BASILAN, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 07, 2008) - Over 5,000 demonstrators in Basilan island warned Thursday that in the event the derailed peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) breaks down, its ‘bloody ramifications’ would be felt not only in Mindanao but also in the whole country.
Conflict could also spill over to Luzon and Visayas shoudl the peace talks totally collapsed.“The Bangsamoro is asserting its rights because of injustice,” said Ustadz John Ausal, MILF spokesperson in Basilan.
“If the peace talks will be broken and the negotiations will stop, I am ninety-nine percent sure that war will start again.”
“If there is no peace in Mindanao, then there will be no peace in Visayas and Luzon as well,” said Hadji Hamid Salahuddin, the local leader of the rebel group.
The protesters gathered at Datu Dizal Cultural Center in Lamitan City to push the government and the MILF into resuming the peace talks, which has been stalled for nearly two months already.
“I doubt it if the government is sincere in negotiating on ancestral domain. Even during our time (GRP-MNLF peace talks), niloloko lang kami ng GRP (they are fooling us already),” Salahuddin said.
Sammy Maulana, secretary-general of Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, a network of 164 Moro non-government and people’s organizations, urged the government and MILF peace panels into returning to the negotiating table immediately but lambasted the former for “not abiding with what have been previously agreed by the two parties.”
“While some say that the voice of the government can be considered as the voice of God, it only holds true if that government is pro-people. But the actions of this (Philippine) government show that it is anti-people. Therefore, the Bangsamoro people must voice out, because it is truer that the voice of the people is the voice of God,” Maulana said.
The GRP-MILF peace talks have been derailed when the MILF negotiating panel boycotted the 15th Exploratory Talks last December 15 to 17, 2007 in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia because the government draft of a proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain did not contain much of the consensus points earlier agreed by the two parties.
The GRP also inserted a provision, which states that the implementation of the agreement will have to follow constitutional process.Since deposed President Joseph Ejercito Estrada’s declaration of all-out war in 2000, the GRP-MILF peace talks progressed when government agreed not to use the constitution as a framework and the MILF dropped its demand for independence.
Situations have been aggravated by recent statements from some of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s key officials threatening the MILF with sanctions.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said government should not give in to the MILF’s demand for a “juridical entity” without a plebiscite, while AFP Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Romero stated that peace talks would not continue without MILF’s disarmament.
Secretary Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser on the peace process, analyzed the impasse as “among the most serious to stall the rocky talks, a big hump” upon which the GRP has no “magic formula” while “looking for a way out”.
Over 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Cotabato, Marawi, General Santos, and Iligan last month to break the impasse. “It is high time that the people of Basilan should be aware of the peace processes because they are affected by it and the end benefits eventually go to them,” said Lantawan Mayor Tahira Ali.
“The people of Basilan want peace in their province. The people are united in attaining peace in Basilan. This can be attained if it is not mixed with political motives by those in power,” Vice Governor Rashid Sakkalahul said. (Norodin Makalay)
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