By Office of the National Vice President for Internal Affairs
United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD)
Cotabato City, Mindanao, Philippines

How many innocent civilians must have to be displaced? How many lives of innocent civilians – women, children and elderly -- will become collateral damage in the armed conflict? How much agricultural products and properties must have to be damaged? And how long will be the list of students who must stop attending school in order to stop the conflict in the Bangsamoro homeland, Mindanao, Philippines?

The questions are being addressed to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Further, these wake up calls are also for all the peace loving people, politicians, business sector, church, media entities, international communities to support the peace process between the GRP and the MILF.

On the other hand, if the Philippine government has an intention to resolve the conflict in Mindanao, it is but a drop of ink that must be realize the already initialed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) and it will cost not even a dollar in contrast to the huge amount of expenditures that have been spent in war.

The realm of negotiation lies now in the hand of the government whether it wants to salvage the peace process by honoring the MOA-AD or just to continue its new framework for the talks, the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration or DDR which only connote insincerity and lack of political will of the state to resolve the Bangsamoro problem.

The Moro problem is rooted in the so-called right to self-determination that is legally acceptable and granted in the 1987 Philippine Constitution and recognized by the international laws as legitimate rights of the minorities in the region.

The root causes of the conflict in the southern Philippines are totally unique from that of other countries that have a political turmoil like Afghanistan, Darfur, Sierra Leone, among others, wherein Security, Sector, and Reform (SSR) and the DDR are both said to be an approach of the state and international organizations working in these countries. Though, the approaches are quite controversial, too. For example, in the disarmament, the incentives for those who have surrendered their firearms are given more than the price of the weapons that they have returned. In which, logically, they could buy again another guns better than the previous arms they used to have.

With this, it may not be a guarantee that conflict and violence could be stopped. It should be better when the conflict is mutually addressed by the conflicting parties through peace negotiation with, of course, the facilitation of international communities and come up with an agreement. In this way, we could have an assurance that long lasting peace will be attained. Thus, DDR in the first place will no longer work at this stage.

The issue of DDR, the press statement of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Ghazali Jaafar dated 5th September 2008, emphasized that DDR is part of the successful conflict resolution among of conflict affected countries in the world. However, in the case of GRP-MILF peace talks, DDR will be possible in the latter part of the implementation of the agreements. If government will insist this kind of approach, it gives only a motive that military approach is paramount in the talks.

As included in the calls that have been cried out by the Moros and the Filipinos who are jointly gathered peacefully last 18th February 2009 in Mindanao and Manila spearheaded by the Mindanao Alliance for Peace (MAP), a non-political and non-violent alliance of civil society groups in Mindanao; the “military approach” has been proven many times as an ineffective solution to the Bangsamoro problem in Mindanao. It will only recruit more Moro freedom seekers.

Way back in the ‘2001 gentlemen’s agreement’, the parties agreed that in the resumption of the peace talks; the government should not limit the talks within the parameter of the Philippine constitution.

In response, the MILF also lowered its demands from independence to open up a new formula so that there will be a chance to find new options -- solutions that are viable and acceptable to both parties. However, accordingly, it doesn’t mean that it will abandon the quest for freedom and independence for the Bangsamoro people.

There is an official agreement that was reached in the GRP-MILF talks, this is the 7th July 2008 initialed MOA-AD but the Philippine Supreme Court restrained the government negotiators to finally sign it in 5th August last year due to a question on its constitutionality. But how come that it is unconstitutional when in fact it was already agreed upon by both parties and witnessed by the Malaysian government, as mediator of the peace talks? And it was then initialed by the members of GRP panel. The GRP panel is tasked and mandated by the government to represent the state. It manifests that once again, the government is not negotiating faithfully.

The government should face and continue its commitment because this is the essence of the negotiation. It always associated with the term “give and take enterprise.”

Again, according to the MAP, that convened hundreds of thousands of people in the peaceful rallies in the mainland provinces of Mindanao, the aborted final signing of the MOA-AD in Putrajaya, Malaysia is a betrayal of the guaranteed right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro people.

It should be noted that the MILF is just a representative of the greater Bangsamoro and the Indigenous people (IP) who lived since time of immemorial in the land where the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) will be established.

The MOA-AD is a legitimate product of the GRP-MILF negotiation. This is only the key and or a ladder for a peaceful resolution to the decades old problem of the government in the South of the Philippines. Therefore, in order to move forward, the government itself must have a political will to recognize and honor what was previously agreed upon in the peace talks especially the MOA-AD. Otherwise, peace may become elusive in the Land of Promise, that is Mindanao.

The UNYPAD is a non profit, non partisan youth organization based in the Philippines.