Rahib Kudto » Questions on the Failure of GRP-MILF Talks

By Rahib Kudto

National President
United Youth for Peace and Development, Inc. (UNYPAD)

Did the Philippine Government ever dream of resolving the Bangsamoro problem? Is it the Bangsamoro people the problem? Is the government really true in its efforts in doing some development activities in the Bangsamoro Homeland?

These questions have to be answered in the hope that they will in turn be found to be the answers to the question, “What prompted the government to renege from the consensus points in the four strands of Ancestral Domain Aspect which led to the failure of 15th Exploratory Talks.”

Mindanao is explicitly understood to be one of the richest islands in the South East Asia. Undeniably, the Philippine government is getting from Mindanao 50 to 70 percent of its resources and bringing it to Luzon. Yet, in fairness, these resources are also being brought back to Mindanao but already converted into bullets.

Being a weak and corrupt government, it has never dreamt of providing a just political solution that finally addresses the structural cause of the problem. Instead, it really does its best to find ways that the Bangsamoro people’s right to self determination will be denied as it, perhaps, believes that the Philippines be reduced to a barren country should it lose Mindanao. This belief is wrong as the Philippines is going to be continuously brought down if intermittent wars remain unabated.

I strongly believe that there are two problems in Mindanao. First, the government problem: It is the struggle of the Bangsamoro people for self determination. The government knows only one solution to it — to offer a political solution within the bounds of the Philippine constitution. Once the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) concurs, the government shall have already touched the finishing line. This has been successfully done to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Second, the Bangsamoro problem: usurpation of their freedom and right to self determination. This problem requires a single solution — to restore everything usurped.

It is wrong to believe that the Bangsamoro people are the problem of the government. Surely, since the immoral annexation of the Bangsamoro Homeland to the Philippine colonial government, the Bangsamoro people started see the government as their problem. Thus, the Bangsamoro struggle for liberty.

It is again wrong to believe that war ends if the MILF agrees to a solution short of total freedom. It can’t control the groups that will come to existence to continue the wrestle till the final political settlement of the problem will be achieved.

Looking at this situation, there is no room to believe that the effort of the government to put up development projects through the Bangsamoro Development Agency is true. Rather, it is an effort to entangle the Bangsamoro freedom fighters and disunite them. This is being advanced with the hope that those who had not been captured in the battle ground will be captured by development activities that will lead to their neutralization.

Having said all these things, it is not a surprise to me that in the course of the ongoing peace negotiations, the Philippine government will renege from its previous commitments as expressed in the consensus points it crafted earlier with the MILF. Never mind if it can put at stake its honor and dignity. Reneging from a previous commitment by an individual is bad enough. But for a state like the Philippines not to be true to its commitments — as it always does — is worse.