Mindanao People’s Peace Agenda gains more support;
Mindanao Bishops take lead
Bishop Felixberto Calang of Iglesida FIlipina Independiente MOBUCA Diocese signs the Manifesto of Sowing the Seeds of Peace, endorsing the Mindanao Peoples' Peace Agenda to the GPH and NDF peace panels. Beside him is UCCP BIshop Melzar Labuntog of Northwest Mindanao and Bishop Modesto Villasanta of Southeastern Mindanao.
More people from a cross-section of sectors in Mindanao led by clergy, local government officials, and peace advocates signed a manifesto endorsing the Mindanao People’s Peace Agenda, a document that brought in proposals on socio-economic reforms that they want to be addressed in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
“The Manifesto is a breathing testament of the people’s resolve to be part of the work of achieving much-desired peace,” United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Bishop Labuntog, co-convenor of the movement, Sowing the Seeds of Peace said.
The manifesto, Bishop Labuntog pointed out, expresses the commitment of interfaith groups, multi-sectoral stakeholders and political leaders to continue in the work of widening the people’s participation on the peace process.The Mindanao People’s Peace Agenda which was crafted during a consultative workshop attended by more than 200 last February in Davao City calls for immediate reforms on land, labor, social service, education, and people-oriented development.
Bishop Labuntog said they will be holding more multi-sectoral consultations so they may be able to continue sending proposal to both panels in the peace process in the run-up to June, the month when the reciprocal working committees of both parties in the Oslo peace talks shall sit down again to discuss on the socio-economic reforms agenda.
Quoting the manifesto, Bishop Labuntog said, this is their way of sowing the seeds of peace. “With continued dialogue, we are hopeful that our people will reap the harvest of peace that is anchored on social justice, a peace that is liberating and lasting for future generations.”
Bukidnon Vice Governor Jose Ma. Zubiri throws support to the Mindanao Peoples' Peace Agenda presented during the Gathering for Peace in Cagayan de Oro. Zubiri admitted that
armed conflict in the countryside will never cease unless real land reform is implemented.
The manifesto has gathered 250 signatures since it was presented at the Cagayan de Oro City forum last March 1. The signatures include those of local chief executives of Cagayan de Oro and Davao City, and Bukidnon Vice-Governor Jose Maria Zubiri.
Eight Mindanao bishops have taken the lead in getting more support to the manifesto. They are Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro and Co-Chair of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) and chair of Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao.
Other prelates who were among the first to sign the manifesto include United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Bishop Melzar Labuntog of Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF), IFI Bishop Rhee Timbang, Chairperson of the IFI Mindanao Bishops Council, UCCP Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the Southeastern Mindanao Jurisdiction, IFI Bishop Delfin Callao, Jr. of Exodus for Justice and Peace (EJP) and UCCP Bishop Osias Jaim.
Church and multi-sectoral leaders of the Sowing the Seeds of Peace Movement gather at a prayer rally in front of Cagayan de Oro City's Pelaez Sports Complex at Velez Street, calling for the sustaining of peace talks in pursuit of socio-economic reforms and just and lasting peace
They are also joined in by priests from various prelatures, as well as representatives of clergy organizations, among others the Social Action Center, and the association of women religious, Sisters’ Association in Mindanao (SAMIN).
The religious from various congregational orders, such as the Missionary Sisters of Mary, Religious of the Good Shepherd and the Assumption Sisters are among the first to join the signature drive.Members of the academe, non-government organizations working for the indigenous peoples and the Moro, and representatives of sectoral organizations, the peasants, workers, the youth and the professionals have also signed the document.
Gov’t negotiator: PH communism on the ‘brink of extinction’ By Jeffrey M. Tupas, Dennis Jay Santos
Inquirer Mindanao; 03/19/2011
The National Democratic Front should forge a peace agreement with the government within the three-year time frame for the negotiations or it may not have another chance again, the government’s chief negotiator said Friday.
Alex Padilla said the NDF must grab the opportunity to “come to terms” with the government because time was running out.
He said the communist ideology was on the “brink of extinction.”
“Now is the best time. There will be no other opportunity than today…than within the next months. They have to come to terms for a peaceful negotiated settlement,” he said during a visit here in connection with the peace process.
Padilla said something good must be achieved within the three-year period, during which the government “will implement all three signed agreements.”
These were the socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the agreement to end the hostilities and disposition of forces.
The 42-year insurgency being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines has become one of the world’s longest-running communist revolutions.
For the past 24 years, the government and the communist rebels have been talking peace.
But CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an email it was the government that should “come to terms with the patriotic and progressive demands of the people in order to make a just and lasting peace with the NDFP.”
“The people and revolutionary forces are convinced that if they continue their revolutionary struggle they have a chance of winning the national democratic revolution or making way for an anti-imperialist and democratic government of national unity, reconciliation and industrial development,” he said.
Sison also hit the government for setting the three-year time frame for the negotiations.
Padilla admitted that the government wanted a ceasefire while the talks were on.
