Days after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have announced a peace agreement, a series of bomb attacks ripped through Mindanao. At least two people were killed while three others were wounded in separate explosions in Cagayan and Zamboanga Sibugay province last Wednesday and Thursday.
The explosion in Cagayan de Oro occurred near a hotel in the downtown area, killing a hotel staff and a jeepney conductor. Two policemen who were about to check on the package that contained the bomb were injured.
Earlier, in Zamboanga Sibugay, an explosive device went off in a garment shop in Imelda municipality, injuring a 14-year-old boy. The town has been part of the vast stronghold of Muslim separatists in the restive south.
Although they are still trying to determine the motives behind the twin explosions, the police and military were mum if the incidents were related to the peace accord. All the authorities could respond is to hoist a red alert status and conduct checkpoints in those areas.
It cannot be denied that there are disgruntled factions within the MILF that are out to sabotage the agreement. In fact, intelligence reports have it that a group of one of its renegade commanders, Ameril Umbra Kato, is planning to stage bombing activities in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City.
It’s too early to conclude whether the agreement will finally solve the decades-old peace and order problem in the south. If it works, then it is safe to say that the agreement is the biggest legacy of the Aquino government to the people of Mindanao.
But as we have seen in the past, any peace agreement for Mindanao is bound to fail. The previous administrations have tried but failed to make peace with the Muslim separatists for a simple reason that the rebels could not unite themselves.
As many have observed, the problem really lies in the side of the Muslim rebels. Even if the government could come up with the best peace deal ever, it will never bear fruits unless there is unity among the separatists.