i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

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The Moro people can be part of a plural society without losing their identity OMAR SOLITARIO ALI T HE 500 years of virtu- ally continuous war against the Moro people—launched in the beginning by the Spaniards, the Americans, the Japanese, and then the Philippine government for the last 58 years—is proof enough that the Moro cannot be annihilated through massacres, using paramilitary marauders (Ilaga), depopulating communities and grabbing land, establishing Christian settlements in Moro areas, burning whole villages, hamletting, ear-cutting, and other inhuman methods. Up till now, the Moro stand tall despite heavy battering by mighty forces. Some elements of the Philippine military, some political leaders, and some business groups had this notion that the insurgents should be terminated by force; that there is no way to lick them through peace; that they are a negligible portion of the population—15,000 armed followers, 2,500 full timers, 40,000 mass support or roughly one percent of the five million Muslims in the Philippines. But that is oversimplification. There is no way to terminate that 55,000 or so without collaterally damaging, affecting, or converting the entire Moro population, thereby making the war mutually destructive and unending. Conversely, after five centuries of Moro resistance to foreign domination, after 33 years of the latest phase of Moro conflict that began in 1970, the Moro insurgents and the people in general should by now accept the fact that there is no foreseeable victory in the coming century if the goal remains carving out a portion of Philippine territory to establish an independent republic ruled by Muslims. If victory were really possible then they should have won in the early 1970s when they were a united front; when the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was extending unlimited financial, material and political support; when the Moro masses were solidly behind them; when the United States was pinned down by détente or the Russian factor and unable to declare itself the policeman of the world. FACING HARD REALITIES Today Moro insurgents are deeply fragmented. A great number of them are with the government or have decided to lie low. The OIC will no longer support armed struggles. The Moro people as a support base has tremendously weakened or lost hope in the Moro insurgents. Now the United States as the self-declared antiterrorist crusader of the world is alert and eager to go after Muslim insurgents wherever they may be, and especially if they can be declared terrorists. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) desire for a United Nations-supervised referendum is actually not feasible. That worked in East Timor because the Christians there were united and firm in their desire to secede from Indonesia. The Moro people are not that united in a desire for secession and the MILF will surely not be allowed to coercively influence the outcome of a referendum. The hindrances to peace are tremendous. Our constitution is deemed sacred even if fighting can be avoided just by restructuring the system of government as allowed and provided for in that same charter. There are some influential chauvinistic Filipinos in Luzon and especially in Mindanao who want nothing less than continuing and completing the crusade to terminate Islam and Muslims in this country. They think that after five centuries, success is near, with the Muslims driven from Luzon and the Visayas and now restricted to only a third of Mindanao. For full political and economic takeover of Mindanao to happen, what remains only is to finish Muslims off. It will take a strong-willed and broader-thinking Philippine leader to go beyond the subjective analysis and recommendations of interest groups and reverse our maladies. We must begin by accepting the hard fact: there is no military solution to the conflict. The antidote is peaceful, political and diplomatic. AN ACCIDENTAL STATE Our policy makers must make a delicate and radical decision. They must re-diagnose this country in order to affirm the fact that it is pluralistic. This is one state by accident of history but not one nation because nationhood is ethno-linguistic, religious, cultural, historical, artistic, and serial. The Moro as far as nationhood is concerned is truly distinct from that of the Filipino. The Cordillera people, the Bicolanos, the Ilocanos, the Cebuanos, the Ilonggos of Western Visayas, the Warays of Eastern Visayas, those of the Cagayan Valley, the Tagalogs, those in Eastern Mindanao and Northern Mindanao—all of them are lumped under one system and one rule of conduct. But they are all basically different. In each of their habitats, there are traditions and commonly accepted norms which other areas or regions might consider unacceptable. The Philippine government and the MILF are negotiating and talking about cessation of hostilities, ancestral domain, economic development, demilitarization and rehabilitation. But there has been constant violation of past agreements because there are no broad parameters, political systems, or structure of government that will give way to mutual tolerance, coexistence, productive competition or unity in diversity tailored to the