The concise agreement, he said, is a declaration of principles to “establish a common ground and justify an alliance or partnership and truce of indefinite duration in order to complete the people's struggle for national independence, democracy, industrial development and social justice.”
In Southern Mindanao, the New People’s Army admitted it recently staged coordinated strikes against government positions.
Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesperson of the Merardo Arce Command, said a total of 25 soldiers and government combatants were killed during the assaults in Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental from March 9 to 15.
But Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division based in Davao City, said while it was correct that clashes took place March 9-15, only one soldier died and that was as a result of a landmine in Compostela Valley.
He said the military has killed several rebels but “we don't boast about the number of casualties because we don't want to treat them (NPA) as enemies.”
Paniza said despite the NPA-initiated attacks, the military was steadfast in its commitment for peace by helping bring development programs to the countryside.
Bridging Unity in the Peace Talks Peace
Conference on the Bangsamoro Question
Posted by CenPEG.org; March 26, 2011
Speaking at the morning session of the peace conference, presidential peace adviser and Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles said the peace process under President Benigno S. Aquino III's administration "has never been good" as she talked about integrating the peace talks with development programs to address the roots of the armed conflicts besetting not only Mindanao but the whole country.
The one-day "Peace Conference on the Bangsamoro Question: Bridging Unity between the Government and the MILF, Looking at the Past and Future," was organized by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) in partnership with the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) of the University of the Philippines. Held at the University Hotel, UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City, the conference was also in coordination with the Pilgrims for Peace, InPeace Mindanao, and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. It was supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and UP President Alfredo E. Pascual.
More than 150 persons from 50 various groups and institutions including the academe, peace advocates, interfaith sector, NGOs, and Muslim communities attended the one-day conference. Ambassadors and political ministers of different embassies were also present.
The second Aquino administration has since July 2010 resumed peace talks not only with the MILF but also with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) centering on a review of the organic law on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The third talks are being held with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Oslo, Norway.
The presidential peace adviser also revealed that the peace process is also part of the administration's Philippine Development Plan (in place of the traditional Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan or MTPDP), under the "peace and security chapter."
Prof. Marvic MVF Leonen, who chairs the GPH panel in the talks with the MILF, revealed that the government had asked the MILF leadership to deal with a renegade commander, Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, who has reportedly formed a breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Leonen, who is also Dean of the UP College of Law, characterized the first talks with the MILF held over the past two months as "cordial" as he echoed the call of the MILF panel chair, Mohagher Iqbal, "to be soft on the people but hard on the negotiating table." Without divulging its content, the GPH negotiator noted that the MILF's revised comprehensive peace compact, called by the revolutionary group as its proposed final political settlement, requires political decisions.
Leonen said that the MILF proposal suggested a flexibility from "independence and cessation" to one territory and one sovereignty.
Other independent sources observe the MILF revised compact as calling for "an asymmetrical state-substate relationship" and narrowing its historical territorial claim to 7-8 percent of what used to be 98 percent of Moro lands, wealth and resources at the turn of the 20th century.
In a paper for the afternoon session, MILF panel senior member Mastura cited as self-serving the GPH panel's "bracketing" of the MILF's revised comprehensive compact draft by among others introducing "Terms of Reference" to the negotiation process instead.
"This is not doing the process to drive the substantive agenda," Mastura, a former congressman of Maguindanao and Cotabato City and former member of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, said. "We want to preserve MILF's negotiation effectiveness by holding on to its free choice of means appropriate as a nonstate actor."
As announced this week, the GPH-MILF peace talks will resume on April 27-28 this year in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government is hosting the talks.
In a discussion paper, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo shared "some lessons in the peace process in the Philippines." Ocampo, who first chaired the NDFP peace panel in 1986-1987, found the "militarist approach" pursued by past Philippine presidents in their war against Leftist and Moro revolutionaries as "a failure." Circumscribing negotiations and agreements within the bounds of the state constitution has had adverse impacts on peace pacts signed by the MNLF and an obstacle to a comprehensive agreement with the MILF, he also said.
Key discussants and reactors at the conference included Dr. Parouk Hussin, former ARMM governor and former MNLF executive committee member; Dr. Temario C. Rivera, CenPEG Fellow and professor of the International Christian University in Tokyo; Dr. Dante Simbulan (PMA class 1952), former Dean in the Philippine College of Commerce now PUP; Dean Julkipli Wadi of IIS, with its former Dean, Dr. Carmen Abubakar; and Pilgrims for Peace convener Bishop Elmer Bolocon.
Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., who was also former government chief negotiators, UP President Alfredo E. Pascual, and Executive Director Maria Lourdes L. Jacob of the NCCA were special guests.
Giving the conference welcome was CenPEG Board chair and National Artist, Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera. Serving as moderator for the whole-day conference was CenPEG Executive Director Evi-ta L. Jimenez. Synthesis and recaps were by Prof. Bobby Tuazon, Prof. Carl Ramota, and Prof. Macrina A. Morados of UP IIS.
