MOA-AD sparks fresh assaults

Here's a piece of history from my journal...

August 19, 2008

My morning trip to Kapatagan was unusual. The Aurora-Cagayan national highway which was normally  busy with transportation and other human activities became desolate. Heavily armed soldiers manned the checkpoints, most of which were newly installed. Only a handful of motorcabs plied their usual routes. Public buses, vans and trucks are not on their usual trips.  Only very few schoolchildren were hiking on the roadsides to their respective schools.

            Early morning yesterday, alleged fighters of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked the municipalities of Kolambogan and Linamon in Lanao del Norte and Maasin in Saranggani Province. A day before, two bombs exploded in Iligan City hurting about 6 people and was blamed on the MILF.

In Kolambogan, the rebels bombed the  seaport, ransacked the rural bank and other commercial establishments and set afire a PNP patrol car there. They also shot at civilians along the way and fired at a Rural Transit bus plying towards Iligan.

            Thousands of panic-stricken coastal residents in said towns scampered for safety in the neighboring province Misamis Occidental, particularly in Ozamis City aboard pump boats.

            Among the 26 reported casualties were one Lt. Col. Angel Benitez with his three military aides, the rest were civilian motorists and by-standers, radio reports said.

            One resident who became and unwilling host of some rebels who requested to be let in to her house in Kolambogan amidst the chaos, narrated later of her encounter with the rebels. She said those she saw were in their early twenties and “they looked like university students.”

            One of the high-powered wielding young boys allegedly told her in Tagalog “we are not bad, we only want the implementation of the MOA.”

            Her encounter with whom she called “courteous” rebels was short-lived.

The rebels retreated shortly upon the arrival of government troops at noon time that day. They brought with them more than 50 civilians from the area as their shield against the pursuing  troops, radio reports said.

            Last night, Kapatagan residents missed their night sleep on reports that at 3:00 dawn today, MILF forces would attack the town and other neighboring municipalities.

            So were the residents in Pagadian City and those in other coastal towns of Zamboanga del Sur and Sibugay provinces.

            Annie Jean called me from Margos Regional Hospital informing that a bomb threat has been reported twice in the hospital. Kumalarang town was allegedly taken over by the MILF. She said rebel movements were allegedly  spotted in the Moro-populated towns Dinas, Dimataling, Pitogo and others. 

            Few hours after the attack yesterday, Pres. Gloria Arroyo condemned the MILF attack as “treacherous.” She ordered that government troops to protect “every inch of Philippine territory.”  

            Later, Philippine Armed Forces Chief Gen. Alexander Yano ordered an “all out war” against the MILF.

            Ustadz Eid Kabalu, spokesperson of the MILF told reporters that the attacks were not sanctioned by the MILF Central Committee and that their ground troops acted on their own. MILF leadership could not control the ground forces, Kabalu’s statement implied.

            It can be recalled that barely two weeks ago, few villages in North Cotabato were also attacked by the MILF. Thousands of civilians fled  their homes and farms.   

            These series of fresh hostilities happened in the face of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) singed in August 5 in Malaysia between the government and MILF negotiators. The MOA is now at the Supreme Court for decision.

Two Sides

            There are two major sides on the MOA. Those who favor for its enforcement argue that the MOA is harmless in that  this is only a document setting the talking points of the ancestral domain issue on which both sides got stuck in their past talks.

The MOA identifies 721 barangays to cover the Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity, an increase if more than a hundred barangays originally demanded by the MILF which was 600. Those who are opposed to its implementation said that it  is an outright partition of large Mindanao areas in favor of the MILF. Those who are for the MOA said there is nothing to worry about it because a plebiscite has yet to be conducted to determine whether or not residents in the covered areas are amenable to the proposed area of the Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity.

            Amidst this clash of perspectives, the Supreme Court came in hopefully to shed light on the matter and to dispel all doubts clouding it.

Impatient

            GRP Peace Panel Adviser Rodolfo Garcia told ANC that those who were involved in the attacks were the younger members of the MILF who got impatient with the developments in the negotiations.

            This kind of reasoning, which the MILF also uses to justify the attacks unmasks the MILF’s state of organizational disunity. The manner by which its ground troops treat civilians in their operations in the field indicate the barbarity of the guerillas, one observer noted.

            Sen. Nene Pimentel in media interviews argued that all these things now are to be blamed on the Arroyo administration.

He said that the MOA that was originally brokered by Peace Adviser Ret. Gen. Germogenes Esperon served as the ignition force of the highly volatile peace condition in Mindanao. The MOA, argued Pimentel created false hopes among the many Muslims in Mindanao that they will finally have their Bangsa Moro when in reality it only further delays the final resolution of their quest.  

Any questions raised about the legality of the MOA have been viewed by many expectant Muslims as serious blocks to finally achieving their dream of a homeland in Mindanao.