Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 01:31:00 05/08/2008
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Daily Inquirer has supported the search for lasting peace in Mindanao over the years. Part of our support has meant the duty to take national administrations to task when military interests threatened to undermine or overwhelm different peace initiatives. Thus, we view the current impasse in the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)—reflected in Malaysia’s decision to bring its peacekeepers home, some as early as this Saturday—with great dismay. At the same time, we view Malaysia’s apparent taking of sides with great concern too.
The chief Malaysian mediator, Othman Abdul Razak, all but blamed the Philippine government for the impasse on the ancestral domain issue. “It really boils down to the political will of the [Philippine] government,” Othman said. “If the government wants the talks to progress, it can do it. It can think creatively. But if it wants to stick to the Constitution, things will not move,” Othman told the Associated Press last month.
Even Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim could not hide his exasperation with the Philippine government, when he announced that the phased withdrawal of the Malaysian troops from Mindanao would be completed in September. “The thing is, we have to get cooperation from both sides. But if one party is not making the effort, we will have to end the mission.”
It is clear to anyone following the peace process in Mindanao that our neighbor’s chief diplomat was referring to the Philippine government.
It was left to Malaysia’s top general, feted in both Malacañang and Mindanao, to finesse the matter with as much diplomacy as could be mustered. Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Abdul Aziz bin Hj Zainal, chief of Malaysia’s Defense Forces, told MindaNews last week: “We don’t simply withdraw. We’re just thinning out.”
Aziz also assured his hosts in both the Palace and in the military camps in Mindanao that Malaysia was “not abandoning the peace process ... We started it, we’d like to see it end positively.”
But no one disputes the likely adverse impact of the pullout of the Malaysian core group from the International Monitoring Team. The IMT has been serving in Mindanao since 2004, and has played a crucial role in decreasing the number of armed encounters between government soldiers and MILF rebels. The likeliest consequence of the Malaysian pullout would be a marked increase in armed encounters, with innocent civilians caught in the crossfire the likeliest victims.
Can renewed hostilities possibly be viewed as ending the peace process positively? Given current conditions, there is no other way to understand Malaysia’s pullout but as an abandonment, in painful fact, of the peace process.
Worse, there is no other way to receive the opinion of Malaysian officials that the Philippine government is to blame for the current impasse but as a gross misunderstanding of both the Philippine position and the limits of constitutional democracy.
A spokesman for the presidential adviser on the peace process put it bluntly: “Mr. Othman still does not comprehend why the GRP [the Government of the Republic of the Philippines] has to adhere to our Philippine Constitution as framework for negotiations with the MILF ... We have continuously explained to him that the perceived delay is due to GRP’s exercise of due diligence to address constitutional issues in the draft ancestral domain agreement.”
The presidential adviser himself, Jesus Dureza, rightly noted that one of the government’s chief concerns was “implementability” of any peace agreement. The agreement, he said, must be able to “stand the test of constitutional scrutiny.”
We agree. The Othmans of Malaysia and the leaders of the MILF must understand that, for the Philippines at least, the Constitution is no mere detail. It is no mere technical matter. Yes, it is possible to “think creatively,” especially on a matter as vexing and as critical as a negotiated peace. But Malaysia, in facilitating that very process of negotiation, must not ask the Philippines to set aside its Constitution, as though it were a trifle.
We also join the call for Malaysia to renew the mandate of its IMT contingent. Sometimes the roughest part of an extended journey is right near the end.
Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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