The peace conference is the second policy issue forum held this year by CenPEG in partnership with the UP IIS. Last February 9, a forum on the ancestral land as core issue in the GPH-MILF peace talks was held at UP's Asian Center, with two former chairs of the GPH panels, Gen. (ret.) Rodolfo Garcia and Secretary Silvestre Afable, as speakers. The forum coincided with the resumption of exploratory talks between the GPH and MILF in Kuala Lumpur.
The peace conference is also under CenPEG's policy study program on Bangsamoro issues. The program has also seen the publication ofThe Moro Reader: History and Contemporary Struggles of the Bangsamoro People (August 2008); and Bangsamoro sa Malapitan(Bangsamoro, Up Close) which was launched February 9. CenPEG News
The Philippine Star) Updated March 12, 2011 12:00 AM
Infectious was the enthusiastic response of the student audiences in the Mindanao State University’s Marawi and Iligan campuses that I addressed in separate forums last Monday and Tuesday. Topic: the resumed “exploratory” peace talks between the government (GPH) and the MILF on Feb. 9-10 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the GPH-NDFP formal peace talks on Feb. 14-21 in Oslo, Norway.
The Moro students were particularly enthused, as were the professors who attended the forum at the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, to hear that the Bangsamoro land problem — ancestral domain, the core issue in the GPH-MILF talks — could also be addressed in the scheduled negotiations on social and economic reforms, focused on agrarian reform and national industrialization, of the GPH-NDFP negotiations.
How? Credit the Mindanaoans for quick action.
On agrarian reform, the Mindanao people’s agenda calls for the inclusion of the Moro taliawids (farmers) in the land redistribution program; the scrapping of land laws discriminatory to the Moros; and subjecting to agrarian reform lands occupied by multinational and transnational corporations.
The agenda also recommends steps to uphold the rights of the lumads (indigenous peoples) to their ancestral domain. (In this regard, a researcher at the MSU-IIT history department shared with me her concern over the problem of the Higaonons in the town of Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon whose sacred ancestral burial land has been occupied by a foreign corporate plantation. Every time they wish to visit the place, the tribal people are being given a hard time securing permission from the corporation.)
In much the same way that Christianized native Filipinos lost their lands to the Spanish and the American colonial rulers, the Bangsamoro were systematically dispossessed by the American colonizers in the early 1900s. This was done through a series of land laws, beginning with the Land Registration Act 496 that documented all privately-occupied lands in Mindanao.
Act 141 in 1936 declared all Moro ancestral landholdings as public lands, with every Moro allowed to apply for a maximum of four hectares, whereas a Christian could own six times more, or 24 hectares. A corporation was allowed to hold 1,024 hectares.
That law led to the thousands of hectares since then occupied by foreign and Filipino-owned firms as pineapple, banana and other commercial crop plantations. In succeeding years these firms expanded their plantations beyond 1,024 hectares, by inducing small farmland owners to lease their lands to them and become farm workers instead.
Consequently, the Bangsamoro claim on 98 percent of the lands in Mindanao and Sulu as their ancestral domain before the Americans came was effectively reduced to only 17 percent in 1976. Most of such retained lands were in remote and infertile mountain areas.
Thus, at the Kuala Lumpur talks last Feb. 10, Mohager Iqbal, MILF panel head, submitted a revised comprehensive compact draft, containing the “proposed negotiated political settlement of the Moro Question and the armed conflict in Mindanao.” Referring to the document, Iqbal stated:
“It affords the people of the future Bangsamoro state to have a modest share and taste of the remaining seven to nine percent of the lands, wealth and resources of what used to be 98 percent at the turn of the century.” Sense the bitterness in that statement of the phrase, “to have a modest share and taste of.”
This MILF concession spurred GPH panel chair Marvic Leonen to tell the media later that it would now be easier to arrive at a negotiated political settlement. That, however, remains to be seen because other critical issues still have to be resolved.
On the other hand, in the GPH-NDFP negotiations on social and economic reforms set in June, the government proposes to discuss “asset reform” rather than “agrarian reform and rural development.”
Informed of these facts, the Mindanao students, perhaps with fingers crossed, signed the manifesto expressing support for the peace talks.
Ronalyn V. Olea On April 1, 2011 @ 4:40 pm Bulatlat.com
A political prisoner criticized the Aquino administration’s new counterinsurgency program, describing it as a “sugarcoated bullet.”
Randy Felix Malayao, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said that legal offensives against critics and activists continue to be part of the new administration’s counterinsurgency strategy.
Malayao was abducted [2] by agents of the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army on May 15, 2008 in Cainta, Rizal. He was tortured for four days and was surfaced only on the fifth day. He was later informed that he has been slapped with two murder charges and one charge of frustrated murder.
“Psywar is an important component of Oplan Bayanihan. Legal offensives continue, not only during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime,” Malayao told Bulatlat.com in an interview through mail.
In June 2010, Malayao was acquitted [3] of murder charges filed against him for the killing of former Cagayan governor and congressman Col. Rodolfo Aguinaldo and his bodyguard Joey Garo and of frustrated murder of Aguinaldo’s secretary Amelia Soriano.
