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IN its
alarming provisions for an enlarged Moro homeland and
the way it was negotiated in the dark, the memorandum of
agreement on ancestral domain between the GRP
(Government Republic of the Philippines and the MILF
(Moro Islamic Liberation Front) deserves to die in the
water.
It has
raised alarms and anger throughout the country that will
not be assuaged by assurances that the memorandum of
agreement (MOA) is just “a piece of paper.” There is no
way forward for the vision of a Bangsamoro Juridical
Entity, whatever the euphemistic construction means.
It is
one measure of the MOA’s infirmity that Mindanao and
Sulu have now exploded into sporadic encounters between
MILF bands and government forces. It is another sign of
weakness that nobody, except the negotiators, bothers
anymore to defend it. Most significant, as the GRP-MILF
deal remains suspended by the Supreme Court’s temporary
restraining order, elections have proceeded in the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and, by all
accounts, they have been successful, with voters going
to the polls and computerized balloting functioning
fairly well.
There
are those of us who frankly do not understand why our
government should be negotiating another deal over a
Muslim homeland when there is already one in place: the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Was ARMM a deal
solely for the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and
Nur Misuari? Must we now forge a separate peace with the
MILF because they are actively in rebellion? What
happens if another rebel bunch, say, the Abu Sayyaf,
also proclaims its desire for its own peace deal? Where
does the policy of appeasement of secessionists stop?
RP
archipelago’s coherence
This
latest peace initiative of the government has fallen
flat because it has forgotten one very basic fact: the
essential unity and coherence of the Philippine
archipelago, which flies against any scheme to subdivide
or dismember it.
When you
look at the map of the country, the islands and islets
from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi, while diverse, cohere into a
natural whole. There are no islands that can in any way
be construed as being part of another nearby country,
like Taiwan, or Malaysia or Indonesia. They have been an
entity since the 16th century as the Philippine Islands.
You separate one island from the whole, and you will
have immediately a quarrel with the rest.
The
notion, therefore, of a separate state for Muslim
Filipinos—whatever may be the status of their armed
rebellion against the Philippine State—is a no-no.
Autonomy is the most that can be allowed or, if you
wish, federalism. ARMM was a start in this direction,
but Nur Misuari, after five years at the helm, took up
arms again. Even so, that did not kill Muslim autonomy.
It continues, albeit with attendant problems and
questions about whether it’s really working.
For
government negotiators to foist the new terms “ancestral
domain” and “Bangsamoro Juridical Entity” on the nation,
in the belief that they will bring peace at last to
Mindanao and Sulu, is the height of self-delusion. They
only leave many Filipinos angry as to why our government
should be so craven as to concede this. The hard reality
is that there is no force that the MILF can mount—and no
area that it can hold—against the determined power of
our Armed Forces. During the time of President Joseph
Estrada, when the AFP pursued all-out war against the
MILF, the citadels of Hashim Salamat were destroyed. But
the preferred solution is still by way of peace
negotiations—although that does not mean peace at any
price.
At the
end of the day, the essential unity and coherence of the
Philippine archipelago—more than the claims of
individual families to their lands—is what will
frustrate anyone who tries to sever one part from the
rest of the country. To preserve the whole, the entire
nation will take up arms. No peace negotiator and no
outside mediator should forget that.
Secessionist tide
In a
world where many secessionist movements have succeeded
in establishing their own republics, this assertion of
Philippine territorial integrity might seem problematic.
In the
former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, we see many
instances of people successfully creating their own
nations from the fragmentation and disintegration of the
old entities. In the wake of the collapse of the USSR,
we can hardly keep track of the new republics that have
emerged—Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, Uzbekistan
and so on. In Yugoslavia many have been the wars fought
to give birth to the new countries we see today—Serbia,
Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, etc. Closer to
home, we have seen East Timor break away from the bosom
of Indonesia.
The
temptation to see the secessionist demands of the MILF
in much the same light is the reason there seems to be
no lack of countries trying to help negotiate and
witness a peace deal between Muslim rebels and our
government. This is why Ambassadors Kristie Kinney of
the United States, Makoto Katsura of Japan, Roderick
Smith of Australia and Sayed Elm Masry of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference were at the ready
to witness the signing of the MOA in Kuala Lumpur. They
thought this thing is only natural for the resolution of
a secessionist struggle that has been going on for
generations.
But
there is a crucial difference here. The breakaway of
nationalities from the former Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia was rooted in their historic and separate
identities. They were nations before Josef Stalin and
Marshal Tito brought them into their communist embrace.
East Timor was separate before Indonesia annexed it.
The MILF
cannot lay claim to such a separate ethnic or historic
identity. And the Philippine state is in no way
disintegrating. The MILF can no more claim to being the
voice of Muslim Filipinos any more than ARMM and other
Muslim groups which are already integrated into the
national community. Most do not believe in a state
separate from the Republic of the Philippines, let alone
one led by the MILF.
If
against these hard realities, government negotiators
persist in foisting the MOA on the nation, they will be
serving not the path of peace but a recipe for civil war
in Mindanao. And that’s a prospect infinitely more
frightening than the headache we’re trying to solve
today. |