temperament, ethnicity, and plurality of Philippine society. Federalism is thus proposed as possible savior of the peoples of the Philippines. Federalism is the embodiment of unity in diversity of productive competition, of mutual tolerance and coexistence, of giving way to plurality yet not giving away belongingness, of encouraging the optimum use of latent skills and resources in every region, of allowing the free advocacy and practice of distinct cultures and religion, of self-determination and autonomy in every region, of making each region responsible for its own future instead of relying and then blaming an overburdened central government. A TRIPLE SUCCESS In a federal form of government, the Philippines will be subdivided into states, each of which will have a state constitution providing for laws in consonance and complementary with a federal or national charter. Each state will have its own Supreme Court, legislature, and executive branch headed by a chief minister. All states will be contributing portions of their income to sustain the efficient functioning of the country, such as national defense, finance, and foreign service. But instead of the national government distributing IRA (internal revenue allotment) shares, congressional countryside funds, and the like, the states will be in control of their regional resources. The national constitution, promulgated and affirmed by the whole Philippine population, will give sufficient consideration to generally acceptable principles, but will leave local issues to be shaped by peculiar state policies. With a state of their own (which they may call an Islamic State), where they may adopt the Qur’an and Hadith as main features of their state constitution, whose land and resources Muslims will effectively control, the pledge of the Moro mujahideen for the liberation of the homeland and firm establishment of Din El Islam will have been achieved. It will be a strong and progressive state because it will be a component of a bigger and mutually supportive formation. This is also an honorable way out for the Philippine government, which just has to be open-minded so that this country remains intact, united, and progressive. All of us may then declare triple success: we gain what we want, we won it fast, and we won it through peace. May the MILF and the Philippine government be divinely guided so that they will not give up on peace and consider alism as a win-win feder- option. Omar Solitario Ali, a former MNLF commander, is mayor of Marawi city. 28 PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM I REPORT
V O I C E S F R O M T H E P E R I P H E R Y The time for federalism is now REY MAGNO TEVES where MAKE NO mistake about it. While the packed gallery’s enthusiastic applause for the president’s last State of the Nation Address reeked of hakot (paid audi- ence), there was some measure of spontaneity particularly from the promdis—also known as local government officials —who were dressed to the nines. The grins were genuine when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said it was time to start the charter debates. Bigger cheers came when the president announced her preference for a shift from the unitary system of government to a federal one. There was also loud clapping when she mentioned a change from the presidential to a parliamentary form. But it’s safe to assume that the idea of federalism resonated better among the local government executives than the notion of parliamentary government. After all, the local governments would be clear beneficiaries of a federal system that by definition disperses political power to the regions. Under the present system, regional development has been uneven and inequitable, and there has been creeping realization—especially in the countryside—that it is no longer just a question of having good and effective leaders. We’ve had dramatic leader changes in the past two decades, but there seems to be no parallel profound transformation in the lives of the people. Most of us are still in a rut, and the way out looks like it involves a change in the system. Which is probably the reason why the current brouhaha seems confined in the National Capital Region. Even civil society groups in the Visayas and Mindanao who were active in Edsa 1 and Edsa 2 have been conspicuously silent. They’re apparently done with just leader changes, and personality-oriented politics controlled by imperial Manila. That’s coming from places poverty and deprivation are deepest. Indeed, areas farthest from the capital experience more savage poverty and injustice. