COMMENTARY: PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT LOSING ITS ARMED CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE BANGSAMORO?

By Kaka Mike

The arming of civilian in Mindanao seems a desperate move of the Philippine government in order to regain composure in its armed campaign against the Moro People in Mindanao. These were the reactions of different peaceful-minded people amidst the shiver-rush distribution of not less than twenty thousand firearms to Christian civilian Settlers undertaken by no less than Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno starting on August 24, 2008 but publicly announced at a meeting with local government officials in Midsayap, North Cotabato last August 25, 2008.

To recall and follow courses of events that transpired and finally led to this tragic-leading decision of the government of arming civilians that placed the people of Mindanao vulnerable to civil rift or possibly civil war.

In the early part of June this year, we could remember the persistent requests for firearms from Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol of North Cotabato that were intended for his civilian constituencies. This much publicized arming of civilians was coursed through former Armed Forces Chief of Staff and now Secretary of the Office on Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon Jr. As a veteran warrior of Mindanao turned peace maker knows better the repercussion of war as a consequence of placing such guns in the hands of civilians, he, then turned down the request. And Vice Governor Pinol instead requested for provision of ammunition which Secretary Esperon outrightly refused. On this matter, the latter was repeatedly quoted in different media outlets to have said: “If you (vice governor Pinol) are requesting ammunition, then you have firearms. And if that is the case, then let us see if those firearms are legal.” This remark caught the ire of the war-thirsty settler-leader that led to their long word war with Secretary Esperon.

The persistent request for arming of civilians was shortly followed by the coming out in the open on press conferences of the “Ilaga Reformed Movement” a civilian armed groups which is a revival of the once dreaded movement in late 70’s. Looking back, it was organized by seven mayors of the municipalities under the then empire province of Cotabato. No wonder they were called the “Magnificent Seven”. On the “ILAGA” formation, TJS George an American writer in his Book Revolt in Mindanao explicitly said: “The Ilaga was founded‘in Cotabato City in September 1970 by Wenceslao dela Serna of Alamada, Esteban Doruelo of Pigkawayan, Pacifico dela Serna of Libungan, Nicholas Dequena of Midsayap, Bonifacio Tejada of M’lang, Conrado Lemana of Tulunan and Jose Escribano of Tacurong.” After the organizing of this vigilante group followed havoc and series of massacres that claimed thousand of lives of the Moro people. To name a few of these as sort of reminder were the Manili Massacre, the Tacub Massacre, the Mileb Massacre, the Malisbong Massacre and many more.

On the recent emergence of the new Ilaga with its spokesman Mike Santiago who announced that “in every one Christian killed, they will retaliate by killing ten MILF civilians…” is never a new occurrence. In fact in 2003, this group when it first came out to the public through radio press conference made it as launching ritual by chopping two Moro teenagers who were residents of a village in Barangay Liliongan, Carmen in North Cotabato. Luckily, one of the victims was able to survive and who could be a living testimony to whatever atrocities perpetrated by this cultist group. We should mark one of their old members recently who proudly revealed before a TV reporter that he had been eating “cut ears” of every Muslim he killed.

Thus, the surfacing of these groups though in different names and faces but have the same and similar feature. Sometimes it comes out as Reform the Ilaga Movement, Mindanao Christian Highlanders Alliance (MICHA) and that latest New Jerusalem Movement (NJM). They all speak the same language. In several occasions in 2005 and 2006, these groups already came out of press statements and documents in which they vowed to stop any agreement reached between the government and MILF and said: “…OPPOSE the consensus points made and the eventual signing of the peace pact between the GRP and MILF.” That was three years ago when most of us were still facing blank wall on what would be consensus points between the GRP and MILF especially on the issue of Ancestral Domain.

It is ironic, then, that those declaration made by these civilian armed groups three years ago ‘to stop at any cause’ the signing of any agreement reached between the GRP and MILF was exposed by the person of Manny Pinol who raised hell and vowed to stop the scheduled signing of consensus points on Ancestral Domain better known now as Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

It is also a great coincidence or deliberate and grand design that the above-mentioned remnants of Ilaga and whom Manny Pinol had long been clamoring to be armed are one and the same group. Coincidentally, or deliberately again, no less than DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno fulfilled the evil motives of these groups by quickly distributing firearms to civilians. Nevertheless, it is again ironic since the old Ilaga was organized by Local Government Officials, to be specific, municipal mayors in North Cotabato.

Anent to this, a delegate from Cagayan de Oro City in a recent meeting of Peace Advocates in Davao City revealed that one hundred eighty-five civilian recipients of these firearms were already deployed in North Cotabato areas for whatever reasons, we must closely monitor. Amidst this situation we can only hope that everyone must be vigilant and observe how this government starts and evolves a genocidal campaign against the Moro People who have no fault at all except their assertion of their inalienable right to self-determination and to retain what remains of the ancestral domain left by their ancestors and as embodied both in domestic and international frameworks.