Mindanao People’s Peace Agenda gains more support;
Mindanao Bishops take lead
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| Bishop Felixberto Calang of Iglesida FIlipina Independiente MOBUCA Diocese signs the Manifesto of Sowing the Seeds of Peace, endorsing the Mindanao Peoples' Peace Agenda to the GPH and NDF peace panels. Beside him is UCCP BIshop Melzar Labuntog of Northwest Mindanao and Bishop Modesto Villasanta of Southeastern Mindanao. |
More people from a cross-section of sectors in Mindanao led by clergy, local government officials, and peace advocates signed a manifesto endorsing the Mindanao People’s Peace Agenda, a document that brought in proposals on socio-economic reforms that they want to be addressed in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
“The Manifesto is a breathing testament of the people’s resolve to be part of the work of achieving much-desired peace,” United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Bishop Labuntog, co-convenor of the movement, Sowing the Seeds of Peace said.
The manifesto, Bishop Labuntog pointed out, expresses the commitment of interfaith groups, multi-sectoral stakeholders and political leaders to continue in the work of widening the people’s participation on the peace process.
The Mindanao People’s Peace Agenda which was crafted during a consultative workshop attended by more than 200 last February in Davao City calls for immediate reforms on land, labor, social service, education, and people-oriented development.
Bishop Labuntog said they will be holding more multi-sectoral consultations so they may be able to continue sending proposal to both panels in the peace process in the run-up to June, the month when the reciprocal working committees of both parties in the Oslo peace talks shall sit down again to discuss on the socio-economic reforms agenda.
Quoting the manifesto, Bishop Labuntog said, this is their way of sowing the seeds of peace. “With continued dialogue, we are hopeful that our people will reap the harvest of peace that is anchored on social justice, a peace that is liberating and lasting for future generations.”
| |
| Bukidnon Vice Governor Jose Ma. Zubiri throws support to the Mindanao Peoples' Peace Agenda presented during the Gathering for Peace in Cagayan de Oro. Zubiri admitted that armed conflict in the countryside will never cease unless real land reform is implemented. |
The manifesto has gathered 250 signatures since it was presented at the Cagayan de Oro City forum last March 1. The signatures include those of local chief executives of Cagayan de Oro and Davao City, and Bukidnon Vice-Governor Jose Maria Zubiri.
Eight Mindanao bishops have taken the lead in getting more support to the manifesto. They are Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro and Co-Chair of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) and chair of Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao.
Other prelates who were among the first to sign the manifesto include United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Bishop Melzar Labuntog of Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF), IFI Bishop Rhee Timbang, Chairperson of the IFI Mindanao Bishops Council, UCCP Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the Southeastern Mindanao Jurisdiction, IFI Bishop Delfin Callao, Jr. of Exodus for Justice and Peace (EJP) and UCCP Bishop Osias Jaim.
| |
| |
| Church and multi-sectoral leaders of the Sowing the Seeds of Peace Movement gather at a prayer rally in front of Cagayan de Oro City's Pelaez Sports Complex at Velez Street, calling for the sustaining of peace talks in pursuit of socio-economic reforms and just and lasting peace |
They are also joined in by priests from various prelatures, as well as representatives of clergy organizations, among others the Social Action Center, and the association of women religious, Sisters’ Association in Mindanao (SAMIN).
The religious from various congregational orders, such as the Missionary Sisters of Mary, Religious of the Good Shepherd and the Assumption Sisters are among the first to join the signature drive.
Members of the academe, non-government organizations working for the indigenous peoples and the Moro, and representatives of sectoral organizations, the peasants, workers, the youth and the professionals have also signed the document.
Gov’t negotiator: PH communism on the ‘brink of extinction’
By Jeffrey M. Tupas, Dennis Jay Santos
Inquirer Mindanao; 03/19/2011
Inquirer Mindanao; 03/19/2011
The National Democratic Front should forge a peace agreement with the government within the three-year time frame for the negotiations or it may not have another chance again, the government’s chief negotiator said Friday.
Alex Padilla said the NDF must grab the opportunity to “come to terms” with the government because time was running out.
He said the communist ideology was on the “brink of extinction.”
“Now is the best time. There will be no other opportunity than today…than within the next months. They have to come to terms for a peaceful negotiated settlement,” he said during a visit here in connection with the peace process.
Padilla said something good must be achieved within the three-year period, during which the government “will implement all three signed agreements.”
These were the socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the agreement to end the hostilities and disposition of forces.
The 42-year insurgency being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines has become one of the world’s longest-running communist revolutions.
For the past 24 years, the government and the communist rebels have been talking peace.
During this period, the talks stalled several times but 10 agreements have been reached.
But CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an email it was the government that should “come to terms with the patriotic and progressive demands of the people in order to make a just and lasting peace with the NDFP.”
“The people and revolutionary forces are convinced that if they continue their revolutionary struggle they have a chance of winning the national democratic revolution or making way for an anti-imperialist and democratic government of national unity, reconciliation and industrial development,” he said.
Sison also hit the government for setting the three-year time frame for the negotiations.
