Friday, July 13, 2007 Ledesma: Basilan By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
I HAVE been one of those whose hopes for peace spring eternal. My boyhood and age of puberty were spent in the hinterlands of Cotabato. I counted as among my bosom friends my Muslim classmates. We walked the muddy pathway to school which is some five kilometers away from home. Our parents were farmers and they were friends like we were all in school. When rat infestation ravaged our rice fields we turn to each other for food.
My father always had several sacks of palay stored in our bodega which were intended for seeds and for subsistence. Because my Muslim friends live closer to the marshlands their rice fields were practically devoured by rats. My father would share them whatever he had saved.
I was no longer in Midsayap when the MNLF uprising took place. What I heard then was that Muslims and Christian settlers then were displaced. We stood our ground. When things went from bad to worse my parents' home became a place of refuge of the Muslims from the "pawas" they call it. Pawas is the marshy land next to the Liguasan marsh.
When the MNLF finally signed a peace agreement with the government, normalcy returned to our barrio. And peace had prevailed.
But not for long.
When the Moro Islamic Liberation Front waged their secessionist war, the barrio folks became restive. There were MILF elements that had landed in the "pawas" near our place. There were encounters all over Central Mindanao and commuters were made hostage by the retreating MILF forces. The encounters were vicious and many communities were displaced by the armed conflicts between the military and the MILF. This had caused divisiveness and mistrust in communities, were once Muslims and Christians quietly lived.
The all-out war waged by the Estrada regime was bloody but devastated the military camps of the MILF including Camp Abubakar and Camp Buliok. The war could have continued and claim more casualties and destruction. But then we have to understand that majority of the Moro actually wants peace. To sustain the bloody war can only raise a specter of yet more sanguinary encounters. It was this apprehension, I believe that convinced the Arroyo administration to suspend the assault and offered the MILF the opportunity to come to a negotiating table to hammer a more meaningful and stable peace.
As one who grew up in the hinterlands of Cotabato, I was happy that the peace talks began. There were isolated incidents of encounters, but I always dismiss this to some faction in the MILF and other secessionist groups who cannot live in peace. I have misgivings however about the perpetual negotiations that seem to be for eternity. I had thought then and even started to believe some written commentaries that maybe the MILF was biding time to regroup and rearm. I have talked to a coconut farmer from Davao Oriental who told me that heavily armed MILF forces freely moves even as near as Baganga displaying automatic rifles, machineguns and RPGs.
I too have begun to doubt whether the peace agreement will be achieved at all. The MILF, apparently now back to its fighting form only better armed this time, have stood their ground in the negotiation. Even as the government has virtually leaned too far back and gave in to their demands, still nothing seemed enough to satisfy them. I read somewhere that Dr. Emily Marohombsar, former president of Mindanao State University and member of the government panel negotiating peace with the MILF said that "if the government commits the mistake of giving in to the demand of the MILF and grant it an independent state, the Moro people will be exterminating each other."
Maybe, but the government is not crazy to grant that for there will be no end to their demands. Presently, they want to expand their territories urging the government to include 600 more barangays to be part of their ancestral domain. The government does not want war and had been reining in combatants even when they are harassed and insulted.
And now the Basilan tragedy. By latest media accounts, 14 Philippine Marines were killed in a treacherous ambush in Basilan. Eid Kabalu, when interviewed on ANC, admitted to Pinky Webb that it was their forces who dealt the blow because the soldiers did not coordinate with them. The soldiers were there on a mission to rescue Father Bossi. Assuming that this was a mortal mistake and the MILF was forced to fire, then why decapitate the Marines? Why mutilate the dead bodies of the soldiers? This irrational act invites retaliatory action.
I hope that the MILF realizes the impact of this brutality. What happened is un-Islamic and blood is curdling even among the Muslims around us. Since the Basilan forces were admittedly their forces then they should exact their fury on them before the military trained their guns on Tipo-tipo.
If indeed there is hope in this protracted peace talks, let the negotiators go back to the table and for once resolve the contentious issues before another Basilan massacre takes place anew and the dogs of war shall be unleashed. Which I hope not because no matter what you say, I still hope to embrace in friendship my classmates in my childhood days.
