The GRP-MILF PEACE TALKS

Tomorrow, 15 October 2012, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Muslim Islamic Liberation Front are scheduled to sign the framework agreement for the creation of the Bangsamoro autonomous government in Mindanao. This peace agreement is supposed to be the third of its kind.  In 2009, a similar agreement called MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement - Ancestral Domain) was also arrived at by both parties -- but only to be shut down and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Sometime in 1976, If I remember correctly -- we were then under martial law -- the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, made a secret trip to Tripoli, Libya, where she had a communique with then Libyan President Muammar al-Gadaffi towards the settlement of the Mindanao conflict, which the country had long had with the Mindanao National Liberation Front (MNLF), then led by Nur Misuari.  At that point in time, the MILF was not even yet born.  That  was the country's first peace negotiation with the Mindanao Muslims, in turn ending up into the so-called Tripoli Agreement.

As I earlier said, the First Lady's trip to Libya was secret, unknown either to President Marcos or to the Department of National Defense.  The Tripoli Agreement called for the cessation of hostilities in Mindanao in exchange for the establishment of a so-called  "autonomy of several (more or less thirteen) provinces in Mindanao within the realm of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines."  Upon discovering the agreement, President Marcos, calling it a shameless sell-out of the Philippine autonomy in Mindanao, lost no time to have the agreement dissolved.  The First Lady went back to Libya to relay to the Libyan President the negative reaction of President Marcos to the agreement, essentially that it violates the Philippine Constitution, to which, nonetheless, al-Gadaffi replied in tantrums: "We are not concerned with constitutions here, we are talking about war."  Attempts on the Philippine side to redo the agreement in relatively more mutually reasonable terms had failed.  And so, the Tripoli Agreement has since then been considered moot. And that is even as the MNLF continues to refer to it as still valid.

I am saying all these to emphasize my personal position in this connection.  First, I think the "autonomy" that our brother Muslims in Mindanao is not really that which prevails and is respected by the cultural minorities in Cordillera up north, nor by the American Indians in the US.  As we all know, these two cultural minorities -- truth is the American Indians had been scattered all over the American mainland, several times more numerous than the Muslims of Mindanao, when the first Europeans came -- desire not simply autonomy but total liberation or territorial cessation from the Philippines.  I think this is clearly borne out by the fact that, notwithstanding the above three attempts for peace, neither the MILF nor the MNLF has ever tried to remove the letter "L" (which stands for "liberation") in their calling   I really find it unthinkable, with due respect,  that our very own negotiators:  --Leonen, Deles, etc. -- had not at least attempted to convince both groups to drop that "L" in the interest of a truer expression of good faith.  And so, as things are, does the MILF truly represent the people of Mindanao?  I refuse to think so.  Let's not forget that the MILF is merely a  breakaway group from Misuri's MNLF.    The Abu Sayaf and Umbra Kato's groups are two others to contend with.  Methinks these various Muslim groups, each one certainly having a valid stake in this matter, must have first been made to regroup themselves into one, before any attempt to reconcile with one of them was ever attempted. I think this was the primary objective of the government when it put up the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, alongside a similar set-up in the Cordilleras.  Why the latter succeeded and the latter failed may have something to do with how each cultural minority group understands autonomy.
        
Of course, there are several other critical constraints towards the final conclusion of the framework agreement that is scheduled for signing on 15th October, such as those bordering on its unconstitutionality.  But I will leave that to the lawyers, and I am not.  Suffice it for me to state that my personal concerns are more a matter of common sense or intuitive gut feel than anything else.  And, as far as I can remember, my gut feel very seldom lies to me.

At any rate, I still wish our peace negotiators every measure of good luck that exists in Planet Earth.  As now already a septuagenarian who has gone through and experienced a great deal of my native land's history, it remains my sole sincere wish to see true peace in Mindanao ultimately prevailing   -- well, before I go.