Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) claims that the Philippine Government is moving to position of war. In my mind, war is already underway in the southern part of the country. I sometimes look out across Bogo City and think how calm and peaceful things are here and how it could all change. I reflect on the war going on in the south that has left half a million people homeless.
The Philippine Government has disbanded its peace envoy engaged in talks with the MILF saying that it is hard to talk when guns are pointed at your head. The Philippine government says they will negotiate with communities one at a time.
This seems to be the Bush Doctrine of negotiation, don’t. When a government refuses to talk with an organization, the only thing that organization can do is respond with violence. Talks should go on, even if those talks are not negotiations but are instead demands to put down your arms.
MILF commanders have recently attacked civilians but MILF says these are unsanctioned activities so they are not an organization. I find that to be a pretty weak argument. MILF does want the peace process to continue.
I’m only an observer in all of this, but the situation looks bleak. US troops are beginning to assist the Philippine government more with such activities as searching for unexploded bombs. Warships have been seen patrolling around the southern island as well.
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Since our home is in southern Mindinao I have been following the conflict for a while. I have even researched the history of the forty year old conflict. While it seems that there is an unwillingness on the government to negotiate in reality it is because public opinion does not support it. There was a secretive negotiation that was almost ratified earlier this year. It would have given away governance of hundreds of townships to the rebel fighters. When it was exposed there were legal challenges by the mayors of the cities affected. When this court challenge was made the rebels responded by burning homes and murdering unarmed civilians. It turns out that the rebels were promised something that the government was not legally allowed to give. The end result was chaos. The rebels are already tired of fighting but they refuse to turn over the troops responsible for the violence. They seem content to deny that they did anything wrong. If they truly wanted peace they would have fought the battle in court. The UN recommended that future negotiations include all affected parties and not just the guys with guns. From the Moro perspective they take the position that they are not Filipinos and were slighted when the US took the country away from Spain. I feel fortunate that this turmoil has not infected the area that our home is in. General Santos City is actually thriving in this weak economy. Even as we speak a new megamall is being built with a second one a possibilty. There will be a total of five large malls in our city. Hardly the picture of a war torn area.
It was secret? It was all over the papers. And what has been in the papers is considerably different than what you’ve stated here.
The supreme court nullified the agreement. I think most of the mayors in the effected area would have been Muslim and support the idea. Not sure how the nearby mayors would see things though.
In these areas, they are already strongly Muslim. After the agreement was nulifid by the Philippine supreme court, the Philippine Military attacked the rebels. The agreement had a clause in it that the MILF were to withdraw from certain areas.
Even though the agreement was nulified by the courts, the Philippine government expected the MILF to follow their agreement. Some of the newspaper in that area were as well. Saying give Ph. government more time and pointed toward the struggle between England and Ireland. The peace process there also suffered similar setbacks but over time the governments were able to overcome them.
All the press reports both here and around the world that I have seen said the Philippine Military struck first. There have been about 250,000 people left homeless as a result of Military attacks. I don’t think the rebels are doing most of the damage sa they would be doing it to places they already control and they would be doing it to other Muslims.
There have even been calls for the President of the country to stop the fighting but her answer was basically I’m sorry for the hardships that this is causing but we can’t stop.
There have been messages on TV stating the same kind of thing.
I don’t know how to explain the huge difference in what you are finding than what is in the press here and around the world.
What bothers me the most is that I think the current administration here in the Philippines had to know that the agreement was not constitutional. Before all out war broke out, there was even talk of extended Gloria Arroyo term to help get the peace worked out.
There are things I think that I don’t think I’m allowed to say.
I think this all requires some reading between the lines.
I have been following this on the websites of GMA and ABS as well as some newspapers. Here are some links http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions and http://www.gmanews.tv/regions In some of the stories you will also find a link to the milf website. If you follow the stories back to the aborted signing of the agreement I think you will probably get a more accurate perception of what has happened.
i haven’t had a chance to get buy those sites just yet but I will. I also watched GMA ABS new broadcast on TV. The conflict started when Philippine Military conducted air strikes on villages. There’s no way they would have done that on Christian villages. Our I should have said re-started. The conflict has been going on for hundreds of years, just a matter of which government they were fighting against.
I’ve been following it too and speaking to other expats about it as it was going on. I’m amazed at the different views. I’ll get buy there. Read this: http://cebuexperience.com/man-beats-himself-to-death/ a lot of times what gets reported here, doesn’t make sense. Like a guy that beats himself to death. I’m sure the story was reported correctly. The CDN tends to water things down a bit from what I can tell. But there are three versions of the truth out there.
I am thinking of starting a paper myself but have been warned that it can be dangerous. That I could end up very dead. I like the Freeman because they don’t seem to be towing the party line as much. The paper is not as fancy and colorful but the articles seem to be more direct.
Do you have google alerts setup? I get more news than I can possibly keep up with that’s a great way to do it. I’m telling you one of my best kept secrets here. LOL
I setup two new ones yesterday, I’ll never be albe to read it all. LOL
It just doesn’t make sense that the MILF would burn their own villages unless they were using a scorched earth policy. Burn as they are driven out. If they MILF claim they are rouge troops, I’m not going ot believe that, I may have even read it and dismissed it.
I don’t think it reflects very well on the PI to not go through with a deal and then attack the other side for not upholding their end of it. I don’t know why the PI would take a false position. When one reads news stories here, they must read between the lines.
I’ll follow those links soon, I just woke up.
Then again, sometimes I do not understand what I’m reading. I’ve not been here long enough. On the front page of the Freeman today there is a change of leadership in the Senate. I can read the words but I don’t know how this will change things. When something like this happens in the US, I understand the ramifications but here, I have no idea. Jessie is not a very political person so she probably doesn’t either. Many times she does fill in the gaps but I doubt she knows about this one. Sometimes I feel like a fourth grader trying to learn about “civics”.
