MANILA
The Muslim region on the large island of Mindanao in southern Philippines has been a troubled land. For centuries the Muslims have wanted to secede from the nation, claiming a distinct race and culture that is incompatible with the predominantly Catholic country.
Animosity and distrust have characterized the uneasy relationship between the Muslims and the Christians. Armed clashes have continually erupted between government soldiers and separatist rebels. Because of the war-like environment, no economic progress could be sustained. Many Muslims are poor because of this and also because of ineffective governance by local officials. Also because of the traditional animosity, the national government has often taken a stance of benign economic neglect of the Muslims.
Today there is hope that all the bad blood will be replaced with good will and friendship. A new agreement to settle their differences was recently signed and, hopefully, peace, prosperity and progress will ensue in the coming years and decades.
The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a large militant movement among Muslims, have been talking to each other in an effort to achieve long-term peace and cooperation. Last October 15, the two sides met at the Philippine presidential palace in Manila and signed a “framework agreement” to build a new Muslim state in southern Philippines, an autonomous (but not independent) entity under the national government. In the coming months, a commission will strive to put together the basic law that will govern the new state, to be called Bangsamoro (which means nation of Moros).
Will the plan succeed?
Earlier similar plans had failed, primarily because of mutual distrust and also because of a seeming lack of resolve among the leadership of the Muslims. Muslim leaders have failed to unite their own people and have failed in their administrative duties to govern the region.
Under a past agreement, a regional territory was agreed upon by both sides and called it the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). That pact, supported by Muslims around the world, brought with it the promise of a climate of concord in the troubled land. But the experiment was marked by discord and disagreement among the Muslims themselves. Breakaway groups left the fold and created their own armies and strove to fight for their own independence from the national government. Smaller armed groups emerged, including the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group that wanted not independence but bounty from sheer banditry.
The continued troubles in Mindanao frustrated the national leadership in Manila. Distrust among Christians and Muslims continued to fester. Ironically, in recent years, large numbers of Muslims have migrated to the north, primarily here in Metro Manila, to seek better livelihoods. The Muslims are mostly small-scale capitalists engaged in merchandising — selling cell phones, jewelry and other shopping mall-type items. In this setup, the Christians in the north have accepted the new merchants with a wary tolerance, even happily patronizing the Muslim trade because buyers can generally get better prices if they know how to haggle. And so the Muslims have joined the Chinese, the traditional sellers of affordable merchandise in Philippine urban centers. Ironically, their sales help and hawkers are Christians!
The failure to achieve peace and stability in Mindanao has been a major headache for national leaders who are based in Manila. The Muslims have historically bewailed the Manila-centric policies of government that, the Muslims claim, don’t adequately address the problems on the ground in Mindanao.
An earlier agreement, proposed under the government of then-President Gloria Arroyo, to supplant an existing accord was struck down by the Supreme Court because certain provisions of it violated the Constitution. Among the defects was the provision in that plan to establish a virtually independent Muslim state.
Under the reform-driven administration of current President Benigno Aquino III, efforts to come up with a new agreement gained new vigor. For months the two sides met several times in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to hammer out a new plan to create an autonomous territory among Muslims in Mindanao. Thus, the new agreement signed last Oct. 15.
There’s renewed optimism in the air. Except for the usual noisemakers in Manila and disgruntled elements among the Muslim community (including and especially Nur Misuari, the leader of the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF] which had forged the earlier peace agreement) who are feeling left out of the loop, the agreement to begin the establishment of a permanent autonomous Muslim region has been met with a new promise of hope.
But there’s a lot of work still to be done. The process to ultimate autonomy is a long one, the road to peace and prosperity a hard path. It will take years to finally make the Bangsamoro a reality. Many pitfalls lay ahead that could derail the new attempt. There’s a glimmer of hope, but there’s also a greater possibility of failure.
Meanwhile, the nitty-gritty ground work must start. A commission composed of Muslims will sit down to forge the basic law that will officially create the Bangsamoro. The proposed law will then go to the Philippine Congress for enactment and, later, to the people of the affected region for their approval in a plebiscite. After that, elections will be held for the officials who will govern the new region.
To give you an idea how long this process will take, the final touch to the process, the election of Bangsamoro officials, is not expected to take place until 2016, the last year of the presidency of Mr. Aquino. That is four years from now. And that is even an extremely optimistic expectation.
So, it’s still a long way to final autonomy among Filipino-Muslims. The road will be long and, expectedly, tortuous. But, as the cliché goes, the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.
The first step has been taken. There will be many, many baby steps toward a very long journey. Many such fledgling steps have been attempted in the past, only to end up in failure and frustration. Where will the new steps lead? Hopefully to peace.
Let’s wish the Muslims and all the people of the Philippines Godspeed.
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