Even before the euphoria over the just-concluded Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro could reach its peak, already there were forces wanting to strike it down. It was only to be expected, considering that looming major political change is seen as a threat to some influential people and sectors.
In the past, proposals emerging from the negotiations were vehemently opposed by political figures, especially when the proposals involved Bangsamoro land. These days, however, the opposition is coming from within the Moro people, from the most vocal among the leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Nur Misuari assembled his followers in Davao City, but evidently their number has decreased even as the sympathy for his cause has diminished. It is also obvious that like the combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Misuari’s own people are tired of the conflict that has led them to nowhere. Even the hot-tempered Commander Bravo, who attacked villages to protest the rejection of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, has expressed satisfaction with the targets spelled out in the framework.
The forces of Umra Kato have been effectively isolated. Given the fact that Kato is now physically debilitated, the better option for his forces is to return to the MILF mainstream. There are better possibilities for them and their families if they do so, considering the benefits the framework agreement offers the Bangsamoro.
We expect the clan wars to end, and for the protagonists to bury their hatchets for good. Stakeholders and investors, who have seen the potentials of the region, expect the clones of al-Qaida, among them Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf which are still embedded in some MILF camps, to be altogether neutralized. This will give more significance to this agreement. The decommissioning of firearms and the dismantling of private armies, to include civilian volunteer forces, will come later. The journey to success will go through a difficult road, but the objectives must be reached, for they are the guarantee to the reign of peace in Bangsamoro land and in the entire region of Mindanao.
—RINA DE JESUS,
Rosary Heights,
Cotabato City