Picking up the pieces of peace process in Mindanao

There is obviously a great interest by the international community on the continuing efforts of the Philippine government (GRP) to work out a permanent peace settlement in Mindanao with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Such unprecedented level of interest got hyped lately with the just concluded visit here of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

From his own experience while he was Prime Minister of trying to put an end to the religious strife that divided his own country in Northern Ireland, Blair takes pride for being able to forge the Good Friday Agreement that has not only brought back peace but also economic improvements that their people aspired for.

“You can only have peace if both sides want it. And usually there is always a possibility of finding a context in which they both want peace. And therefore what you must do is never give up.” Blair succinctly put it during his speech “The Leader as Principled Negotiator” at the Leadership Conference Series II held at the Sofitel Philippines on Monday.

This brought to mind the GRP-MILF peace talks that got snagged following bloody and violent attacks by supposed renegade MILF leaders in August last year. The peace process in Mindanao bogged down when these rogue MILF leaders retaliated against the decision of President Arroyo to set aside the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). The President’s decision was subsequently vindicated by the Supreme Court with its ruling that declared the MOA-AD unconstitutional.

Even before Blair’s visit, there has been official expression of interest to get engaged in the peace process in southern Philippines coming from the governments of the United States, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, as well countries from the Middle East like Qatar, Libya. and lately the European Union (EU).

A number of official representatives from these countries sounded out to our government the possibility of facilitating the resumption of the stalled GRP-MILF peace talks. Such arrangement of having a facilitator in the conduct of the peace talks with rebel groups has its precedent, a successful one. This was under the auspices of Indonesia, head of the Committee of Six in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), as the third party peace broker. In fact, it resulted to the GRP peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed in Jakarta and in Manila in September 1996 during the term of former President Fidel V. Ramos.  

But while there is so much enthusiasm in the international community on our peace efforts in Mindanao with the MILF, there seems to be less interest in our parallel peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF. I wonder why.

From what I gathered, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process has kept its lines open to these offers to facilitate the GRP-MILF peace deals coming from these varied interested parties. So to date, there has been no decision as to how soon peace talks with the MILF would resume.

Clearly though, there is a new man on the ball in charge of the peace process, former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, retired Gen. Avelino “Sonny” Razon. He took over from his “mistah,” retired Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. whom President Arroyo asked to become her new Presidential Management Staff in January this year.

As OPAPP chief, Razon supervises the peace negotiations of the government with various rebel groups. Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for special concerns, Rafael Seguis handles the peace negotiations with the MILF as the head of the government panel. Former Labor chief Nieves Confesor, on the other hand, takes charge of separate peace talks that the government conducts with the communist insurgents.

In the negotiations with the CPP-NPA-NDF, the Oslo government is supposedly acting as the third party facilitator in the ongoing backdoor talks. Nothing has been heard of as to the real status of the government’s peace initiatives with the CPP-NPA-NDF. The little detail that I know of, is that there have been a lot of travels to-and-fro by our peace negotiators to Norway and The Netherlands to link up with CPP leader Joma Sison and ex-priest Luis Jalandoni. The two communist leaders, if we are to believe government propaganda, have both been living rather comfortably in self-exile at The Ultrecht.

As it is at present, the Arroyo administration has been tied down to its commitment to Malaysia as the chief facilitator of the GRP-MILF peace talks. As part of facilitator role, Malaysia sent to Mindanao token forces that served as members of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to check against any violations of the ceasefire agreement from either side. The Malaysians were later joined in the IMT by troopers from Brunei and Libya.

Malaysia’s facilitator role in the GRP-MILF peace talks has been questioned in the past and is still being raised even now. As everyone is well aware of, the Philippines and Malaysia have contending claims over Sabah. So Malaysia is seen not as a neutral party.

This facilitator role of Malaysia started since 2001 when President Arroyo accepted the offer of then Prime Minister Mohammad Mahathir to help in the search for lasting and enduring peace in Mindanao. When Mahathir bowed out from office, his successor, former Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi continued their government’s third party role in the GRP-MILF peace talks. In fact, the controversial MOA-AD was nearly signed in Kuala Lumpur last year but was fortunately aborted after its unconstitutional provisions leaked out in media.

As if there were not enough troubles that impair the conduct of the GRP-MILF peace talks, the resumption of the negotiations must also wait until the leadership in the Malaysian government is settled. This will take place later this month between incumbent Prime Minister Badawi and his successor, his former deputy prime minister Najib Razak.

Will there be enough time for us to pick up the pieces of the broken peace talks in Mindanao to get it back on track? Razon is no Blair but he is a Filipino patriot ready to do just that.