Mamasapano, the President, and the Bangsamoro Basic Law
January 29, 2015
taborasj
Mindanao’s soil was soaked in the blood of its sons and daughters. The MNLF, then the MILF took up the cause of Muslim independence, now on a more serious plane. This was countered by the national leaders from the north. But supported by Muslim powers from abroad. The armies from the north were sent to conquer the armies of the south. They did not. They could not.
The
President has called for a day of mourning for those who perished in
Mamasapano. When we fly our flags at half mast on Friday, and call upon
the God whom we know to be merciful and compassionate, I shall be
mourning the deaths of the policemen who died on mission to serve
warrants of arrest on known terrorists.
But I shall also be mourning the deaths of the members of the MILF
and of the BIFF who perished in the same encounter. I shall mourn them,
Filipinos all, driven to foolhardy carnage or savage violence by
obedience, ignorance, recklessness or fear. In silence, I will pray for
peace.
I will also pray that we not be deterred from the path of peace. This
has been an arduous path travelled with much sacrifice and pain. But it
is the only way of hope.
Recalling the causes of war and violence
For me, travelling the path means recalling the causes of the wars
and violence in Mindanao, almost too traumatic for people from the south
to remember and too embarrassing for people from the north to admit.
Just some instances: Nur Misuari emerging in the wake of the the
Jabiddah massacre; the reckless adventurism of Marcos in Sabah that
ended in the Jabiddah massacre; the homesteading policies from the north
which ultimately deprived Muslim and Lumad Mindanaoans of their lands
and altered the Mindanao landscape forever; the “Filipinos” from the
north who sided with the Americans in “civilizing” the Muslims who had
not accepted the ways of the “little brown brothers” of white
foreigners; the “Filipinos” who stood by as the Americans massacred
Muslims in Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak in Jolo; the Muslims had fought
valiantly to defend their Muslim faith, culture and independence from
the foreigner; the treaty of Paris in which Spain sold the Philippines
to the Americans along with the sovereign Muslim sultanates that the
Spaniards had never conquered; 300 years of Moro wars that frustrated
the Spanish will to conquer and convert them; 200 years of presence and
matured civilization in the Philippines before the arrival of the
Spaniards.
Among the causes of war and violence in Mindanao has been injustice
from the north brought on Moro identity, political sovereignty, and
integral development.
The path to peace means that Filipinos from the north respect
Filipinos from the south. Mindanao is not a tool for the development of
the north; it is not an “opportunity” for the development of the
national economy, nor a tool for the advancement of national
politicians; its peoples, histories, and civilizations are not
instruments for the development of those of peoples from the north.
Unless this is respected in the cultures, policies, and laws for which
we take responsibility, the path to peace is not travelled.
There was a time when a Muslim, frustrated by the lack of justice and
respect accorded him by national leaders from the north north, called
for Muslim independence. Just the call for independence sowed terror in
the hearts of non-Muslim Filipinos in the south. Terrified, they thought
the best way of defense was offense. The terror of the Ilagas began. It
spawned the counter terror of the Blackshirts and Barracudas. It
brought the Manili massacre and the battle of Buldon.
Mindanao’s soil was soaked in the blood of its sons and daughters.
The MNLF, then the MILF took up the cause of Muslim independence, now on
a more serious plane. This was countered by the national leaders from
the north. But supported by Muslim powers from abroad. The armies from
the north were sent to conquer the armies of the south. They did not.
They could not.
Path to peace on a higher, more noble plane
The only thing that could stop the wars was the mutual insight that
guns, violence and wars do not solve problems, but only increase the
need for guns, violence and wars. That insight put us on the path to
peace. First, in partnership with the MNLF. Now, in partnership with the
MILF. It is a path from which we must not stray.
Where we once thought guns and warfare could forge peace, we have now
agreed to embark on a path to peace on a higher, more noble plane, the
path of human conversation, of merging dreams for peace, negotiation,
rational debate, and forging agreements for peace under the parameters
of a shared constitutional democracy. Those agreements belong to the
essence of the path of peace. They are made in good faith, and kept in
good faith. Otherwise, the peace is imperiled.
