA-AD is all about, and rogue commanders of the MILF attacked civilian communities. And even now, we are still picking up the pieces; we are still bearing the consequences of a peace deal gone sour.

Shoulder to Shoulder

The problem with the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) is that we have allowed politicians and pundits in Manila to transform it to an election issue.

It may have been impossible to skirt the issue of Charter change considering that the MOA-AD necessitates Constitutional amendments. But the manner by which the issue got quickly hijacked by politicians with clear ambitions in 2010 made sober discussion on the MOA-AD impossible.

True, things would not have turned for the worse if only President Arroyo had come out and said, clearly, just what she wants and how she intends to get them. True, it would have helped had the President, in pushing for Charter change, did not equate federalism with a parallel shift to a parliamentary form of government. It would have helped, too, if the President and all her lackeys in the Lower House had not been too eager in pushing for Charter change via Con-Ass.

But as things now stand, the issue of forging a peace agreement with the MILF has become a mere side issue, with Charter change now taking center stage. We all know the issue of Charter change to be highly contentious, with politicians and sectors clearly divided between those favoring Cha-cha now and those who think Charter change should come after GMA. Like oil and water, we know, too, that neither side is willing to give ground. Especially since 2010 is less than two years away.

Meanwhile, conflict with the Moro rebels has again flared up and civilian casualties are mounting.

It is easy for politicians from far away Manila to seize the issue of the MOA-AD and use it for all the political mileage it can serve them. But when push comes to shove, when political posturing turns ugly and ignites a shooting war as it now has, the worst that can happen to them is a temporary political setback, nothing that a good PR can not remedy.

Not so for the people of Mindanao. Here we do not have the privilege of using incendiary language and to hell with the consequences. Here we mind our language. Or we throw caution to the wind and use nasty language as the likes of Manny Pinol has done. But even Manny Pinol lives among us, in Mindanao, not in some comfortable house in a posh village in Manila.

We do not mind the likes of Senators Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, and other Manila-based politicians using the issue of peace in Mindanao to gain political points. We do not mind anybody from far away Manila to talk about solving the Mindanao problem using language that ignite the tempers of Muslims, Lumads, and Christians alike.

We do not mind them at all, even if they muddle issues and feed decades-old animosity between the peoples of Mindanao. So long as when the shit hits the fan, as it now has, they come here with their families, in the war-torn areas of Mindanao, and stand with us shoulder to shoulder, and face the consequences of all their off-the-cuff talking.

Losing Sight Of Peace For Mindanao

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo finally went out and said it. Federalism, the President said Monday, is “the way to move forward.”

But instead clearing up issues, the admission that her administration is once again seeking charter change to accommodate a peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has only resurrected old and nagging fears that she wants to stay beyond 2010. And the President has only herself to blame if people are suspicious.

A constitutional amendment is needed before any peace deal with the MILF can be consummated, that much is obvious. By all intents and purposes, the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) is federal in nature, thus the need for, to use Secretary Jesus Dureza’s term, a “surgical amendment.”

But there lies the problem. Instead of coming out and saying unequivocally just what it wants, the President is giving the impression that everything is still up in the air. Instead of laying all her cards on the table, the President is giving the impression that she is keeping an ace up her sullied sleeve.

Secretary Dureza was quoted in The Daily Tribune as saying that “the best way in resolving the conflict in Mindanao is to go through a Constituent Assembly.” He went on to clarify the statement saying this “is not yet the official position of government.”

But of all people, Secretary Dureza must know that everything he says reflects, if not official policy, at least what is in the mind of the President. He is afterall, the alter ego of the President. The concept of convening Congress into a Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution ran into stiff opposition two years ago because, among other things, politicians can not be trusted to forego vested interests. Just imagine, if you were a congressman into your last term and, by a sudden stroke of luck, you were allowed to change the Constitution, wouldn’t you lift term limits so you can again run for office? Turning Congress into a Constituent Assembly was discredited then as it is now. So why is Secretary Dureza again sounding out the concept?

To make matters worse, Secretary Dureza seems to be enlisting support for Charter change by implying that government has the backing of noted constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ. Secretary Dureza said government negotiators had sought the advice of Fr. Bernas on how to implement the initialed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) with the MILF.

True, Fr. Bernas had said publicly that there is nothing to worry about with regard to the MOA-AD. But what the good Secretary failed to mention is that Fr. Bernas has been consistent in saying that the way to Charter change is through a Constitutional Convention in which delegates are elected.

Critics of the MOA-AD between the government and the MILF therefore can not be faulted for suspecting that something sinister must be in the works especially since government seems determined to ink a deal with the MILF, even with the use of discredited methods, before 2010.

But we must also put these criticisms into perspective. The MOA-AD is by itself a breakthrough document in that it recognizes the aspirations of the Bangsamoro and at the same time attempts to rectify past wrongs done to the Bangsamoro people.

Listening, however, to politicians such as Senators Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, and the rest of the United Opposition, you get the drift that the be all, end all of the document is Charter change and not the crafting of a lasting peace in Mindanao. Which is painting a skewed picture. Let us remember that these politicians all have designs for higher office in 2010 and it seems they are rabidly opposing charter change now because, let’s face it, charter change will put all their political plans into disarray.

So now, what? Fighting has again flared between the government and the MILF; local politicians are again fanning the flames of conflict; thousands and thousands of internal refugees are again streaming into areas as yet unaffected by war.

Meanwhile, our politicians can not rise above their selfish interests and look beyond their parochial concerns. Shame, shame.

Charting A Just Peace

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