Peace advocates appeal to government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to stop the armed hostilities in Mindanao after the Supreme Court junked the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) for being unconstitutional.
Alarmed over the gravity of humanitarian crisis and the deteriorating condition of these war-ravaged areas, members of the Mindanao Peaceweavers (MPW) wrote President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim to stop the armed conflict of both parties and return to the negotiating table.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were affected after the Arroyo government ordered the Philippine armed forces for punitive actions against so-called rogue elements of the MILF. Their appeal letter wrote: "there are now more than half a million internally displaced persons who are bearing the brunt of the ongoing armed conflict."
The advocates further wrote that the staggering figure does not count yet the casualties on both sides of the combatants. Also, this excludes the hidden and long-term effects of the violence on women, children and the youth.
Signatories of the letter asked President Arroyo what happened to her own declaration on the primacy of the peace process as contained in her Executive Order 2003. They appealed for her to immediately declare a suspension of military operations (SOMO) to sober up the situation and allow the mechanisms on the ceasefire agreement with the MILF to work again.
They likewise appealed to Chairman Murad to demonstrate his firm resolve and commitment to peaceful settlement of the Mindanao conflict by reining in all his forces and constituents and in finding a just resolution on alleged violations of the so-called
rogue elements.
The MPW told both Arroyo and Murad that violence committed by any parties in conflict cannot be resolved by another, if not increased form of violence and that such is a never-ending cycle that will only bring the country to the brink of destruction.
Hopeful of Arroyo's recent overtures for the resumption of the peace talks, the MPW said that unless this is accompanied by positive gestures of peace such as the immediate declaration of SOMO, they will be compelled to appeal for United Nations intervention to avert a worst humanitarian crisis in Mindanao.
For Murad, they proposed that MILF gives its share in creating an atmosphere for dialogue and the conditions to tread the tedious path to peace.
"War is not an option. As peace advocates we take it upon ourselves to face up to the challenge of building and uniting for peace, especially in light of the surfacing of biases and prejudices among and between peoples of Mindanao and the rest of the citizenry, following the MOA-AD debacle," the letter concluded.
MPW represents a network of peace constituency coming from non-government organizations, academe, religious, human rights groups, peoples organizations and grassroots communities which work for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Mindanao. Among its members are the AGONG Network, Mindanao Peoples Caucus, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, Mindanao Peace Advocates Conference, Mindanao Peoples Peace Movement, Mindanao Solidarity Network and Peace Advocates Zamboanga, Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), Saligan-Mindanaw and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
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