A wasted piece of precious document

The gestation of peace has been excruciatingly slow yet when it took shape it has turned fast into a serpentine seed of evil that is sowing divisiveness among the peoples in Central and Western Mindanao. Violence has erupted anew. How frustrating indeed to see decades of negotiations wasted into naught and evolving still into another irrational argument to wage war and fan the dying ember of divisiveness.

Just when both sides announced they have completed the draft of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain belligerent elements led by breakaway group of Commander Umbra Kato marched in full battle gear to scuttle the peace talks, set houses on fire and towed away farm animals and freshly harvested crops of unsuspecting farmers cowering in fear and anxiety.

How else will the leaders react this barefaced display of firepower, brute force and savagery? We  cannot take it against Vice Gov. Manny Piñol of North Cotabato if he rages against the atrocities of the brigands led by Commander Umbra Kato. We cannot fault Gov. Mangundadatu of Sultan Kudarat and other Muslim leaders to raise their voices against the MOA when the forces of terror sow fear, devastate and dislocate not only Christian and lumad communities but Muslims as well.

The Arroyo government is in earnest to push through with the MOA to the extent of earning ire even from among her political allies in addition to the rabid political opposition. Unfortunately the MILF hierarchy is apparently not capable of addressing the restiveness and adventurism of a number of their field “Commanders”, among them Umbra Kato. This is the very reason why some quarters doubt whether the MOA once signed will finally put an end to violence in Mindanao. This apprehension is not only among Christians but shared by all the peace loving in Mindanao who have gotten tired of the lawlessness in the region.

We believe that the Moro people deserve a homeland but this should not be done through threats and aggression. This government has demonstrated its sincerity and determination to provide ancestral domains for the indigenous peoples, which by the way are truly the genuine inheritors of the lands and resources of this country, and we believe that expanding the autonomous territory will not be much of a problem. But this should be done with rationality and civility and not through the point of a gun. That is not negotiation. That is coercion.

No matter how sound is the MOA on ancestral domain this will just be another piece of precious document wasted if the realities on the ground precedes it. We do not want to take sides on the conflict but the MILF should prove it can handle the multi-headed hydra that hounds it like it did with the MNLF. — Miriam Dahunog