Manila sues for peace after getting a bloody nose from MILF

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Robert Maulana Alonto

Dhu al-Hijjah 14, 1419 1999-04-01

South-East Asia

by Robert Maulana Alonto (South-East Asia, Crescent International Vol. 28, No. 3, Dhu al-Hijjah, 1419)

Three days of preliminary talks (February 8-10) between the technical committees of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government, at the Da’wah Center at Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat Municipality, Maguindanao Province, resulted in the regime accepting two major camps of the MILF mujahideen: Camp Abubakr in Maguindanao and Camp Bushra in Lanao del Sur Province. The regime’s forces will not enter these areas. It was also announced that Ustadz Salamat Hashim, Chairman of the MILF, had agreed to meet Philippine president Joseph Estrada in Davao City on February 23.

The MILF side headed by Lanang Ali, a lawyer, was assisted by Ustadz Moner Bajunaid, professor at the Mindanao State University, and Omar Umpar, another Muslim lawyer while the government delegation included Ms. Alma R. Evengelista, National Defence department undersecretary, general Santos Gabison, Commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade in Northern Mindanao, and his superior, general Orlando Soriano.

The meeting set into motion the activation of the two sub-committees on cessation of hostilities and agenda setting. These sub-committees will have as their priority agenda the identification and verification of MILF camps and positions in order to determine the extent of the coverage of the cessation of hostilities which in turn will be one of the major issues to be taken up at the government-MILF peace talks.

The MILF demands that as a condition for formal peace talks, the Manila regime officially recognize the 48 MILF camps and territories where these camps are located. This means the complete withdrawal of Filipino troops from these areas with the assurance that no future military incursions into these areas will occur.

The latest talks were held after week-long fighting between the MILF and the regime’s forces that erupted on January 24 in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato - three major provinces of central Mindanao. According to reliable reports by the Quick Reaction Team of the Joint Ceasefire Committee (QRT-JCC), the official body tasked with overseeing the fragile ceasefire, the fighting started when Filipino troops stationed in the Muslim municipalities of Talayan and Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao province bombarded MILF positions at dawn on January 24.

The MILF leadership has accused the Manila regime of provoking the fighting to get the senate to approve the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US under which the armed forces would be massively rearmed. In fact, the regime violated the November ceasefire agreement to show that the armed forces were weak and needed new equipment to face the threat from secessionists.

It was in the same Muslim municipalities that heavy fighting had taken place between the mujahideen and Filipino troops on November 25 last year. The main highway linking Cotabato city to General Santos city some 200 kms to the south was closed and the mujahideen were able to capture and/or destroy all military outposts on a 10-kilometer stretch.

They also inflicted heavy casualties on the marines and other ground troops trying to dislodge the mujahideen from their positions in Shariff Aguak and Talayan as well as in nearby Datu Piang and Ampatuan. Eight mujahideen were martyred and 23 wounded while the Philippine forces suffered 120 killed, eight captured, and eight tanks destroyed. This forced the regime to sue for a ceasefire.

The actor-turned-Philippine president, however, seems to be under the illusion that he is still in the fantasy world of movies. It was just before Ramadan that Estrada, unable to accept the beating his military had suffered last November, told the press that the MILF’s goal of an independent Islamic State in Midanao would only be granted ‘over my dead body.’ A popular alim from Zamboanga city responded that the Bangsamoro people shall get their independence and establish their Islamic State ‘over his dead body.’

This retort was immediately picked up by the media. The press, which has been critical of Estrada, had a great time sensationalizing the event as a way of lampooning him.

His ire against the MILF and Muslims was further aggravated when in the second week of Ramadan, several Islamic groups in Marawi city, in collaboration with the MILF, launched an operation to arrest known drug lords and traders. The move was warmly welcomed by the people, including those in Manila, who are frustrated by the seeming helplessness of law enforcers in combating the drug menace.

Estrada, however, considered this an insult to his administration and made no effort to hide his embarrassment by condemning the act as an affront to government authority. There was more bad news for him. A number of Christian leaders in Mindanao had called upon Ustadz Salamat Hashim requesting collaboration against the regime to secure independence of the Bangsamoro homeland.

Estrada took advantage of the fasting month to bring in more troops to the Muslim areas of Mindanao. Meanwhile, the military establishment, sensing Estrada’s animosity toward the Muslims and to exert pressure on the Philippine legislature to increase its budget which had been drastically reduced during the regime of Cory Aquino, fabricated intelligence reports indicating that the MILF was responsible for all the kidnappings of non-Muslims and foreigners in Mindanao.

To whip up national hysteria, it also revealed that the Abu Sayyaf group (whose leader, Ustadz Abdurazak Janjalani was martyred in December 1998) operating in the provinces of Basilan and Sulu provinces and the Islamic Command Council (ICC) in Zamboanga province had linked up with the MILF to launch ‘terrorist’ operations in Mindanao. And as an added ingredient intended to elicit more US aid, the MILF was accused of links to Osama bin Ladin and his ‘international terrorist network.’

Ustadz Salamat revealed on February 10 that his group had indeed received help from Osama bin Laden but only to build mosques in the area. No military aid whatsoever had been received from the mujahid who currently resides in Afghanistan. He further revealed that Osama’s help had since ceased.