“It is self-contradictory for the GPH to be setting what amounts to an ultimatum while putting up obstacles like attacking The Hague Joint Declaration as a document of perpetual division, preconditioning and negating the peace negotiations with a demand for the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary forces and preconditioning every meeting of the panels and sub-panels with a ceasefire,” he said.
Padilla admitted that the government wanted a ceasefire while the talks were on.
He said it would be ridiculous to talk while forces on the ground are shooting at each other.
“If GPH is in a hurry to end the shooting war, why does it not agree with the proposal of the NDFP for a concise agreement for an immediate just peace, without prejudice to the peace negotiations?” Sison said.
The concise agreement, he said, is a declaration of principles to “establish a common ground and justify an alliance or partnership and truce of indefinite duration in order to complete the people's struggle for national independence, democracy, industrial development and social justice.”
In Southern Mindanao, the New People’s Army admitted it recently staged coordinated strikes against government positions.
Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesperson of the Merardo Arce Command, said a total of 25 soldiers and government combatants were killed during the assaults in Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental from March 9 to 15.
But Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division based in Davao City, said while it was correct that clashes took place March 9-15, only one soldier died and that was as a result of a landmine in Compostela Valley.
He said the military has killed several rebels but “we don't boast about the number of casualties because we don't want to treat them (NPA) as enemies.”
Paniza said despite the NPA-initiated attacks, the military was steadfast in its commitment for peace by helping bring development programs to the countryside.
Bridging Unity in the Peace Talks Peace
Conference on the Bangsamoro Question
Posted by CenPEG.org; March 26, 2011
Conference on the Bangsamoro Question
Posted by CenPEG.org; March 26, 2011
Government peace negotiators have expressed optimism with the current peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the same peace conference on the Bangsamoro question held on March 23 and attended by the government negotiators, the senior member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), lawyer Datu Michael Mastura, expressed concern however that the Government of the Philippines (GPH) panel "has deliberately created…'process deadlocks.'"
Speaking at the morning session of the peace conference, presidential peace adviser and Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles said the peace process under President Benigno S. Aquino III's administration "has never been good" as she talked about integrating the peace talks with development programs to address the roots of the armed conflicts besetting not only Mindanao but the whole country.
The one-day "Peace Conference on the Bangsamoro Question: Bridging Unity between the Government and the MILF, Looking at the Past and Future," was organized by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) in partnership with the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) of the University of the Philippines. Held at the University Hotel, UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City, the conference was also in coordination with the Pilgrims for Peace, InPeace Mindanao, and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. It was supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and UP President Alfredo E. Pascual.
More than 150 persons from 50 various groups and institutions including the academe, peace advocates, interfaith sector, NGOs, and Muslim communities attended the one-day conference. Ambassadors and political ministers of different embassies were also present.
The second Aquino administration has since July 2010 resumed peace talks not only with the MILF but also with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) centering on a review of the organic law on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The third talks are being held with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Oslo, Norway.
The presidential peace adviser also revealed that the peace process is also part of the administration's Philippine Development Plan (in place of the traditional Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan or MTPDP), under the "peace and security chapter."
Prof. Marvic MVF Leonen, who chairs the GPH panel in the talks with the MILF, revealed that the government had asked the MILF leadership to deal with a renegade commander, Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, who has reportedly formed a breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Leonen, who is also Dean of the UP College of Law, characterized the first talks with the MILF held over the past two months as "cordial" as he echoed the call of the MILF panel chair, Mohagher Iqbal, "to be soft on the people but hard on the negotiating table." Without divulging its content, the GPH negotiator noted that the MILF's revised comprehensive peace compact, called by the revolutionary group as its proposed final political settlement, requires political decisions.
Leonen said that the MILF proposal suggested a flexibility from "independence and cessation" to one territory and one sovereignty.
Other independent sources observe the MILF revised compact as calling for "an asymmetrical state-substate relationship" and narrowing its historical territorial claim to 7-8 percent of what used to be 98 percent of Moro lands, wealth and resources at the turn of the 20th century.
The GPH negotiator said if the MILF "is principled and pragmatic" then that can be an "opening" for a long-term agreement.
In a paper for the afternoon session, MILF panel senior member Mastura cited as self-serving the GPH panel's "bracketing" of the MILF's revised comprehensive compact draft by among others introducing "Terms of Reference" to the negotiation process instead.
"This is not doing the process to drive the substantive agenda," Mastura, a former congressman of Maguindanao and Cotabato City and former member of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, said. "We want to preserve MILF's negotiation effectiveness by holding on to its free choice of means appropriate as a nonstate actor."
As announced this week, the GPH-MILF peace talks will resume on April 27-28 this year in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government is hosting the talks.
In a discussion paper, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo shared "some lessons in the peace process in the Philippines." Ocampo, who first chaired the NDFP peace panel in 1986-1987, found the "militarist approach" pursued by past Philippine presidents in their war against Leftist and Moro revolutionaries as "a failure." Circumscribing negotiations and agreements within the bounds of the state constitution has had adverse impacts on peace pacts signed by the MNLF and an obstacle to a comprehensive agreement with the MILF, he also said.
