President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today “scrapped a government peace panel negotiating an end to a deadly and drawnout Muslim rebellion in the nation’s south,” Agence France Press reported this morning.

Reuters reported this afternoon that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has threatened to altogether abandon the peace process if the Arroyo regime does not sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.
“We’re not only disappointed and frustrated over government’s decision to turn its back on the ancestral domain deal, we’ve completely lost trust and [...]

Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano today dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately disarm and dismantle the armed vigilante group Reform Ilaga Movement in the province of North Cotobato saying “the resurrection of the dreaded armed group will only escalate the armed conflict in the region and lead to massive human rights abuses.”
“We demand Ms Arroyo [...]

By Leila M. de Lima
At the heart of this conflict really isn’t the failure of the BJE to materialize, or the breakdown of the negotiations of the MOA-AD. It is not the rogue armies that the AFP must hunt. These are causes. The heart, the heart — bled profusely — of this conflict is the civilian.

In a post at the MILF’s official website, the front lists the damage caused by the military offensive, both in terms of actual cost and lives lost/affected.

Bangsamoro Youth Leaders Forum
Press Statement
August 19, 2008
MORO YOUTH LEADERS PUSH FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
The Philippine government is once more trying to dupe the Bangsamoro people in its persistent desire to suppress the Moro’s inherent and legitimate right to govern themselves in accordance with the prescriptions of the Holy Qur’an. Still not contented with giving us [...]

Responsibility for the escalating armed conflict in Mindanao should be laid squarely on the US-backed Arroyo regime. Through its self-serving and deceitful maneuvers, the Arroyo regime has severely damaged the peace process, provoked armed confrontation, and allowed escalating foreign intervention in the country’s internal affairs including armed conflicts.

Reiterating the government’s crackdown on the forces of Commanders Umbra Kato and Bravo, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Tuesday that the rampage of lawless MILF elements calls for resolute military and police action.

By Carlos H. Conde
Arroyo has been faced with a dilemma: whether to salvage the peace process, or abandon it and deal with the rebels much more forcefully, as her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, had done. Either way, according to analysts and experts, there are big political risks.

By the Policy Study, Publication, and Advocacy
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
Peace is not just the absence of war. It is the outcome of settling an armed conflict by addressing its fundamental roots toward a just and lasting peace. Unless the causes are addressed, any peace that is forged is just a means of preserving an unjust status quo leading to bigger tensions. The peace process can bring about a simulated peace -– but not the ultimate solution to the Bangsamoro people’s historic and just grievances.

By Carlos H. Conde
Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
Given that Arroyo doesn’t have any remaining political capital to work with, the MILF should probably think about suspending negotiations with the government. If the MILF plays its cards well and controls its troops -– it bears repeating that the MILF gains nothing from attacking civilians — the burden of stilling the guns and keeping the peace in Mindanao lies with Arroyo.

By Alan Davis
Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
The question we need to ask these pundits on the airwaves and in the populist print is how many of them are taking time out to come here to listen, learn and see for themselves at first hand the things they are talking about? How many are platforming their own personal prejudices in place of helping audiences to understand and appreciate more? What are their practical suggestions? War and killing?

By Carlos H. Conde
“Clearly the MILF are really frustrated. After years of back and forth negotiations, breakdowns in talks, etc, they finally reached a territorial deal. But the Supreme Court imposed an injunction, stating that the agreement could be unconstitutional, something that I have warned about. For the MILF, it is not checks and balances of democracy but evidence of a fundamental lack of commitment to the peace process by the government.”

By Carlos H. Conde
Almost instantly, the other aspect of the peace deal that had riled many Filipinos prior to the attacks –- the allegation that the agreement was a Trojan horse designed to keep Arroyo in power beyond 2010 –- was nearly forgotten.

By Claire Delfin
It was 1984. Hadja Amina Jed, then 29 years old, packed her things, left Maguindanao in Western Mindanao and sailed north to Manila. “Life was hard. During times when father had no catch, we also had nothing to eat,” says Amina. Amina was determined to change her family’s fortune. Going to Manila and finding work seemed the only option.

By Bong Sarmiento
In this Muslim-dominated region that has seen four wars since the late 1990s, thousands of homes in isolated villages await the return of their owners. For the moment at least, though fighting has flared up to the north of the region in Lanao Del Norte, the guns of war have fallen silent here.

By Carlos H. Conde
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has to rise above crude, often needless, violence. It has to make sure that its forces are above hooliganism. It must offer a humane alternative to the atrocity of the State that compelled the Moros to revolt in the first place. It has to live up to the ideals of a genuine revolutionary movement.

By Benjie Oliveros
So much controversy has surrounded the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral domain between the Arroyo government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Instead of engendering peace, it has led to the escalation of the conflict; instead of bringing about unity and the community of peoples, it has led to tensions between the MILF and the affected communities of North Cotabato.