Peace pact: Take it with skeptical optimism

Today, conflicts abound in many countries in the world.  Justly though, most of these conflicts prevail as pure consequences of some rulers’ ruthlessness and the awakening of their hapless citizens brought about by the idea of freedom that have swept across their lands.  Thus, the rulers of countries like Tunisia and Syria have to bear the brunt of their citizens’ rant and fury as the latter fittingly demand for freedom and democratic space.

Though, obviously, not similarly situated, we also have our own brothers and sisters who are at it.  Not contented of an autonomy, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) demanded decades ago of a separate state.  Then, as an off-shoot of PNoy’s discreet meeting with the MILF leadership in Japan in August 4, 2011, they allegedly abandoned their quest for it. Recently, as we all know, after 17 long years of negotiating and shuttling of diplomacies, a peace pact was signed between the Philippine government and the MILF.  Unfortunately, albeit expectedly, before discussions can even start in the supposed drafting of some enabling laws, it seems that some factions have already given us an inkling that the usual cycle of negotiating, breaking away and killing will persist. 

Decades ago, it can be recalled that we negotiated and agreed with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on certain autonomy of some parts of Mindanao.  We thought peace shall ensue after that historic truce.  Years later, however, some of its leaders broke away and formed the MILF, the same MILF that we recently have signed a peace pact.  As we all now know, as we prepare ourselves for the implementation of this pact, it is as clear as daylight that dealing with Umbra Kato’s Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFF) will be totally unavoidable.

True, all these years, we’ve been negotiating with our Muslim brothers with the hope that peace shall reign and economic prosperity pervades.  However, our ways of achieving this lofty objective remains questionable. To recall, in August of 2008, we had the most disappointing ending of any negotiation we’ve done in decades, the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for an expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).  While the road that led to its supposed wrapping up in Malaysia was suspiciously smooth, the destination was ostensibly malicious.  Every Juan just wondered on the haste and secrecy both parties have maintained throughout the stages of negotiations.  Though seemingly choreographed, with foreign dignitaries standing in as supporting casts, it had an awful finale.  The finale that was supposed to be a fitting tribute to the protagonists (the government and rebel panels) after a very long and tiring negotiation, turned out to be so disgraceful not just to the so upbeat and primed up foreign dignitaries, who were appropriately dressed for rare photo opportunities, but to the entire nation as well.  A nation denied by its leaders the right to know the kind of future they are heading them to.

Looking from afar, one may suspect that these political and business leaders were simply exaggerating the situation.  That that was just another chapter of the continuing saga of Christians and Muslims biblical animosities and no more than just a consequence of mutual distrust.  I have presumed all these years too, just like any doubting Filipino, about this age-old conflict as no more than a legacy that had been passed on to generations. 

In the meantime, however, let us set aside all these doubts and apprehensions brought about by the “reality shows” unfolding before us.  In evaluating the pros and cons of an expanded territory and wealth sharing arrangements, we must look into the basis by which ARMM was created, and whether or not, it has achieved its preconceived goals and objectives. 

Hailed then as the panacea for peace and progress, today, ARMM symbolizes nothing but wanton catastrophe.  Heightened conflicts are reaching unparalleled peaks and mutual distrusts are piercing through every ARMM citizen’s bone.   Warlords have continued amassing wealth while their poor followers had become unwilling paupers. Straightforwardly, the entire ARMM has no factories, just warlords’ and politicians’ mansions.  Consequently, they’ve continued to languish by their own doings.

Therefore, obviously, the entire ARMM is graft-ridden.  Thus, the majority of our Muslim brothers remained poor and had become easy recruits of breakaway groups and bandits.  So that, clearly, if corruption shall remain unabated, peace shall never prevail.  Honestly, it is impossible to live peacefully when one’s stomach is empty.  So that, the recycling of peace agreements isn’t enough, ridding ARMM of corruption is a must.

Nonetheless, peace is necessary for any country or region to progress.  Therefore, no matter how elusive this maybe, it must be pursued with zest and vigor.  However, history considered, let’s take it with skeptical optimism.

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