The Life of a Princess in the South

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The International Monitoring Team (IMT), an international peacekeeper team led by Malaysia’s contingent, announced that their tour of duty currently extended only until November 30, 2008 will end, and the team of 29 members will likely to leave Mindanao on 1 December of this year according to Lt. Col. Badrul Hisham bin Muhammad, IMT chief of staff.

The peacekeepers from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya, Japan, and others are overseeing the ceasefire agreements implementation on ground since the 2003 agreement of cessation of hostilities between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF revolutionary group in Mindanao. Development, medical, and rehabilitation experts are also an added-value this past year for the rehabilitation and development initiatives in Mindanao by the peacekeepers.

However, due to tensions and the release of temporary restraining order (TRO) by the Supreme Court of the Philippines to cease the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 5 August 2008, the extension of IMT is unlikely to happen.

If recalled, local politicians from Mindanao like North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol, Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, and Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat were behind the filing of the case to Supreme Court. Based on 23 October International Crisis Group (ICG) Asia Briefing stated that “the revelation of the planned geographic scope [the ancestral domain definition and the territories included in the Bangsamoro Juridical entity] led to outraged local politicians, whose land would be affected and who had not been consulted during the negotiations, to demand an injunction. President Arroyo’s opponents and potential successors after the 2010 elections also saw political advantage to be gained from condemning the MOA.”

According to Malaysia’s Star Online, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak agreed to GRP and MILF peace panel requests to extend the participation of Malaysia in short-term peace initiatives last August. The request is a three-month extension in which both parties are expected to agree and sign the MOA-AD.

After a week of the granted request of Philippine government and MILF, on 3 September, the GRP dissolved its peace panel negotiating with MILF led by Rodolfo Garcia. The government also proclaimed that they will not going to sign the MOA in any form. On 14 October, by vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court ruled that the MOA-AD is “unconstitutional.”

IMT is being created from the agreement signed by the negotiating panels of the GRP and the MILF, thus, the mandate of extension of IMT tour of duty is can only be requested by both parties. Two (2) months after the disbanded government peace panel and barely three (3) weeks remaining for the IMT duty to uphold peace and de-escalate the on-going armed conflicts, the chance of IMT stay is practically almost over.

The IMT term of reference mandate is one (1) year, and is subject for request by the GRP and MILF. Since October 2004, four (4) batches of peacekeepers arrived and played significant roles in sustaining the ceasefire on the ground together with the GRP and MILF Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), and third party ceasefire monitoring teams.

Now, anxieties are hanging around Mindanaoan’s head – what if’s and will be’s questions. As one of the concerned asks, “will there be more fighting after their exit?”; “will major and all-our war a possibility?”; what will happen to ceasefire next?”

“The mandate of International Monitoring Team (IMT) is finished. But the MILF stand firmly that it will not launch an offensive even after the exit of IMT.” said Eid Kabalu, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in a phone interview just recently.

On the other hand, government has uttered their statements that they will pursue till the end until the MILF surrenders Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar aka Commander Bravo, and Aleem Solaiman Pangalian, or they captured and killed the three (3) so-called “recalcitrant” commanders of MILF. This statement may result in either restraining generals to wage wider fighting, or they will put more troops and war machines in Mindanao to wage a bigger offensive.

Brig. Gen. Rey Sealana, deputy commander for peace process of the Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom) and head of the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) said that the government panel is dissolved already, but the CCCH is under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) which is headed by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon. He also expressed that there is no ceasefire against the so-called “recalcitrant” three (3) commanders and their members, but ceasefire continues with the rest of MILF base commands.

Punitive operations are on-going and enforced in the Pigcawayan, Alamada, North Cotabato, Pikit; portions of Lanao del Norte and Sur, Maguindanao, and Shariff Kabunsuan, and Saranggani. Seleana added that the government has the mandate to protect the people, to give justice to all the victims.”

As at September 2008, more than 100 skirmishes are recorded compared to only eight (8) armed skirmishes happened last year between MILF troops and government troops. More than 70 of the skirmishes took place on August 2008 right after the aborted signing of the MOA-AD in Malaysia. It is also noted that, when the IMT first came in to intervene in the situation in Mindanao after the 2003 all-out-war, from more than 500 recorded armed fightings, the number went down sharply to 16 in 2004; and an average of 10 recorded skirmishes from 2005-2007.

With more than 100 armed skirmishes in August and September alone of this year, an estimate of half million civilians are reportedly displaced. There are also reported and undocumented human rights violations on the ground. Investigative and fact-finding missions by non-government organizations, some institutions, and even church-based organisations were conducted that has validated the reports. This called for a deeper investigation and call for action for justice to those innocent civilians who were afflicted by the violations.

Nowadays, more anxieties are brought up by the uncertainties of situation after the 30 November IMT participation and intervention on the peace initiatives in Mindanao.

(This article is first published on Inside Mindanao, an online Mindanao-based multimedia magazine)