Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 01:17:00 07/21/2008
MANILA, Philippines - The news that the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels reached a breakthrough in Kuala Lumpur last July 16 is welcome. Peace at last? Not yet, not by a long, hard slog, but now at least the negotiations can resume in earnest.
This is in the best interest of the Filipino people. A just agreement that ends the Moro separatist rebellion in the country’s second largest island can usher in the peace that can finally lead to all-out development.
To be sure, there will be some who will receive the news as yet more confirmation of a continuing nightmare. It is important to note that these hard-liners, to use a common term of convenience, can be found on both sides of the peace table.
But overwhelming public support exists for the simple but potent idea that the way to a just peace in the troubled parts of Mindanao is not through an all-out war but through a negotiated political settlement. Indeed, the Tripoli Agreement of June 22, 2001, which effected the ceasefire between the Armed Forces and the MILF which has been shaken in recent days, acknowledged the then-new Arroyo administration’s “all-out peace policy in Mindanao.” That new policy repudiated the Estrada administration’s attitude of rampaging machismo, and reflected public sentiment.
(But it must be said, that even if popular support were lacking, the peace process continues to be the best available option, and a just peace remains in the country’s best interest.)
The needful thing is to forge an honorable agreement.
What happened in Kuala Lumpur last week will help the stalled peace process, in the exact same way a stalled engine is jump-started. But jumper cables are not a substitute for actually driving the vehicle, or reaching one’s destination.
In brief, the Kuala Lumpur meeting allowed the negotiators (headed, respectively, by the government’s Secretary Rodolfo Garcia and the MILF’s Mohagher Iqbal) to agree on the wording of a key provision on “ancestral domain.” The government insisted that the word “freedom” be replaced in one reference to the Bangsamoro people, while the MILF pressed for the inclusion of a key phrase, “non-derogation of prior agreements.”
Ancestral domain is one of three “aspects”—matters for negotiation—identified in the 2001 Tripoli pact. After the government panel acceded to the inclusion of the non-derogation proviso, the negotiators agreed on the final wording of the controversial text, replacing “freedom” with “aspirations.”
The discussion about ancestral domain is essentially a discussion about the scope of the better-than-autonomous, less-than-independent territory that will be included in what is referred to as the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. The possibility that this will be larger than the present-day Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (itself the result of the 1996 peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front) is checked-and-balanced by the agreement that the scope of territory will be subject to a plebiscite in the affected areas.
So much for the jumper cables; the next step is to get the vehicle moving, with a resumption of formal meetings between the peace panels.
Is it possible for the destination—a final peace agreement—to be reached by the end of the year? A former government peace negotiator, Fr. Eliseo Mercado, said he was “90 percent” optimistic. The newly minted presidential adviser on the peace process, ex-AFP chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon, was a little more guarded. “Whether it will take one month or one year, we don’t know. But we would like to build on the goodwill that has been built.”
A crucial proof of goodwill-building is the ability of the MILF to rein in its increasingly restless troops. According to the military, the MILF launched 40 attacks on government soldiers in May and June. Without admitting the actual number, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu acknowledged the incidents and blamed them on “hotheads,” who, he said, had now been “pacified.” The commanders who led the attacks, he added, had been “confined” for “education and re-orientation about the peace talks.”
Any peace will have its discontents. That is a law of nature. But the assumption behind the peace process is that both parties have the political will to impose compliance. That is a burden both parties share, but it is a burden that weighs down on the MILF more.
Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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