Test of MILF resolve
“We are telling you now that the leadership has been sincere all the way from Day One until today,” said Moro Islamic Liberation Front vice chairman for Political Affairs Ghadzali Jaafar, talking about the peace talks between the Philippine government and the rebel group that are now in peril after the recent spate of MILF ambushes in Mindanao.
At the time Jaafar released his statement, the clashes had already claimed 37 dead soldiers and 44 wounded. They weren’t the only casualties. The bloody rampage has left the fragile peace process pretty much in tatters, or at least stripped now of the goodwill and trust much of the country had been willing to extend to the MILF in pursuit of a just and lasting peace in the region. Without public support, any proposed peace deal would be dead in the water. Let it be said here and now: the MILF, with its treachery and deceit in attacking government troops while a ceasefire agreement is in place, bears primary responsibility for sabotaging the cause for peace.
While President Aquino was right to temper calls for a retaliatory all-out war, which would only subject Mindanao to greater misery, it’s time he also called the MILF to task for its tendency to speak with a forked tongue, and, more alarmingly, its inability to enforce its own commands. Jaafar, for instance, insists that “there is an instruction to commanders that they should respect the ceasefire agreement, that they should just adopt a defensive position.” The bloodbath in Basilan, echoed soon after in Zamboanga and other parts of Mindanao, gives the lie to that statement. Either Jaafar is being devious through his teeth, or the truth is much worse: the MILF hierarchy has lost control over its foot soldiers, in which case, what point is there for the government to continue treating it as the right entity to talk peace with?
The test of the MILF’s sincerity and resolve should be simple: Have it commit to rein in its renegade elements. Let it demonstrate that it can verifiably enforce the confidence-building measures and protocols agreed to at the negotiating table, and punish any rogue soldier or commander in its ranks that disrespects the agreement and puts the MILF’s capacity for peace-building in disrepute. If Jaafar and company are as desirous to be serious partners for peace as they would like the government and the country to believe, then they would restrain their members from any action that robs the MILF of the very credibility it needs to sit at the negotiating table.
Unless, of course, in reality the MILF cannot do it—never could, given the tribal, ever-fracturing quality of the Mindanao insurrection, and certainly not now, when its commanders on the ground have shown that they could launch operations against their avowed enemy with complete impunity, unencumbered by any so-called “instruction” to the contrary from their detached leaders ensconced in air-conditioned offices and saddled only with having to clean up and explain away the carnage afterwards.
The case of Ameril Umra Kato, now head of the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Liberation Fighters, is instructive. Umra Kato is the main suspect in the attacks that razed parts of Mindanao in the wake of the scuttling of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain the MILF had forged with the government of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Hundreds were killed and thousands displaced by Umra Kato’s tantrum, but until now, despite the government’s call for the MILF to bring him to account for his atrocities, the bandit continues to roam free, declared by the MILF merely as a “lost command” that’s out of its hands.
Jaafar has said the MILF will issue an official statement soon reiterating its commitment to the peace talks, including surrendering lawless elements to authorities. The Aquino administration would do well not to hold its breath on this promise, and instead forcefully insist that any continuation of the peace talks should hinge on the MILF handing over the perpetrators of the attacks to be tried in court for their crimes. Let that be the baseline demonstration of the MILF’s continued viability as a partner in the peace talks.
Even British Ambassador Stephen Lillie has said the MILF “needs to reassure public and political opinion that they remain committed.” Absolutely right. Just last August, a Social Weather Stations survey said 83 percent of the country was hopeful of a peace agreement between the government and the Muslim rebels. The MILF has just shattered that hope to pieces.
