We are Nearing ‘Boundary Between War and Peace’ – MILF Chief Negotiator

“We are nearing the boundary between war and peace.” This is how Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), assesses the status of the armed conflict in Mindanao.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

“We are nearing the boundary between war and peace.”

This is how Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), assesses the status of the armed conflict in Mindanao.

Nearly 11 years of on-and-off peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ended in disaster when the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) between the two parties was aborted last Aug. 4, following the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order based on a petition filed by North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol and Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat.

North Cotabato and Zamboanga City are both covered by the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the scope of which would have been subjected to a plebiscite following the signing of the MoA-AD.

The non-signing of the MoA-AD gave rise to a re-escalation of armed confrontations between government troops and the MILF in Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, and Maguindanao – provinces known to be strongholds of the MILF. Following the outbreak of renewed hostilities, the government ordered a manhunt for MILF commanders Abdurahman Macapaar a.k.a. Commander Bravo, Ameril Ombra Kato, and Alim Pangalian – who have been dubbed as “rogue MILF commanders” and leaders of “lost commands”.

The re-escalated conflict has led to the deaths of at least a hundred civilians, based on data gathered by Amnesty International, and has led to the displacement of at least 500,000 more according to Kalinaw Mindanao.

Meanwhile, the recent Supreme Court ruling declaring the MoA-AD as unconstitional has sent the peace talks “back to square one,” according to Iqbal.

What, so far, is the status of the war in Mindanao? Is there an end in sight? What are the prospects for the resumption of the peace negotiations?

These issues were tackled in a recent interview between Iqbal and Bulatlat, conducted right at the headquarters of the MILF Central Committee in Central Mindanao.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

What is the status of the armed conflict between the government and the MILF?

The attacks against the MILF continue on the pretext of running against its so-called three “rogue commanders”. The MILF forces, for their part, are defending themselves.

The other side has sustained many casualties in terms of soldiers killed. Those are their losses. But the ones really affected are the civilians. Many civilians have been wounded and killed, and their houses are deliberately being burned by soldiers.

We do not see when this will stop. If we look at the government position, they say they would only stop the attacks if the MILF would surrender Kato, Bravo, and Pangalian to them, or if they capture Kato, Bravo, and Pangalian, dead or alive. So the fighting continues.

You have mentioned the pursuit operations against Commanders Kato, Bravo, and Pangalian. What can you say about the government’s continuing hunt for them?

Well, it’s only a pretext of the government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to cover up their treachery in Kuala Lumpur last Aug. 5, when the government did not sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

In the case of North Cotabato, it was started by government forces on July 1, when they entered MILF territory barely 2.5 kilometers from the highway. This started a series of fighting in North Cotabato that resulted in the burning of houses by both parties, not necessarily by the MILF only. Maybe there were also those who had other agenda so they burned houses. At any rate, maybe it could also be said that it was the MILF. Unless and until there is a serious investigation, it is difficult to point to anybody else as the perpetrators. But to be fair, we can admit that the MILF side burned houses and the government side also burned houses. In the final accounting, more Moros’ houses were burned compared to those of non-Muslims.

In Lanao del Norte, we have admitted that what happened was initiated by Commander Bravo out of frustration about the non-signing of the MoA-AD last Aug. 5, so he initiated the fighting. But he attacked military targets. As for the civilians who were allegedly killed, the MILF is saying that this should be investigated. This should be seen on the basis of the ceasefire agreement because to us, this is a violation of the ceasefire agreement, and it must be addressed through the mechanism established for the ceasefire.As far as the government is concerned, this is a police action and no longer within the mechanism of the ceasefire agreement, so they are attacking. That is the difference in our positions, so while there is no unity between the government and MILF positions, the fighting would continue.

It is mainly a pretext. The government has found a very good pretext to cover up their treachery in Kuala Lumpur. Because had not those incidents happened, we could place the government in a very, very difficult situation of explaining why they did not sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

The groups under the three commanders that the military is now pursuing have been described in some media reports, as well as in some government statements, as “lost commands”. Is it true that they are “lost commands”?

Definitely the three commanders are not leaders of lost commands. They are organic members of the MILF, they are in the official roster of the MILF armed forces. But what they did is their own decision: the MILF leadership did not sanction what they did in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.

But we have to understand why they did that. Because in the first place, within the MILF leadership, there are those who don’t believe in the peace process. Even right at the beginning of the peace talks with the Philippine government in 1997, there were leaders, there were commanders of the MILF who did not subscribe to the peace process, saying that the government would not comply, would not honor any commitment, and they have cited so many instances to prove that the government is not really sincere in entering into peace talks with the MILF and other revolutionary groups. But even then, we were able to rend them; we were able to make them toe the line of the MILF leadership to give the peace process a chance to succeed.