Key discussants and reactors at the conference included Dr. Parouk Hussin, former ARMM governor and former MNLF executive committee member; Dr. Temario C. Rivera, CenPEG Fellow and professor of the International Christian University in Tokyo; Dr. Dante Simbulan (PMA class 1952), former Dean in the Philippine College of Commerce now PUP; Dean Julkipli Wadi of IIS, with its former Dean, Dr. Carmen Abubakar; and Pilgrims for Peace convener Bishop Elmer Bolocon.
Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., who was also former government chief negotiators, UP President Alfredo E. Pascual, and Executive Director Maria Lourdes L. Jacob of the NCCA were special guests.
Giving the conference welcome was CenPEG Board chair and National Artist, Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera. Serving as moderator for the whole-day conference was CenPEG Executive Director Evi-ta L. Jimenez. Synthesis and recaps were by Prof. Bobby Tuazon, Prof. Carl Ramota, and Prof. Macrina A. Morados of UP IIS.
The peace conference is the second policy issue forum held this year by CenPEG in partnership with the UP IIS. Last February 9, a forum on the ancestral land as core issue in the GPH-MILF peace talks was held at UP's Asian Center, with two former chairs of the GPH panels, Gen. (ret.) Rodolfo Garcia and Secretary Silvestre Afable, as speakers. The forum coincided with the resumption of exploratory talks between the GPH and MILF in Kuala Lumpur.
The peace conference is also under CenPEG's policy study program on Bangsamoro issues. The program has also seen the publication ofThe Moro Reader: History and Contemporary Struggles of the Bangsamoro People (August 2008); and Bangsamoro sa Malapitan(Bangsamoro, Up Close) which was launched February 9. CenPEG News
The Philippine Star) Updated March 12, 2011 12:00 AM
Infectious was the enthusiastic response of the student audiences in the Mindanao State University’s Marawi and Iligan campuses that I addressed in separate forums last Monday and Tuesday. Topic: the resumed “exploratory” peace talks between the government (GPH) and the MILF on Feb. 9-10 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the GPH-NDFP formal peace talks on Feb. 14-21 in Oslo, Norway.
The Moro students were particularly enthused, as were the professors who attended the forum at the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, to hear that the Bangsamoro land problem — ancestral domain, the core issue in the GPH-MILF talks — could also be addressed in the scheduled negotiations on social and economic reforms, focused on agrarian reform and national industrialization, of the GPH-NDFP negotiations.
How? Credit the Mindanaoans for quick action.
In response to the calls by the GPH and the NDFP panels for consultations with, and participation of, various sectors in the peace process, Mindanao peace advocates and people’s organizations met in mid-February in Davao City. They drew up and approved a Mindanao people’s peace agenda for submission to the two negotiating panels. The agenda was presented at the Marawi and Iligan forums.
On agrarian reform, the Mindanao people’s agenda calls for the inclusion of the Moro taliawids (farmers) in the land redistribution program; the scrapping of land laws discriminatory to the Moros; and subjecting to agrarian reform lands occupied by multinational and transnational corporations.
The agenda also recommends steps to uphold the rights of the lumads (indigenous peoples) to their ancestral domain. (In this regard, a researcher at the MSU-IIT history department shared with me her concern over the problem of the Higaonons in the town of Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon whose sacred ancestral burial land has been occupied by a foreign corporate plantation. Every time they wish to visit the place, the tribal people are being given a hard time securing permission from the corporation.)
In much the same way that Christianized native Filipinos lost their lands to the Spanish and the American colonial rulers, the Bangsamoro were systematically dispossessed by the American colonizers in the early 1900s. This was done through a series of land laws, beginning with the Land Registration Act 496 that documented all privately-occupied lands in Mindanao.
In 1903, Public Act 718 voided all lands granted by Moro sultans and datus or non-Christian chiefs without state authority, which dispossessed the Moros of their ancestral landholdings. Public Act 926 declared all lands registered under Act 496 as public lands, and were made available for homestead, sale or lease by individuals or corporations.
Act 141 in 1936 declared all Moro ancestral landholdings as public lands, with every Moro allowed to apply for a maximum of four hectares, whereas a Christian could own six times more, or 24 hectares. A corporation was allowed to hold 1,024 hectares.
That law led to the thousands of hectares since then occupied by foreign and Filipino-owned firms as pineapple, banana and other commercial crop plantations. In succeeding years these firms expanded their plantations beyond 1,024 hectares, by inducing small farmland owners to lease their lands to them and become farm workers instead.
Consequently, the Bangsamoro claim on 98 percent of the lands in Mindanao and Sulu as their ancestral domain before the Americans came was effectively reduced to only 17 percent in 1976. Most of such retained lands were in remote and infertile mountain areas.
The irony is that, after the signing in 1977 of the Tripoli agreement between the Marcos government and the Moro National Liberation Front (from which the MILF split thereafter), the Bangsamoro lands continued to be chipped off.
Thus, at the Kuala Lumpur talks last Feb. 10, Mohager Iqbal, MILF panel head, submitted a revised comprehensive compact draft, containing the “proposed negotiated political settlement of the Moro Question and the armed conflict in Mindanao.” Referring to the document, Iqbal stated:
“It affords the people of the future Bangsamoro state to have a modest share and taste of the remaining seven to nine percent of the lands, wealth and resources of what used to be 98 percent at the turn of the century.” Sense the bitterness in that statement of the phrase, “to have a modest share and taste of.”
This MILF concession spurred GPH panel chair Marvic Leonen to tell the media later that it would now be easier to arrive at a negotiated political settlement. That, however, remains to be seen because other critical issues still have to be resolved.
On the other hand, in the GPH-NDFP negotiations on social and economic reforms set in June, the government proposes to discuss “asset reform” rather than “agrarian reform and rural development.”
Informed of these facts, the Mindanao students, perhaps with fingers crossed, signed the manifesto expressing support for the peace talks.
Ronalyn V. Olea On April 1, 2011 @ 4:40 pm Bulatlat.com
A political prisoner criticized the Aquino administration’s new counterinsurgency program, describing it as a “sugarcoated bullet.”
Randy Felix Malayao, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said that legal offensives against critics and activists continue to be part of the new administration’s counterinsurgency strategy.
Malayao was abducted [2] by agents of the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army on May 15, 2008 in Cainta, Rizal. He was tortured for four days and was surfaced only on the fifth day. He was later informed that he has been slapped with two murder charges and one charge of frustrated murder.
“Psywar is an important component of Oplan Bayanihan. Legal offensives continue, not only during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime,” Malayao told Bulatlat.com in an interview through mail.
In June 2010, Malayao was acquitted [3] of murder charges filed against him for the killing of former Cagayan governor and congressman Col. Rodolfo Aguinaldo and his bodyguard Joey Garo and of frustrated murder of Aguinaldo’s secretary Amelia Soriano.
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Randy Felix Malayao |
Malayao, however, is still facing direct assault with murder in connection with the ambush of some military personnel in Balgan, San Mariano, Isabela; for allegedly killing three more men including a barangay (village) captain of the same town, Benjamin Olalia, Jr. of Ilagan, Isabela and an Army soldier in the same place.
Malayao said the military has been claiming that he was there when the ambush happened. “They are banking on positive identification by a witness, which is fabricated,” he said.
“These are all trumped-up charges,” Malayao said. “They are filing one trumped-up charge after another. I have 10 cases and counting,” Malayao said, adding that some were filed at the Joint Monitoring Committee of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
Malayao said that under the Oplan Bayanihan, the Aquino administration focuses on civilian-military operations, community relations, all in aid of counterinsurgency. “Whenever they conduct military operations, they also intensify their propaganda offensives through civilian-military operations. They also focus on secondary schools and colleges and universities. These are all deception,” he said.
“They just changed the name [of the counterinsurgency program], but it is essentially the same strategy,” he said.
On Peace Talks
Malayao also deemed that the arrests of Tirso Alcantara [4] and Alan Jazmines [5] a mockery of the peace process. Like Malayao, Alcantara and Jazmines are covered by the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig).
Alcantara, a high-ranking member of the New People’s Army in Southern Tagalog, was arrested on Jan. 4 [5] while Jazmines was arrested on Feb. 14, eve of the formal talks between the NDFP and the Government of the Philippines (GPH).
“These two are prominent leaders and valued consultants of the peace process. I could not see the sincerity of the government when they denied them and the others of their Jasig protection,” Malayao said.
In the recent peace negotiations, the GPH committed to work for the expeditious release of political prisoners, especially those covered by Jasig.
Asked about this, Malayao said: “I could not feel it. In fact, I am the one who initiated a move. I already wrote to Pabilito Sanidad, the GPH legal team, but I got no acknowledgment until now. Although they keep on promising to the media that they shall work it out…” Malayao is detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology District Jail in Ilagan, Isabela.
Malayao said he keeps himself busy by leading fellow inmates in all allowable inmates’ programs such as peer counseling, health/medical services, religious and church-related activities, sports, cultural and recreation, education and livelihood. Sometimes, his help is being sought in office work.
Ronalyn V. Olea March 31, 2011; Bulatlat.com
MANILA – While the Government of the Philippines (GPH) seems very optimistic that a final peace agreement would be reached, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) decried what it calls as “process deadlocks.”
“What concerns the MILF panel most is that the new GPH panel has deliberately created what I call ‘the process deadlocks’ – because, it serves their purpose to bracket the working draft. Our fear is the inadequacy of the new GPH diplomatic team to move on with the talks, without delivering,” Michael Mastura, vice chairman of the MILF peace panel, said in a forum organized by Center for People Empowerment and Governance (Cenpeg), University of the Philippines Institute of Islamic Studies and other peace advocates.
Mastura was referring to the GPH proposal to come up with Terms of Reference (TOR) to the negotiation process. The working draft, meanwhile, refers to the comprehensive compact agreement submitted by the MILF during the resumption of peace talks in February.