Tom, I followed those links. I read news from there daily. Of course I can’t read every thing and I do concentrate more on Cebu than Mindanao. Heck I have a hard time spelling Mindanao and I often pronounce it wrong still LOL.
My browser opens to several news and financial pages when I start it. Here is one of them.
http://news.google.com/?geo=Philippines
Being unemployed LOL I spend about half my day reading news articles.
I’m intrigued by your perception of what is going on down there and it may be different, it may be more accurate because you have contact down there. I don’t know. I know also that some times when people are very close to a situation (like your contacts may be) they tend to see things differently. Don’t think this is going to be an easy one to resolve but I’ll be keeping my eyes open.
I don’t trust organization that capture civilians and hold them for ransom and then brag about getting paid. The MILF does that. It is shame that peace completely fell apart both sides shouldn’t expect things to happen so fast.
Well, I live mainly in San Francisco (AKA San Franz) in Agusan del Sur on Mindanao, although we have a second home in Cebu City (Barangay Tisa). Muslim Mindanoa for all intensive purposes begins once you roll out of the mountains in Compostela and onto the plain into Targum. the “Troubles” though begin in Cotabato south of Davao City, although they do flare up as far north as Panabo.
Where we are it is mainly NPA, Front #3 and #20, they have us closed in on 3 sides now but it ebbs and flows. They are pretty well dug in a couple of klicks to my east in Surigao del Sur and the fighting does get bad there but so far they do not come over the mountains, and then again to the north in Propseridad the provincial capital, one village north, and also on the southern border of our village as National Hiway climbs up into the mountains into Trento, with the Agusan Marsh being the usual cut off point.
In daytime it is usually VERY quiet, at night you can run tino Army checkpoints every few klicks on the Hiway, as well as the Logging checkpoints which makes it dangerous going because you never know who is going to pop up. Like insurrections anywhere the night belongs to “them” and that is life as we know it.
On the post concerning the “secret agreement,” no it was quite open actually and was done away with via a Supreme Court ruling but you are correct on the opposition. the “agreement” was “Ancestral Domain” and was a peace iniative with the MILF. The Catholics down in Cotabato and the other 13 cities,towns, and villages do not take kindly to joining ARMM, and rightly so given the prospect of living under Shari’a (Islamic Law).
In the Marcos Era there were 2 movements tacitly supported by Marcos. the “Land Grabber (sic) Associations” and the Ilaga.” Ilaga is Bisaya for “rat” ( Bisaya being the predominant language on Mindanao, Cebuano dialect being the most widley spoken) Many confuse the 2 groups but they had 2 very different objectives although they did often intersect…and of course both were Catholic groups.
The Land Grabbers aimed to seize land, and keep Squatters off of land the “Illustrados ” (the “Haves” in this land of “Have nots”) wanted, or had begun cultivating in rare cases. The ilaga were Catholic paramilitaries with alot of Animist customs, like the “fetish” they kept tied to their belts, fighting bare chested, and tatooing which as most should know is seen as very anti-social here.
There were ALOT of ALLEGED atrocities taking place from all sides.
I could give you a rundown on the 8 Islamic groups now in existence, but i suppose you and others probably already know the score. Living in GenSan you cannot help but be aware but please do not lull yourself into thinking GenSan is out of the fray. I remember the bombing a while back that killed that poor hotel owner. I suppose though it is as safe as anyplace in the world statistically, and it is also true that Gen San IS safer than the areas around it but most Catholic Mindowans (sic) would not go there if you paid them, unless of course they live there (smile).
Most up here will not travel south of Davao City although I myself do get down there now and again.
Joe, I know EXACTLY what you mean about “not saying,” and you are smart although you are still getting near that “fine line,” but I will say this, most NPA villages are not Muslim and they get the same air strikes. We have them taking place just over the mountain.Also, do not think that the MILF would not burn Muslim villages. there are 8 Islamic groups, most hating each other most of the time although it is always moving .
Glad to see the Blog though. All I have seen is the bloke in Davo and another Yank who pulled out last year.
Stay Safe, Rachamim
Ahhh, I see the Blogger (Joe) is up on the Domain. However, it is impossible to say that the Army struck first since the MILF sprang from the MNLF which gave birth to the longest insurgency in Asia as we speak. It was Bangsamoro separatists that iniated the violence, right or wrong as far as aspirations go but it was so long ago that at this point all that really matters is a solution.
Hey there Rachamim, it is a real pleasure to have you here with all you detailed knowledge.
When I said the Philippine army struck first, I mean after the agreement was struck down by the court.
I TRY to speak of only what I have learned and not comment TRY to stay away from saying what is right and what is wrong or more importantly do not ask for government changes. I use to do that but since learning I could get thrown out of the country for it, I have changed some post and tried as best I can to keep my opinion to myself. It is hard for someone like myself to do so.
There is also the chance that I might offed the MILF or the NPA and I certainly do not wish to do that.
As I understand it, NPA are communist and usually Christian. Am I correct on this? We recently had an attack by suspected NPA on a Jail not far from where I live.
I hear a lot of expats talking of how it is safe to go any place in the country. I cannot agree with them. I would be leery of going south of Dipolog or CDO myself. There are some really beautiful places near Zamboanga. I would like to take the boat from Zamboanga to Malaysia as well. My reading indicates that would be extremely dangerous. Id really like to have your thoughts on this.
I feel you could be invaluable to providing insights on these topics. I hope you return often!
I would love to hear more about the 8 Islamic groups.