Mediation needed in gov’t-MNLF conflict

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatulahhi wa barakatuh!

If a mediation team is given due course, the priority efforts must be to reach out to Nur Misuari and other key Moro National Liberation Front leaders to establish immediate communication, facilitate the calming down of heightened emotions, and clarify the government’s intent as far as the Tripartite Review is concerned.

I dealt with them for quite a time in the renewed MNLF peace process for the full implementation of the 1996 FPA (final peace agreement). The Tripartite Review is the only venue that gives them hope that the FPA will be fully implemented and the means where they can officially ventilate their position on the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao issues and concerns, including the ongoing peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. As I pointed out last Sept. 26 at a roundtable organized by the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, the key leaders of the MNLF expect much from the Tripartite Review. By denying them this venue, they have no other recourse but to look for other means to ventilate their position.

Their efforts to gain attention have thus far led to the declaration of an independent Bangsamoro Republik, a series of peace rallies, and the sudden resort to violence. Is this a case of no other recourse but violence because their peaceful posturing was ignored by the government? The violent standoff in Zamboanga City could have been nipped in the bud had the government allowed third-party mediation.

In February 2007, Habier Malik took me hostage because of the continued failure of the Tripartite Review to take off after more than one year since its announcement by the government. He told me that he was tired of fighting and that it was his only hope that the remaining issues would be resolved so that he and the other leaders of the MNLF could return to a peaceful life.

I had a lengthy conversation with Misuari in Beachside Inn, Bongao, just before the May elections. He told me, among others, that there were still so many matters to be resolved in the Tripartite Review, and that he expected the process to go on. He also said the MNLF in Jolo would continue to help the government in eliminating the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo. He joked that Ustadz Malik had been itching to continue the fight with the Abu Sayyaf. This was one of his informal commitments to me in his prison cell at Fort Santo Domingo on Nov. 5, 2005, when I started to engage him into the renewed MNLF peace process.

The government stand to put closure to the Tripartite Review is subject to many interpretations if it is not communicated officially. Did the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) explain this to Misuari and the key leaders of the MNLF? Media reports and hearsay information are often misleading. Misinformation or disinformation results in conflict and violent situations. See what happened after the abortive signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain? MILF commanders Bravo and Ombra Kato could have misinterpreted the event as a sudden end to the peace process. Like us, rebels also have much hope in the peace process.  Too much frustration can lead to conflict situations; violence is the only means for rebels to ventilate their anger or emotion if not provided with peaceful means. I believe the reason for the violent outburst of Ustadz Malik in Zamboanga is not different from those of Bravo and Ombra Kato.

I had a chance meeting with a senior Opapp official at the Zamboanga City airport early last May, and he informed me about the government’s intent to put closure to the Tripartite Review. I was alarmed because this might be misinterpreted by the MNLF as the government’s way of saying that the FPA has been fully implemented. I warned him about a possible violent repercussion if this is not formally explained to the MNLF leadership. He told me that the government considered the MNLF a spent force. See what happened?

In the Sept. 26 roundtable, I learned from the handouts that the closure of the Tripartite Review would lead to another process that would pave the way for the government’s giving due course and flesh to what have been achieved by the Tripartite Review. This has to be explained well to the MNLF. In the meantime that “wounds” and a wedge have been created between the government and the MNLF, a third-party mediator must get into the picture to promote peace and normalize the situation. If communication is absent, it is guns that will do the talking.

I would like to emphasize that the MNLF leaders’ experience in dealing with the government has been telling them never to trust the government. In my first encounter with Misuari, he talked for five hours without interruption about the struggle and the government’s purported continued insincerity. They will only talk if there is a third party involved. The creation of a third-party mediator will be a good move.

Ben Dolorfino, a retired general, is a former head of the Western Mindanao Command and a convener of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy.