Military option no solution

What’s happening now in Zamboanga City is the consequence of the past mishandling of peace agreements.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) review of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the national government are now a subject of controversy of the Tripartite (Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC]-Philippine Government [GPH]-MNLF) talks. A look at what these peace processes had created is putting all parties concerned in a dilemma, if not in a state of confusion.

Since the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, the 1986 Jeddah Accord, and the 1996 FPA, it now virtually appears that everything was only good for signing but not for implementing. Hence, the review of Republic Act No. 9054 creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which began in 2007 and continues up to the present, came up with 42 GPH-MNLF legislative points. But the MNLF problem is being held in abeyance as the GPH negotiates another peace deal with the MILF.

Nur Misuari blundered into declaring independence last month, which seemingly abrogated any peace agreement. Anyhow, those who know Misuari are saying it is only a matter of how to handle him—like how former President Fidel Ramos treated and handled him. But that kind of handling is hardly an option for the present administration—as Misuari has already been found out to be a leader only but not one with managerial ability to govern. His declaration of independence, to the contrary, is not really meant to attain the impossible. It is his way of getting something short of independence, to suit what he wants.

The national government knows that the majority of the MNLF senior leaders have been questioning the leadership style of Misuari. Misuari cannot be underestimated; this is correct because there are still thousands among the masses who can be easily misled.

The Bangsamoro people are divided between the MNLF and MILF. Neither the MILF’s FAB nor the GPH-MNLF review of the 1996 FPA is the be-all and end-all solution to the Bangsamoro’s centuries-old problem.

The MNLF and MILF concerns and issues about the Bangsamoro should be fused in one comprehensive and inclusive package. A military option as a way of asserting one’s primacy is not at all a solution. The Bangsamoro people have never been subdued or conquered—not by the Spaniards or the Americans or the Japanese. (Take note of the Kamlon defiance and the ongoing rebellion.)

What matters most is a genuine, peaceful political solution that must prevail under the stewardship of a strong, sincere, determined leadership with exemplary statesmanship.

It is about time the Philippine government and the OIC acted together in imposing a fair, genuine and lasting political solution under an atmosphere of a thorough, sustained, orderly and effective brotherly consultation with all stakeholders.

—ABE LUKMAN,

Zamboanga City