THE effects of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has undoubtedly dealt a serious blow to many countries worldwide, including the Philippines. As a result of the pandemic, there have been many deaths throughout the Philippines. Recently, with the downgrading of health and safety measures in order to keep economies from collapsing, the number of positive cases of Covid-19 has risen at an alarming rate in across the nation, including Cotabato City and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm). Nevertheless, while we need to save lives from Covid-19, we should not forget that we still need to keep the on-going peace process as one of our primary concerns for the preservation of our society and to save lives from unrest and violence.
More than ever, it is not just health and safety measures that we must be concerned about to save lives. We must also be vigilant in the measures to maintain, protect and promote the continuing peace process. While success in the peace process has brought an end to decades of constant unrest and violence in Mindanao, it has been dealt a blow again.
Sadly, on August 29, 2020, nine Muslim farmers were killed in Kabacan, North Cotabato in what was initially reported by the local police as a shootout between feuding clans, which is locally referred to as “rido.” However, it was later revealed that the victims were allegedly executed by authorities. Many Muslim communities, including those belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), are outraged and have denounced the killings as the "Kabacan Massacre."
Sammy Al Mansor, chief of staff of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), the armed wing of the then separatist movement MILF, which signed a peace deal with the government in 2015, stated that the incident “reminds us of the dark period in our not so recent past, when the Bangsamoro people were besieged and beleaguered in their very own ancestral homeland, by forces who are privileged with impunity and assured of unbridled movement in the senseless and brutal murder of unarmed civilians.”
The killings in Kabacan have been called a heinous act of violence and have created a sense of instability or a lack of security in the region. As a result, many fear that there will be serious retaliatory violence. Rumors and false information about revenge for the same have also been adding fuel to the fire of the sense of instability.
The challenge we now must face as Filipinos, especially as the Bangsamoro people, is to remain calm and understand that there is still security because of the ongoing peace process. We must not give up on the peace that we have worked so hard for. In fact, others even refer to the people responsible for the killings as “spoilers” of the peace process.
In order to preserve security or stability, we need to maintain our resolve and not resort to retaliatory violence. Instead, we need to demand or call for an impartial probe on the killings and trust that authorities will carry out the investigation in good faith.
As a people, the Bangsamoro need to keep moving forward in the peace process and maintain the good relationships fostered among Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities in Barmm and the rest of the Philippines. We cannot afford to lose sight of the bigger picture, which is the Bangsamoro peace process. This peace can also save countless precious lives from unnecessary unrest and violence as well as stop us all from destroying the very core or ‘soul’ of our beloved nation.