When a Malacañang special emissary signed two interim accords with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, politicians in Manila were livid. "A virtual surrender of sovereignty," an opposition congressman snarled for the headlines. "Treason," a colleague shouted from the Senate.
The hoots naturally grated separatist leaders, who don’t distinguish politicians as administration or opposition, or between Malacañang and Congress. For them, Manila is simply the invader. "They come to us to offer peace," MILF vice chairman for military affairs Al Haj Murad sneered, "yet they don’t want it in writing." Ustadz Shariff Jullabi, the MILF commander for Zamboanga-Sulu, was more warlike. Surmising from the opposition reaction that the AFP is using the cease-fire to surround his guerrilla unit, he yelled back that the MILF is presently training 50,000 men to resume the fight for Moro secession. Too, he said, separatists have so far manufactured 10,000 anti-tank rocket launchers, and that seven out of every 10 fighters are now armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Fortunately for the peace effort, perhaps, Congress is on recess and opposition pols are vacationing abroad. Nobody stood up to gain media mileage by taking up Jullabi’s challenge with a call to arms. After all, the claim to 50,000 trainees is patently absurd. By last count, AFP intelligence units had the MILF fighting strength at 15,000 men, most of whom report for "combat duty" only three months in a year. The arms factories Jullabi bragged about is nothing new in Muslim Mindanao, where tribal strength is measured by the number of rifles able-bodied men own. The production of rocket launchers is, by military accounts, no worse than mere repair of busted weapons by MILF fighters who have nothing else to do during the cease-fire. An embarrassed Eid Kabalu, the MILF spokesman, could only say of Jullabi’s claims: "It’s simply not true."
The bellicose screeches of the hawks on both sides notwithstanding, the peace effort in Mindanao goes on quietly, if slowly. Government is rebuilding villages levelled by the AFP’s all-out offensive of May 2000. Social workers are carting evacuees back home from schoolhouses that had served as shelter for two years. The rehabilitation is called for under one of the two accords signed on May 6 and 7 in Kuala Lumpur by Murad and Presidential Adviser on Special Concerns Norberto Gonzales.
It is government’s duty to rebuild lives and jobs, says Datu Ahmad Bayam, special Palace adviser on Muslim Mindanao. Civilian victims of war, whether or not they support the MILF, are Filipino citizens for whom government must care. "With or without a signed agreement to rehabilitate Muslim communities, Malacañang will have to move," Ahmad explains. "The good thing is that the accord makes the MILF a part of the work."
It’s that same accord that politicians decried as capitulation. They overread in the document a virtual recognition of "MILF territories." They also derided the insinuation that the MILF would handle the rehabilitation money, funds that the separatists could divert to procure arms.
There can be no such thing as MILF territories, Ahmad says, for the simple reason that the MILF was waging unconventional guerrilla war. It never had controlled lands to talk about, only swaths of supportive clans or villages. "But even if they do have territories, the fact is that a cease-fire was signed on June 22, 2001, in Tripoli," Ahmad explains. "The cease-fire is supposed to lead to formal or even informal negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Mindanao conflict. That there’s a cease-fire is big enough. That we’re joining hands for rehabilitation is a step farther for peace. That the MILF is there is the reality. Territory is a non-issue."
The MILF separatist cause has led to tens of thousands of deaths in the past 28 years. Manila has expended billions of pesos in a containment campaign that led nowhere. The AFP suffered 85 dead and 250 wounded in the 2000 offensive to capture 52 MILF camps, but it only scattered the MILF into small bands that are harder to pursue in jungles and remote villages. Some units were cut off from their commanders, and the greater danger arose that they would turn to banditry to sustain themselves. Only a peace enticement, not more shooting, was the logical next step. The Khadafi Peace Foundation had brokered the June 2001 cease-fire agreement in Tripoli. If it had something to do with Libya’s attempts to get European support for the lifting of the US-led trade embargo, it’s beside the point. The cease-fire enabled emissaries from Muslim states to talk to MILF leaders about a peace settlement, akin perhaps to the 1996 accord with the Moro National Liberation Front. But almost a year passed with no moves towards such an accord. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, eager to lead investors to Mindanao, hosted the Murad-Gonzales meeting in Kuala Lumpur. On May 6 they signed a communique for government and MILF to start talking about contentious issues that could lead to a final settlement. The next day, they agreed to jointly rehabilitate the villages that both sides consider as their constituents. The go-vernment peace panel led by Jesus Dureza was surprised that two interim agreements came out of Kuala Lumpur without its knowledge. Then again, no formal talks were going on, only casual chats. Besides, Murad had stopped seeing Dureza after the latter admitted that he had no authority yet to commit to anything, if ever they began the formal round.
AFP chief Gen. Roy Cimatu and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Effort Eduardo Ermita, a retired general, also were surprised. Grilled by the opposition in Congress, they could say nothing about the Murad-Gonzales accords. Politicians used this as ammo against the Arroyo administration. But Dureza, Cimatu and Ermita realized that the accords, interim as they may be, constitute the all-important confidence-building steps towards any peace settlement. Enemies naturally regard each other with suspicion and caution, before embracing as friends in the end.
Ahmad can’t say what the next step is after rehabilitation. President Gloria Arroyo is encouraging the MILF to form an NGO that would receive and disburse foreign donations. Opposition pols took that again as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. But it’s a reality that donors do not always channel aid through the government.
Ahmad is confident, through talks with MILF leaders, that a peace pact can be reached in two years. He says that MILF vice chairman for political affairs Gadzali Jaafar has assured him of their willingness to hear what government has to offer. The hawks are roosting – for now.