THE PROSPECTS FOR PEACE IN MINDANAO

THE PROSPECTS FOR PEACE IN MINDANAO

( This was the speech  delivered at the Cross Cultural Center, UCSD. February 25, 2011 on the 25th Anniversary of EDSA 1 People's Power Revolution)

First, I would like to thank the Cross Cultural Center of the University of San Diego and the KmB-San Diego for inviting me for the commemoration the 25th anniversary of the EDSA  People's Power revolution of 1986.

It is proper to commemorate the event because after the EDSA revolution of 1986, when the dictator was overthrown in a combination of an attempted coup and people’s uprising like in Egypt today , 2011-- It was after the EDSA revolution that the peace talks and a ceasefire between the National Democratic Front and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) started.

Unluckily, the peace talks continue on today and we  still don’t have peace in the Philippines and in Mindanao. But let me discuss first about Mindanao and the prospect of peace in the island.

Land of Promise

Mindanao is called the land of promise. The 3rd largest island in a 7,100 island chain called the Philippines, Mindanao is also the 2nd largest concentration of Filipino population with 30 million out of the 90 million people. More than 5 million are Islamized Moros and native Lumads.

There are 28 provinces in Mindanao divided into 6 regions. 56% of Philippines forest cover is in this island. 70% of the people are Christian settlers who were settled by American colonialist since the 1920’s.

It has 38%  of agricultural area of the republic that numbers 3.7 million hectares.  40% of the food requirement or roughly 30% of the national food trade is in the island. 32 of fisheries and aquatic resources is also found here. Tuna , the Philippines number one export is also here.

There are 3,954 foreign corporations in Mindanao. But 17 out of its 28 provinces are in poverty. It has four of the 12 poorest provinces. Thus war is way of life in Mindanao.

War in Mindanao

There are different armed groups that are contending in Mindanao. In 1969, the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM ) was formed to fight Christian land grabbers. It later evolved into the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) during martial law as a reaction to the crackdown by the US-Marcos Dictatorship in 1972.

It is interesting to note, that the “Group of 100” Moro students trained in Egypt and Libya to fight for Moro self-determination and seccesion since 1972 to the present. It is well known that Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East supported the struggle of self-determination in Mindanao ever since.

But with the insistence of Col. Gaddafi of Libya, ( where a civil unrest is going on today after the people's uprising in Egypt) the MNLF was forced to accept and implement the Tripoli Agreement in 1976. By the Tripoli Agreement of 1976, the MNLF and the Marcos government was supposed to form an Autonomous Region in Mindanao.

But Marcos used it as bludgeon and a wedge against the MNLF. He made the renegade MNLF leaders officials of his “autonomous region” and it weakened the MNLF until 1986. This resulted into the break-away  and the formation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)  in 1977 that continued the struggle for secession and self-determination.

In 1996, the MNLF finally lost their touch with reality when they surrendered to the US-Ramos regime and accepted a bigger pie in the Southern Philippines Development Authority  (SPDA) and opted of the integration within the system.  After the term of Ramos, the SPDA was scrapped and the MNLF vanished into oblivion.

Meanwhile the MILF grew stronger and was able to parry attacks from the successive regimes of Estrada and Arroyo .The growth of the MILF is a testimony to a home grown rebellion if supported by outside forces can suceed. The MILF negotiated a prologed ceasefire and contious talk until  a Memorandum of Understanding on Ancestral Domain ( MOA-AD) was signed in 2008.

But another conflict erupted when the Supreme Court disavowed the agreement and another war erupted in 2008.

The New People’s Army (NPA)

What makes Mindanao complicated is the presence of the New People’s Army (NPA) since 1969.  The NPA made inroads in Mindanao and expanded during the 14 years of martial law.

It was in Mindanao where the NPA  grew stronger from small guerilla fronts to what it is now, what the AFP says as “ the strategic threat to national security in the whole nation.”

Unlike the MNLF and the MILF, the NPA is not on a prolonged ceasefire with the Philippine government, It has not entered into prologed ceasefire unlike the MNLF or the MILF .

It was only in 1986 when the National Democratic Front (NDF) entered a 60-day ceasefire with the GRP. It ended with the bloody massacre in Mendiola on January 22, 1987.

The peace talks with the NDF has have stalled for more than six years since 1994. While the peace talks with the MILF has been stalled for the last two years. A prolonged ceasefire with the MILF has been in place but war is still the way of life in the island since 2009.

More than 150,000 people were killed during the height of the MNLF and the GRP conflict from `1972-1977. At least two million people were dislocated during the conflict from 2008 to the present.

Prospects for Peace

We feel the current peace talks between the new dispensation and the NDF as well with the MILF augurs well for peace and development in the Philippines and in Mindanao.

The peace talks between the NDF and the GPH started last February 17  and ended in February 21, 2011. The peace talks with MILF will start on March 29, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We see as obstacles to peace are:

1) a fascist and militarist set-up in the AFP supported by the United States who demands surrender and uses the peace talks to effect his result.
2) Christian and Chauvinist element sin the religious sector and anti-Muslim element who will not compromise for peace
3) hard-liner with the movement who wants a situation of perpetual war and relative peace.

But as perpetual optimist, we believe as the parties involved specially the people of Mindanao desires peace, peace can be achieved.

**********