But after more than a decade, the government did not sign that Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, and the beliefs of these commanders were reinforced. “After all,” they say,” we are correct, and you are wrong.” In other words, the MILF has less moral authority now to make these commanders comply because they had given the MILF leadership all the chances to succeed. In the end, to their belief, they are correct and the MILF leadership is wrong. So this is what happened, this is why the MILF commanders did not ask the leadership for permission in conducting these attacks – especially in Lanao del Norte. Had they asked the MILF leadership, the leadership would certainly restrain them.

So in short, these three commanders are with the MILF leadership, they are in the roster of the MILF military organization; we do not intend to strike them out of the organization. What they did is a plain and simple question of discipline; they violated the ceasefire agreement because of their strong belief that the government is not sincere, and there is a need for the MILF to conduct an investigation for internal institution of punishment. We already started and are about to finish that investigation – for the internal purposes of the MILF in order to discipline our people. And that’s why we have to conduct a fair and impartial investigation, so the truth will come out. Definitely we will discipline them if they have committed wrongdoings – not for the sake of the government, but for our internal purposes.

However, we are asking the government to have a third-party impartial investigating team, to be headed by the International Monitoring Team and to be joined by the MILF and government ceasefire committees and non-government organizations, both local and international, so that there will be a fair and impartial investigation. And then after a fair and impartial investigation is conducted and the findings come out, we will institute punishment based on the findings and the ceasefire agreement. Because that is the only framework that governs the MILF and the government, as far as the fighting in Mindanao is concerned. Other than that, no other mechanism would apply between the government and the MILF. We want to follow what has been agreed upon. I am referring to the ceasefire agreement that we both signed. We have to follow that.

Considering that the Arroyo government appears to be no longer interested in the peace process, especially since it has also disbanded its peace panel, what will the MILF do? Will you, like the NDFP, decide to wait for the next administration for the peace talks to continue?

We will hold this government responsible for whatever consequences would happen in Mindanao after it demonized the peace process. Because the consequence of this is that we are nearing the boundary of war and peace. On Nov. 30 the International Monitoring Team would leave for Malaysia. If the International Monitoring Team leaves, then all other mechanisms of the ceasefire would be very much affected: the ceasefire committees of the MILF and the government, and other agencies tasked to monitor and maintain the ceasefire.

So we are heading towards a situation or an area between war and peace. That’s why the MILF would hold the government responsible for whatever consequences would take place in Mindanao, and for not being true and sincere in the peace process. So when the peace process is not moving, then the other option is moving; when the peace process is moving away then the other option is coming in. In other words, the situation has become very volatile even if the MILF does not decide to go to war.

Whatever happens after what the government did must be the responsibility of the government, because essentially, when it did not sign the MoA-AD, they practically closed the peace process. When the peace process is not moving, then another situation would snowball. Even if nobody wants it to happen, there would be a hardening of positions… Sometimes the MILF is accused of being very moderate…but we are firm in our decisions.

As to your question of whether we are willing to wait for the next president for the peace process to continue, well, if the peace process is not moving fast or it is not completed under the Arroyo administration, then that would be the necessary consequence. But even in that situation, the prospect of signing an agreement is very grim. Because when the Supreme Court declared the MoA-AD as unconstitutional, it essentially sent the peace process back to square one. When the government always invokes the Constitution in a negotiation, or when the mandate of government negotiators is limited to the paradigm of the Philippine Constitution – especially as regards its concept of and provisions on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines – then we cannot move. This is practically stonewalling the negotiations. Where is the essence of negotiations there? Whoever becomes the next President, if the peace process would still be conducted this way, the prospect of signing a peace agreement would still not be very good.

Because our position is this: all sovereignty-based negotiations are extra-constitutional, and all revolutionary organizations are outside of the law. So when you invoke your law to a revolutionary organization, the negotiations would not work; because a revolutionary organization – being a rebel organization – does not recognize the Constitution. Once it recognizes the Constitution, then it is finished.

We agreed in the beginning that the government would not raise the issue of constitutionality and the MILF would not raise the issue of independence. After 10 years, we have reached this point; but when you try to bring in the issue of constitutionality, then necessarily the peace talks would break down. I don’t know what would happen in the future, even if a new President is elected, whether there is really a chance for peace. There would peace only if the government and the whole Filipino people, meaning the majority, would decide, once and for all, to accommodate the legitimate demands and grievances of the Bangsamoro people. (Bulatlat.com)

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