EDITORIAL - A step toward peace

Seeing rebels opting for peace is good news. It remains to be seen whether the government is paying too steep a price for the agreement forged the other day with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. For the moment, however, all sectors must heed the admonition that often seems foolish in this world plagued by conflict: Give peace a chance. That advice should be heeded by deposed President Joseph Estrada. His administration deserves credit for driving out the MILF from all its camps. But history has shown that the Mindanao problem cannot be solved by a purely military response.

Estrada and other critics of the agreement, however, raise valid concerns. Under the controversial agreement, an office will be set up that will allow the MILF to have a direct hand in the implementation of government-funded development projects in predominantly Muslim areas in Mindanao. Should such projects be entrusted to a rebel group? The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the presence of President Arroyo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose government brokered the ceasefire last year with the MILF. Implementation of the agreement is bound to create friction between the MILF and the government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which is headed by a former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front.

The peace initiative with the MNLF is in tatters. All that we have left from that peace deal are rebel returnees integrated into the Armed Forces whose loyalty is under suspicion, the MNLF’s founding leader in maximum security detention, and an autonomous Muslim region as poor as when the peace pact was signed. But there remains a faction of the MNLF, led by the ARMM governor, that is trying to make peace work.

The MILF will have to do its part in dispelling misgivings about its commitment to peace. It can start by helping stop crimes committed by groups such as the Pentagon gang that are widely believed to be working for the MILF. It can stop harboring terrorists and ordinary criminals, who are always passed off as members of so-called MILF lost commands whenever they are caught. The MILF must show that it has control over its members. It’s useless to talk peace with a group whose members will form yet another rebel faction as soon as its leaders get all the concessions they want from the government.