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Streetwise*
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Peace talks charade
Perhaps the best thing to come out of the GRP-MILF** Memorandum of
Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA) fiasco -- aside from the recognition
on paper of the Moro people's right to self-determination -- is that the
chain of events has forced the US-backed Arroyo regime to drop the charade
that it is negotiating with the MILF in good faith, towards a political
settlement that truly addresses the roots of the armed conflict, most
especially the central issue of ancestral domain.
The prospective signing of the MoA by the GRP and MILF negotiating panels
has triggered an unfounded and near-hysterical outcry against the supposed
imminent dismemberment of the Philippine Republic; the issuance of a
Supreme Court Temporary Restraining Order stopping the inking of the MoA;
and has ignited the fresh outbreak of hostilities evoking even further
widespread and more intense Moro bashing and calls from both the Arroyo
camp and the leaders of the anti-Arroyo Opposition for another all-out war
to finally annihilate the MILF.
The series of announcements by Malacañang -- first, that the Arroyo regime
had all along intended to push for Charter change that would create a
Bangsamoro federal state under some kind of Philippine federal republic
purportedly to bring peace to Mindanao; then the intent to revisit and
renegotiate the MoA in order to placate those who charge the MoA to be
“unconstitutional” and “treasonous”, thereby rendering the issue before
the Supreme Court moot and academic; and now the shift of focus of peace
negotiations from armed groups to the unarmed communities supposedly in
response to MILF armed provocations in North Cotobato and the Lanao
provinces -- betrays a devious stratagem.
The US-Arroyo game plan aims merely to ensnare the MILF into a prolonged
ceasefire; confuse as well as raise the hopes of the Moro people that the
GRP, with US prodding, will grant their aspirations for a Bangsamoro
homeland and self-rule; and coopt the MILF leadership or force them into a
negotiated capitulation. This stratagem has long been used in the GRP-NDFP
peace negotiations causing the current impasse that is tantamount to its
breakdown under the Arroyo administration.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Arroyo regime never intended to
sign the MoA. That is why it did not muster the political support of its
canine loyalists among the local government officials in affected
provinces, whether Christian or Muslim, and kept the terms of the MoA and
its intentions, even its pretended intentions, top secret.
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All the better to whip up controversy due to the dearth of information
about what was really happening in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations, public
ignorance and lack of sympathy for the grievances of the Bangsamoro
together with the deeply-entrenched and widespread anti-Moro prejudice.
And all the better to have a TRO, unanimously issued by the Supreme Court,
that conveniently provided the legal mechanism to stop the signing of the
MoA that was to be witnessed by high-ranking officials of foreign
governments, not least of which from the formal mediator, Malaysia, and
the informal power-broker, the US.
Armed hostilities between the
military and armed units of the MILF have broken out once more and have
caused civilian deaths and displacement, damage to property and casualties
on both sides. They are the direct result of the treachery of the Arroyo
regime vis a vis the MoA and its cynical use of the peace negotiations to
“neutralize” the MILF politically and militarily so that it can train its
guns solely on the communist led-New People’s Army.
The lack of unqualified support for the MoA by even from those who uphold
the Bangsamoro right to self-determination is traceable to the outrageous
opportunism of Mrs. Arroyo in using the agreement to justify changing the
Philippine Charter and thereby opening the door wide open for its
self-serving agenda of extending its term limits and remaining in power
beyond 2010.
Government's formal manifestation in the Supreme Court that it will
revisit and renegotiate the MoA has all but killed whatever prospect of
progress, if not breakthrough there was in the negotiations, real or
illusory, and pulled this back to a situation much worse than before the
MoA initialing.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s most recent get-tough and unmistakably
hawkish pronouncement is that her government would no longer negotiate
with armed groups until they give up their arms but would instead “talk
directly to communities”. She said that "engagements with all armed groups
shall be about disarmament, demobilization, and rehabilitation”.
Unless the Arroyo regime is at war with “communities” and not armed
political forces such as the NPA and the MILF, her statement could easily
be dismissed as empty, if not ludicrous. Unfortunately, it could be a
prelude to a major breakdown in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations and
constitute the signal fire for further intensification of military
offensives against the MILF and armed assaults against the civilian
population.
Mrs. Arroyo’s obsession with remaining in power coupled with the dominant
fascist mindset in her Cabinet has completely blinded the Arroyo regime to
the lessons of history. Military solutions have never succeeded in
extinguishing the struggles, much more the aspirations, of an aroused
people, be it the Bangsamoro or the Filipino people.#
*Published in Business World, 22-23 August 2008
**Government of the Republic of the Philippines-Moro Islamic Liberation
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