LOOKING FROM A DISTANCE ON SOMO AND SOMA WITH THE IDPs

By: Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)

The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), a network and conferential body of some 168 Moro civil society organizations in mainland Mindanao and island provinces, has been actively sharing its part in advocating the rights and welfare of the more than a half million persons displaced by the ongoing war launched by the Philippine government in Mindanao.

The CBCS has also been consistent in unity and solidarity with the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in calls to stop the war and to pull out the military so that they can return to their respective places of origin and start to rebuild their lives ruined by the war, as well as in urging both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to resume their peace talks and sign a meaningful peace agreement.

The government’s unilateral declaration of suspension of military operations (SOMO) on July 23 and the MILF’s issuance of order on suspension of military action (SOMA) on July 25 - barely a week after the “Bakwit Power 2” - are laudable as both give great relief to the IDPs whose lives have been razed by war even before the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) on August 5, 2008 and may pave the way for the realization of their great yearning to be back home to start a good life anew.

While the government’s SOMO appears to be rhetorical and full of flaws and the MILF’s SOMA seems to be sketchy, both deserve appreciation and commendation. We call on the two parties to explore all venues for the immediate resumption of the peace talks and to effect the reactivation of the Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), the Local Monitoring Team (LMT) and the re-firming up of the fielding of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to ensure smooth implementation of the SOMO and SOMA for only then the circumstances would be meaningful in the lives of the Bangsamoro, in general, and the IDPs, in particular.

As this developed, we call on concerned government agencies, international non-government organizations, humanitarian groups, civil society organizations and religious groups to continue in providing relief assistance and in sharing their parts to the IDPs for their humane rehabilitation.

We are calling all the peace-loving people of Mindanao to vehemently condemn in the highest possible terms the deceptive acts of the detractors and spoilers of peace. They are not yet contented in blocking the signing of the MOA-AD. They are all-out yet again to discredit the SOMO and the SOMA to mislead again the people in order to conceal their personal motives. They are selfishly unmindful of whatever costs the ordinary people will pay just to attain their personal interest in the Bangsamoro Ancestral homeland.

As said, “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.”