One of the agreements for peace occurred as hostilities ended in 1997
in the Implementing Operational Guidelines of the Ceasefire Agreement: “Police
and military actions and administrative/logistic activities shall
continue to be undertaken by the GRP throughout Mindanao and the entire
country. In the pursuit thereof, confrontational situations between the GRP and the MILF forces shall be avoided by prior coordination with the latter.” (Article
II) It is an agreement made with our formal partner in the peace
process, the MILF. It is not an agreement which can be unilaterally set
aside or disregarded.
The reason we entered into the agreement is presumably because we are
aware that the path to peace is arduous and dangerous. Peace has its
enemies. It is attacked by the interests of traditional centers of
political power, powerful armed clans, shameless avarice, the arms
trade, foreign interests, religious extremism and even local and
national terrorism.
Our partners know of these enemies of peace. They are more intimate
with their dynamics than any planner from the north can be. The peace
process does not mean that these enemies of peace have been overcome.
The peace process means that together we are journeying towards peace,
and that overcoming the enemies of peace is in our shared interest. In
Mindanao, the government’s partner for peace is the MILF.
It is a partnership that has been premised on trust, and a
partnership that can only grow in trust. It is a partnership, the
President says, that has many times borne fruit: “We have already made
such great strides because we trusted one another. We have proven that
we can work together.”
Why was our partner in peace in Mindanao not engaged?
It is therefore incomprehensible for me why our partner in peace was
not engaged, as our 1997 agreement stipulates, in order to meet the
problem of the presence of the two terrorists in the very sensitive town
of Mamasapano.
In this context, President Aquino's speech was opaque. He said the
agencies involved in the pursuit of terrorists “are not always required
to obtain my approval for each and every one of their operations,
because it would be impractical for them to wait for my clearance before
proceeding.”
Here he is saying he did not necessarily have to approve the
operation. He does not say that he did. He seems to say the approval
came from below him. Apparently, he was working with operatives in
subsidiarity. “They decided to take action and serve the warrants of the
two individuals.”
Without admitting he was briefed about this particular operation, he
was being briefed generally. “In the briefings the PNP gave me about the
continuing operations against Marwan and Usman…” In these briefings,
he was giving instructions: “I repeated countless times the need for
proper, sufficient, and timely coordination between the SAF, the
military.”
Referring to volatility of Mamasapano, he says, “Strangers cannot
just enter this territory.” Yet he says immediately thereafter: “Our
troops needed to enter quietly and carefully….” But why did he not also
instruct the operatives to coordinate with our partner in peace in
Mindanao, the MILF. Or why his subordinate did to give this instruction.
Was it ignorance of the agreement? Or mistrust of the peace partner? Or
northern arrogance that thinks Mindanao is its back yard and
Maguindanao a bed of roses without thorns?
Who failed to coordinate with the one group that could have helped
government achieve its objective and prevent the carnage – not in the
ways of the north, but in the ways of the south?
Why was trust placed more in a secret commando apparently headed by a
man of tarnished repute? Was the path of peace abandoned for 30 pieces
of silver?
Bangsamoro Basic Law should not be derailed
With the President’s statement, it is all the clearer to me that the
peace process leading to the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law should
not be derailed. The brutal manner in which human beings were killed in
Mamasapano can never be excused. We cannot close our eyes to this. But
blame cannot be laid solely at the feet of the MILF, as Senator Allan
Peter Cayetano does inanely. The reckless planning and shoddy execution
of this operation, whose responsibility lies with its author, caused the
disaster.
But the disaster should not include the Bangsamoro Basic Law. On the contrary, it makes its passage – through “the wisdom of the Congress of the Philippines” – more urgent. Here, we need the wise legislator, the statesman obedient to the common weal. This is a longstanding debt to the Filipino Muslims in justice. We owe it to them in respect. We have agreed to this. We owe it to them in self-respect.
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