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Michael Mastura, vice chairman of the MILF peace panel (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com) |
“There is now TOR and there was TRO,” Mastura said, the latter referring to the temporary restraining order against the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in 2008.
Mastura said that by revisiting the modalities of negotiations, there is a risk of a breakdown of the peace talks itself. Mastura said the MILF wants to preserve its negotiation effectiveness by holding on to its “free choice of means appropriate as a non-state actor. Mastura added that due to the political sensitivity of facilitation and mediation as a process, the MILF peace negotiators have been reluctant to place on record even post factum the nuances of procedure that both sides went through.
Mastura said the GPH negotiators framed the Mindanao situation by conducting an “interrogating stance on the pretext of concern for inclusiveness of the MILF.” “By emphasizing process over substantive issues, the GPH negotiating strategy is reduced to out-lawyering the MILF, such as resorting back to the Technical Working Groups. Legal gambits do not distract the MILF negotiators from the substantive issues,” he said.
Mastura said the MILF took note of GPH peace panel chairman Marvic Leonen’s response to a question about whether the MILF represents the Bangsamoro people, saying that the GPH recognizes the MILF panel as representative of the MILF only.
In his speech at the morning session of the forum, Leonen expressed esteem for the MILF peace panel members. “[Mohagher] Iqbal, Mastura, [Abhoud Swed] Linga are very committed to their cause. They have no interest but to do what is right,” he said. Iqbal is the chairman of the MILF peace panel while Linga is another member.
Leonen also said the falling out of Ameril Umbra Kato’s group is a serious concern of the GPH panel. “Will he [Kato] respect the ceasefire?” he asked. Leonen said the issue needs to be resolved and they will raise it with the MILF in the next meeting.
Kato, a senior MILF military commander, wanted to create a separate military unit. The MILF said they continue to woo Kato.
“If we quarrel, do not interfere. If you quarrel, we do not interfere,” Mastura said.
Roadblock to Peace
Asked by a member of the audience what is the biggest roadblock to the peace process, Mastura said: “The spoilers are the greatest stumbling blocks. They are not enemies of government, some are in government.”
“If the three branches of government can face the revolutionary forces, including [the option of] changing the Constitution, we can proceed,” Mastura said.
The Arroyo administration attempted to sign the MOA-AD but the Supreme Court declared its provisions as unconstitutional.
The MILF has proposed the formation of a sub-state that, according to Mastura, is asymmetrical. “Give us back our state rights. We do not want to give up our right to self-determination,” Mastura said.
Mastura said the Bangsamoro people were never subjects of Spain and were added only by Spain as a bonus when it sold the Philippines to the Americans for US$20 million. “The Moro province became smaller. We lost our state rights. Allow us to get it back,” Mastura said.
Mastura said the revised MILF draft “envisages power and wealth sharing structured on the balancing of the principle of right to self-determination and consent.”
GPH’s Optimism
For his part, Leonen expressed optimism that a peace agreement could be signed within 12 months.
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Marvic Leonen, chairman of the GPH peace panel (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com) |
“The comprehensive compact was not a document of independence or secession.” Leonen added that their counterpart in the MILF panel mentioned that they are looking at the possibility of accepting Filipino citizenship with Bangsamoro identity. “That is an opening,” he said.
Leonen added that the historical claim of the Bangsamoro people is far greater than what the MILF put in the comprehensive compact. “It’s only seven to eight percent of their historical claim,” he said.
Leonen said the task of the current panel is both easy and difficult. He said the previous talks laid down mechanisms for ceasefire, rehabilitation component and civilian protection, they left the “hardest part” for the current panel. “A comprehensive agreement will require a lot more political capital than the rest…at the very least, the legislature, at most, the Supreme Court.”
“Whatever solution we find is going to be very concrete. Not all parties are going to be happy. Certain choices have to be made,” Leonen said. “Government panel answers to a cabinet, also to the President. We also have to look at the House of Representatives, the Senate, the public, local government units. We have to be able to talk with the MNLF [Moro National Liberation Front] because we have an agreement with them,” Leonen added.
Leonen admitted he has been conducting consultations with Muslim groups, the military and former justices of the Supreme Court.
Challenges to the Aquino Administration
Prof. Julkipli Wadi, dean of the UP Institute of Islamic Studies, said the two-track approach of the Aquino administration is a major problem. “It is like a carriage with two horses,” Wadi said.
While the GPH resumes its peace talks with the MILF, it also began talking with the MNLF.
Wadi said there must be a review of the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF. “Many provisions have yet to be implemented.
The government, Wadi said, must go beyond the “myopic interpretation” of the Constitution.
“The challenge to the young Aquino’s presidency is to show its moment of seriousness of purpose. Well, it must demonstrate its readiness, more so than casual serendipity that its conscious task is to go for a political closure on remaining outstanding issues,” Mastura said.
The next round of GPH-MILF talks has been moved to April 27 to 28 as per request of third party facilitator Malaysia.
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