Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Editorial: Proceed with caution
FINALLY, Malacañang figured it out: They need a civil society initiative to form a framework for lasting peace in Mindanao. And we, Mindanaoans, are all supposed to cheer in agreement.
For several years, even when government was still negotiating for peace with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), civil society in Mindanao has been hankering for representation and a voice. But government apparently didn't want the other people's voice to stir the status quo that an ongoing peace negotiation creates; and thus a peace negotiation was signed with the MNLF.
The National Government continued with the same tack with the MILF, but this time, it has been meeting a lot of difficulties because unlike the MNLF, the MILF seem to be well-stocked militarily.
Continued pressures to put in more civil society representatives was met with what can now be called a patronizing response as one lumad representative was finally allowed to listen in, but nothing else. That was until the infamous memorandum of agreement for ancestral domain (MOA-AD), the massive evacuations and fierce gunbattles in North Cotabato last week, and now in Lanao del Sur and Sarangani province.
While the gunbattles continue to rage, and while the evacuees refuse to come home despite assurances that the MILF combatants have already been removed from their North Cotabato homes (the villagers know better, they've lived there for a lifetime already), President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has requested the Bishop-Ulama Conference (BUC) to spearhead a civil society initiative to come up with a framework for lasting peace in Mindanao.
Presidential Spokesman Jesus G. Dureza would prefer to spin this as a characteristic unique of President Arroyo, "as she gives value to a deep consultative process". (As the President's rah-rah boys cheer in the background).
Dureza also said that the President wants to "hear the views of stakeholders in the private sector, the local government units (LGUs), and all those who will be affected one way or the other in what may become a framework for peace and development not only for Mindanao but the whole country as well." (And more cheers from the rah-rah boys, as the dancers rush onstage).
While the Mindanaoans go, "Uh-uh. And then what?"
This is not the first time Mindanao will be pandered to. That's been the scenario since time immemorial. More suspicious though is the timing. With just around a year and a half before the 2010 elections, a regular thinking Mindanaoan will know there will not be enough time for that "deep consultative process", which Dureza says Arroyo gives value to.
Match that with the fact that Mindanao has become more explosive than it was before because of the still undisclosed, government-issued copy of the MOA-AD, any thinking Mindanaoan will sense insincerity if not a scheme to hold on to power after 2010, using Mindanao as leverage, and the consultative peace that Mindanaoans have long been aching for as the carrot on a stick, along the line of: "If you want to continue with this consultative process, then vote straight administration party." In the background, the dancers do the can-can while Mindanaoans excuse themselves to collectively puke.
Like any Mindanaoan, we know we never back down from a challenge for peace-building knowing full well this is our road to real, poverty-ending prosperity. But history has shown us that our desire to end neglect and achieve prosperity for our very rich island has been used over and over again for other people's personal interests. And so we say, proceed with caution because 2010 is fast approaching. The cunning and the crafty will never hesitate to beg, steal or borrow credibility if only to win in that race. And the Bishop-Ulama Conference has a lot to beg, steal, and borrow from.
