Saturday, September 06, 2008 Editorials: Junked peace process
IT will take days, maybe weeks, before the air would be clear enough for us to view lucidly the diplomatic and political implications of the presidential rejection of the proposed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Moro ancestral domain.
The MOA, critics say, was undertaken and negotiated in secrecy.
At least this was the impression that emerged after the aborted MOA signing in Malaysia caused a rash of violence from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) against some villages in North Cotabato and Lanao.
President’s decision
After days of retaliatory offensive by the armed forces, and recriminatory speculations about the cause of the MILF violence, the President has decided to junk the MOA, “declaring that her administration cannot be forced to sign a deal on an expanded Bangsamoro homeland at gunpoint.”
Henceforth, peace negotiations would be based on “demobilization, disarmament, and rehabilitation.”
This has made the junking of the peace process and the disbanding of the peace negotiating panel a cause celebre on the part of the MILF that holds that the MOA “is a done deal.”
The MILF said: “Ms. Arroyo’s latest action could be a signal that the government was preparing to intensify operations not only against recalcitrant elements but the entire rebel group…But the MILF is prepared…”
It is clear that the presidential decision is tantamount to stepping into a quicksand in the search for Mindanao peace, eliciting dire MILF reaction.
Quicksand
Note that the MILF was formed sometime in November l976, by a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) splinter group that was discontented over the Muslim autonomous region extended to Nur Misuari.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was negotiated in Libya by First Lady Imelda Marcos and Libyan leader Muammar Khadafi.
The MOA’s Bangsamoro Juridical Entity would have appeased the MILF.
But as recent developments have indicated, there is a possibility that the Arroyo administration, with the rejection of the MOA, may find itself sinking further in the quicksand.
And peace in Mindanao will continue to be a dream devoutly wished, one awaiting realization that may cost more lives lost and blood spilt.
