IS peace between the government and the Muslim extremist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attainable?
In a pessimist’s point of view, there might not be any remedy to the insurgency in Mindanao, which has spanned four decades long, especially now that the notorious group is behind the bloody slaughter of 44 Philippine National Police-Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF), who were in search of Zulkifli bin Hir (alias “Marwan”).
The target of the mission is the supposed Bin Laden of Asia, a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) with a $5-million bounty from the US government. Because of the recent clash, some reports alleged that the MILF and BIFF forces cradled the international terrorist while the whole world hunted for him. Clearly, if reports are true, there was a breach of trust — when the supposed ceasefire between national forces and Moro rebels was broken.
It must be noted that the group and the Aquino administration have been engaged in peace talks to give way to the formation of the Bangsamoro government. If the bill is passed, the law would allow the allocation of billions of pesos to the MILF members, in exchange for the promise of peace.
Former President and Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada thinks Aquino should declare an all-out war against MILF and BIFF. During Erap’s regime, he had done the same thing that was said to cause the neutralization of the war zone in the southern region of the country. The government spent millions, even billions, to fund the war. Regardless of the money spent, people living near the camps of MILF tasted “a bit” of peace.
“They’ve been going on for 40 years, and it’s always ‘peace talks, ceasefire, peace talks, ceasefire.’ That’s still what they do now. Will you still trust them?” Estrada said. “You can never trust MILF.”
However, for an optimist, the implications of the fatal “misencounter,” is just a hiccup and that there is still hope.
Despite groups and senior officials of the country withdrawing support for the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the Philippine government chooses to stand by it. The law is the strongest shot the country has to attaining peace.
“This entire peace process is at stake with this law. If we fail to pass the law at the soonest possible time, the peace process will fail and the status quo will remain,” Aquino stressed.
On Friday, Jan. 30, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal signed the protocol for decommissioning, wherein the terror group is expected to surrender all their firearms to the government, thus leading to the “normalization” of the atmosphere in the soon-to-be Bangsamoro government.
The decommissioning is one of the supposed monumental stages toward attaining “peace.”
However, the BBL still needs to go through the gap of a needle. The Senate and the House of Representatives separately held hearings on the proposed law. Upon learning about the carnage, both houses of Congress “indefinitely” suspended their hearings unless the incident has cleared.
For a realist, peace is attainable, but only if both parties fully cooperate. With trust and sincerity among the Philippine government and the MILF, solitude can be achieved. Chances must be given. Rage and the desire to take revenge must not cloud good intentions.
In the meantime, a speedy independent investigation on the Mamasapano, Maguindanao incident must be prioritized to give justice to the death of the 44 elite policemen and their grieving loved ones.
(AJPress)