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Caraga (Agusan and Surigao provinces), Bicol, Samar, and Leyte are among the regions that bear the brunt of the center’s neglect. These are also the areas that have bred numerous insurgents and continue to fuel uprisings and rebellion. MINDANAO AND SEPARATISM Of course, when it comes to rebellion, Mindanao is the first that comes to mind. It is the home of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which fought for independence until it agreed in 1996 to a measure of autonomy under the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development framework. Today the MNLF is somewhat disjointed, with some elements tending back toward separation even as many of its leaders (or former leaders) sit in Congress, as well as in local governments as governors and mayors, and also in jail (specifically founder-chairman Nur Misuari). Mindanao is home as well to the presently more potent Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has carried the torch of independence since splitting from the original MNLF in 1976. Four years ago, it began engaging the Philippine government in a peace process. It didn’t drop its demand for independence, but it has expressed willingness to discuss other options “short of outright independence but more than autonomy.” The MILF, though, has rejected the current movement for a Mindanao Republic, particularly that version being espoused by the group called One People Mindanao (OPM). In a recent official statement, the MILF said, “We cannot endorse anything that we are not a party to, and where the programs for the Bangsa Moro people are not clear.” Be that as it may, Muslim rebels and activists have long lost their monopoly on separatism. Although the latest Bright Idea is not directly connected with two previous Mindanao Independence Movements (MIM One under the late Datu Ugtog Matalam in the 1970s, and MIM Two under Reuben Canoy in the late 1980s), it certainly draws from the same logic and circumstances that propelled those MIMs. It therefore cannot be dismissed easily. Then there’s Davao Ciy Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncement that he is ready to set up a separate Mindanao Republic. It may not be a serious, organized challenge, but it’s not exactly an empty threat, since it is premised on the possibility, remote or otherwise, that President Arroyo would be removed from office unconstitutionally. It’s even been adopted by the Confederation of Mindanao local government executives, and then echoed in Ilocos by Gov. Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson and in the Visayas by a convention of leaders. Which means Mindanao itself cannot claim to have a monopoly on having separatist sentiments. CITIZENS FOR FEDERALISM Federalism, however, offers another alternative to those of us in the peripheries who have suffered because of policies emanating from a callous center. It seems to be a no-brainer. Yet before the Citizens Movement for a Federal Philippines (CMFP) was launched in February 2003 in Marikina City, there seemed to be no nationwide effort toward federalism. Instead, many of the calls came individuals. During the 1970 Constitutional Convention, several proposals touting federalism were submitted. Oldest delegate Antonio de las Alas proposed a Federal Philippines with 20 autonomous states similar to Swiss cantons. UP professor Leopoldo Yabes, meanwhile, called for the creation of 10 states with smaller units patterned after the U.S. county system. Yet another suggestion was for three main geographical subdivisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. None of the proposals, however, went beyond committee. In 1982, a new national political party spearheaded by Mindanaoan Aquilino Pimentel Jr. had federalism as part of its main political platform. This was the Pilipino Democratic Party or PDP, which later merged with Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr.’s Lakas ng Bayan or Laban to become PDP-Laban. But the party has not really pushed hard for federalism, not even during the drafting of the 1987 Constitution, which eventually reinforced the unitary system. In the 1992 national elections, a group called PILIPINAS 92 espoused federalism. But the organization proved to have a short life, partly because it got identified with an aborted presidential bid of then Senator John Osmeña, who was its founding chair. In 1998, Senators Pimentel, John Osmeña, and Francisco Tatad filed a joint resolution calling for a constitutional convention or con-con to adopt a federal system of government. It also did not go beyond committee. Pimentel is the only one among the three left in the Senate. He continues to champion federalism all by his lonesome there, yet he has now taken a stand as well against charter change. Because it is citizen-led and citizen-run, the CMFP believes it has a good chance of keeping the idea of federalism alive. It will also be able to spread the word faster across the country. Organized by the Lihok Pideral Mindanaw (LPM), the CMFP’s basic strategy is networking and alliance building, including with elected leaders and politicians. It now has core groups, chapters, and allied networks in all of country’s 17 regions. It has also helped form a national alliance for the establishment of a Federal Parliamentary Philippines through a constitutional convention. It is this mode of charter change, and not via a “con-ass” or constituent assembly, that the CMFP and its allies are fighting for. Now more than ever, the CMFP slogan is apt: Federal Philippines, Panahon Na (It’s Time)! Rey Magno Teves, a longtime advocate of federalism, is chair and convenor of Lihok Pideral Mindanaw. PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM I REPORT 29
Page 1: i REPORT July-September 2005 P75 Ph
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Page 26 and 27: LIGHTS, CAMERA, IMPEACHMENT! ALECKS
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Page 34 and 35: FOCUS ON FILIPINO YOUTH DEFYING THE
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