Alternatives

Time is running out… not for the peace process in Mindanao, but for the Aquino administration.

This is why instead of taking a healthy pause in the peace negotiations in the wake of the barbaric slaughter of 44 police commandos by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its supposed splinter group, the administration is rushing Congress to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law – in whatever form, as long as (tuwid na daan hopes) the BBL is enacted in time for President Aquino’s final State of the Nation Address this July.

You don’t enact such an important measure without conducting due diligence. Daang matuwid, with its promise to tread the straight path, should be concerned about the sincerity of any group that would be entrusted with P75 billion of taxpayers’ money in the first year alone.

The slaughter of the police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25 raised enough red flags to warrant a slowdown in the peace process.

One red flag was that the MILF was protecting two top Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists. It validated the police suspicion that it would have compromised the manhunt if the operation to capture Zulkifli bin Hir or Marwan and Basit Usman had been “coordinated” with the MILF. The coddling was the original sin. The remains of the man believed to be Marwan has been hidden and Usman is still at large.

Other red flags: the MILF attacked together with a group it has always claimed as a breakaway faction, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. The BIFF is opposed to the peace process. MILF leaders have not adequately explained the true nature of their ties with the BIFF.

The two groups fought together against government forces, but the MILF can’t or won’t compel the BIFF to return the weapons, special equipment and personal belongings of the SAF 44. BIFF commanders sneered that they did not intend to return any guns, including a 90mm antitank recoilless rifle used recently against an Army tank.

MILF officials have evaded questions about building up an arsenal, in violation of the peace agreement, in a clandestine weapons manufacturing plant that reportedly can produce replicas of the powerful Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. (Where does the MILF get funds?) The plant is apparently unable to copy high-precision rifle bolts, which is the part missing from the 16 guns returned to the government last week with fanfare.

Surely P-Noy, no naïf when it comes to guns, in his heart of hearts suspects that the government is being jerked around. At the very least, he should understand the need to say whoa and proceed with caution in dealing with the MILF after the Mamasapano slaughter. He could end up being blamed for creating the next generation of the Ampatuan clan.

But because his presidency is, as he himself has said, in his last two minutes, it looks like P-Noy simply wants his BBL – any BBL will do – by July, with legal challenges resolved with finality (he hopes) within a few months. In the event that the measure hurdles the Supreme Court (SC), P-Noy hopes the law can be presented to the affected areas in a plebiscite under his watch.

So lawmakers are being stampeded into passing the BBL – a rush reminiscent of the approval of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain with the MILF also in the final years of the previous administration. As legal experts warned, the SC threw out the MOA-AD.

Perhaps if P-Noy was still in the first half of his six-year term, he might have seen the value of a slowdown in the peace process, to give time for important questions to get satisfactory rather than evasive answers.

He would also have had time to cast a wider net in the Muslim community for trustworthy leaders with whom the government can discuss enduring, inclusive peace.

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No one is stopping the government from pursuing peace. The only question is whether it is talking to the right group. It’s also a valid point to consider whether the Mamasapano incident should lead to a shift in the pursuit of peace, to include more groups in the process. This is not war mongering, as the government peace panel likes to portray those questioning the sincerity of the MILF. This isn’t a case of either you’re with us or you’re against us; you’re an enemy of peace.

Why is it when state forces pound wide swaths of Zamboanga City with artillery and air strikes for three weeks to flush out the Moro National Liberation Front, it’s not called war? Or when the Army fights the BIFF or the New People’s Army, it’s not war? The NPA at least does not mutilate its victims. But touch a hair strand of the MILF and it’s called war.

Also, it’s misleading to argue that you don’t wage war to achieve peace; two world wars were fought to stop evil designs and bring peace. Smaller wars and battles have been fought to defend not just lives and property but also ideals, values and ways of life. People (and governments) should have the courage to defend their values and way of life, apart from lives and property, from armed threats. We have laws that must be enforced and people to protect from all lawless elements.

P-Noy may want to check out a nascent positive development in the Muslim community as he tries to salvage his peace initiative. Muslims and non-Muslims are banding together with several minority groups in Mindanao for a more inclusive peace process under a so-called Bangsamoro Transformation Council. Its vice chairman is the former spokesman of the MILF, Eid Kabalu, so he knows something about waging secessionist warfare. He is interested in pursuing peace and says his group has an alternative to the derailed process with the MILF.

Alternatives are what P-Noy should be exploring as he surveys the wreckage of his peace initiative. The alternative is not war, as his cordon sanitaire is telling him; he should open himself to other ideas.