A week before the end of Ramadan, the military tried to provoke the MILF, in gross violation of the existing ceasefire agreement and in utter contempt of the Muslim holy month, by encroaching upon MILF-held territories in Buldon, Maguindanao province. The military likewise launched probing operations in areas within the perimeter of the MILF’s mother base in Camp Abubakr.

By the end of Ramadan on January 20, 45 batallions of Philippine troops were already deployed in Mindanao, with 15 stationed in Maguindanao province alone where the MILF has most of its camps. Altogether, including the Philippine National Police and armed civilian militias (CAFGU), the government has committed 71,922 fighting men against the mujahideen.

On January 24, Philippine Air Force gunships and ground artillery began pounding MILF camps in Maguindanao. The following day, Estrada dramatically announced before television cameras that ‘if the MILF wants war, we give them war.’ The military took this as a green-light and the AFP southern command’s top honcho, Lt. Gen. Angelo Reyes, ordered his troops to launch an all-out offensive against the MILF.

Al-Haj Murad, the MILF’s vice-chair for military affairs, meanwhile, echoed the call of Ustadz Salamat Hashim to all MILF units in Mindanao to go on a war footing and prepare to defend the Bangsamoro homeland. Murad also reminded Estrada of the ceasefire agreement but the latter’s response was to instruct the military to ‘hit them, and hit them hard.’

By January 26, fighting spread throughout Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat. Al-Haj Murad warned that unless the regime stopped its aggression not only would the fighting engulf the whole of Mindanao but even Manila, the country’s capital, will not be spared.

As the fighting intensified, major roads in Central Mindanao were cut off by the mujahideen as they ambushed military reinforcements and supplies. The airport in Cotabato City, seat of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) whose governor is Nur Misuari, former MNLF chairman who turned his back on Islam and the Bangsamoro cause, was closed down. Misuari was nowhere to be seen during the fighting. Again, the national highway from Cotabato to General Santos city was shut, as well as the 200 kilometer stretch of highway to Davao city and the 150 kilometer road to Marawi city. The military attempted to bombard mujahideen positions in the captured areas from the air but several days of bad weather prevented helicopter gunships, OV-10 dive bombers and F-5 fighter jets from carrying out bombing raids.

In provinces where the fighting had not yet erupted, MILF fighters were deployed strategically awaiting orders to move against government forces. Thousands of Muslim volunteers who are not members of the MILF also sent messages to Ustadz Salamat informing him of their willingness to fight. The Ustadz advised them to prepare and defend their respective areas. Of the 120,000 armed regular MILF mujahideen, only 20,000 were committed to the war front to face the entire might of the AFP in Mindanao. Even then, the Philippine military suffered heavy losses in terms of lives and materiel.

In one battle zone alone in Maguindanao, the AFP suffered 73 dead and an undetermined number of wounded. On the other hand, the MILF had 12 martyrs and eight wounded. The mujahideen also captured 50 M-16 rifles, four M-60 machineguns, one 81mm mortar, one M-79 grenade launcher, two M-203 rocket propelled rifles and destroyed two Simba tanks and one Huey helicopter gunship shot down. In comparison, the AFP captured one homemade RPG-2.

Under pressure from several quarters, both government and civilian, a ceasefire was called by the Estrada regime. The Philippine senate called for an official investigation into the cause(s) of the fighting in view of the ceasefire agreement. Concerned bodies--both government and NGOs--have already reported that the military provoked the fighting.

The ceasefire was followed by formal bilateral talks on February 6 in which the details and conditions of a more lasting ceasefire were to be hammered out as we went to press. There is consensus among Muslims that a permanent ceasefire is unlikely as long as the Manila regime remains adamant in ignoring the aspirations of the Bangsamoro Muslims for independence.

This latest fighting was the most serious since the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown in 1986. It was only of short duration but the areas involved and the intensity and ferocity of the fighting itself took a heavy toll not only on the protagonists but on civilians as well. Official figure places the number of refugees in the three affected provinces at 200,000. Even in cities and provinces unaffected by fighting, many people—both Muslims and Christians—fled to ‘safer’ areas. Civilian casualties were quite high. There is no doubt that billions of pesos worth of property was lost.

Estrada’s latest folly in Mindanao can be attributed to his ignorance of the Muslims and Islam. In fact, he demonstrated his ignorance again when he recommended a popular but aging actor like himself to negotiate with the MILF. In his convoluted logic Estrada thought Fernando Poe, Jr., who is his contemporary and best friend, is sure to be accepted by the mujahideen because his action films made so much money in the Muslim areas.

As expected, the MILF and Muslims in general rebuffed him and humorously responded by informing him that the MILF would send a young movie star, Robin Padilla, who converted to Islam, to face Fernando Poe. Estrada’s ignorance of the Muslims has led him to commit perhaps one of the greatest blunders of his regime as the results of the latest fighting in Mindanao show. Sending his troops to fight the Muslims just after Ramadan when the latter had just emerged from their month-long spiritual, moral and physical exercise is foolish indeed, to say the least.