Peace at last, we hope

When we read the papers, some headlines occasionally cause us to heave a sigh of relief. Nothing refreshing in the news for quite some time now until last Saturday, newspapers reported that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has finally declared a Mindanao truce and yesterday’s headline “Peace seen with MILF” brings some sense of hope that peace will finally dawn for our brothers in the Mindanao region.   

It is almost a year now since the villagers of Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte were attacked by rebels, with 33 civilians mercilessly killed among them and hundreds more forced to flee and leave their homes. Later, in nearby towns, homes were burned and residents terrorized and hurt. Fighting between the government and the rebels continued, as a number of hostages were also kidnapped and some ransomed for release along the way. A series of blasts killed and wounded more people and just yesterday 12 unexploded bombs were found hidden in the rest room of a ferry boat. We again heave a sigh of relief that, for some unknown reason, they did not detonate, otherwise more casualties will have been added to an already lengthy list.

My heart goes out to the thousands of displaced people whose lives still remain in the balance as a result of the fighting between the government and the rebel forces. The most pitiful of the victims in these circumstances are always the small children who are helpless. In evacuation centers, the mortality rate is highest among children. The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) counts a total of 157,584 families or 756,544 people displaced when the rebel forces started terrorizing villages in August last year after the signing of the proposed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain favoring a Bangsamoro homeland was stopped by the Supreme Court. Of these, a total of 51,326 families or 254,119 people still remain temporarily housed in refugee shelters in Maguindanao. As a result, the Philippines posted the biggest new displacement in the world in 2008 and is now listed as one of the countries watched by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) for having a large number of internally displaced individuals, matching that of conflict-torn Myanmar. 

 Forty years of conflict between the Muslims and the government, and we see no definite end in sight. The damage to life and property and the cost of war still escalate. A government cannot be dictated upon by a minority who has failed to show it deserves the people’s support and respect. Violence and atrocities cannot prevail upon a peace-loving people. Most of all, the innocent ones must not suffer. A war can be won only with a decisive victory claimed by one. Justice cannot belong to the evil-minded and there can only be justice when there is peace. I am hopeful that the good will prevail.