The grand deception
by Benjie Oliveros
from http://zumel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=511&Itemid=29

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

The wind has blown in a different direction. After being enmeshed in
controversy even among its allies and engaged in a renewed escalation
of the armed conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
over the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), the
Arroyo government is changing its track from pursuing peace
negotiations with the MILF to a policy of disarm, demobilize, and
rehabilitate. To put it simply, the Arroyo government is now going to
deal with the MILF only if it surrenders and accepts income generating
projects from the government purportedly for its reintegration into
mainstream society.

Without confronting the issues being raised regarding the MOA-AD, the
government is abandoning it completely, giving as reason the attacks
perpetrated by MILF forces in communities in North Cotabato and Lanao
del Norte. The Arroyo government and its allies are accusing the MILF
of deception: of talking peace while engaging in armed attacks. Some
quarters are likewise accusing the Arroyo government of deception: of
entering into agreements without consulting other stakeholders, such
as local officials and landowners in affected communities like North
Cotabato.

But let us not lose sight of the most important issues, which are,
unfortunately, being buried by these controversies.

First, setting aside religious prejudices and bigotry, and chauvinism
against other peoples, the core issue at hand is the right of the
Bangsamoro people to self-determination and its struggle against the
centuries-old oppression that they have been experiencing. And the
fact that in stead of explaining the MOA-AD to affected communities
and to the general public, the Arroyo government has kept it a secret
thereby provoking protestations shows that it had no intention of
implementing it in the first place. If it was serious in its intention
to have the MOA-AD passed, it could have exerted efforts to inform and
influence the affected communities and the general public about the
agreement. But it did not. Now it has found the timing and the
justification for abandoning it completely.

On the other hand, the MILF, by attacking not only the encampments of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) but civilian communities as
well, has fallen into the trap laid by the Arroyo government.

For it is not the Filipino people who is oppressing the Bangsamoro
people, but the few who are benefiting from the Arroyo government,
namely national and local government officials, landlords, foreign and
local big businesses with interests in the rich natural resources of
Mindanao. Look at who are raising the loudest voices against the
agreement. It is not the poor farmers who fear losing their land to
the Bangsamoro people, if ever the territories defined as being under
the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity are really given to the MILF. Poor
farmers do not own any piece of land in the first place.

Second, by engaging the MILF in a controversial agreement and now in
an escalated armed conflict, the Arroyo government has been diverting
the public’s attention from the numerous issues haunting it such as
the widespread hunger and poverty, the oppressive VAT and high prices
of basic commodities and services, the oil and rice crisis – which
have tempered but have kept prices at very high levels, the killings
of activists and journalists and the enforced disappearance and
repression of the government’s critics, the anomalous NBN-ZTE contract
and the numerous corruption scandals the Arroyo family is enmeshed in.
The Arroyo government is now making it appear that the most urgent
and serious problem confronting the country is the armed conflict in
Mindanao and that the villain is the MILF. This is the grand deception
that the Arroyo government is trying to make the people believe.

The real and most urgent and serious problem confronting the country
and the Filipino people is not the MILF and the armed conflict in
Mindanao but the Arroyo government. And it even had the gall to try
to perpetuate itself in power beyond 2010 by calling for charter
change, using the MOA-AD as an excuse.

So as we call for peace in Mindanao, let us also call for justice.
There can be no justice for the Bangsamoro people for as long as their
right to self-determination is not recognized.

And as we confront the Arroyo government for its mishandling, or
rather its manipulation, of the Mindanao problem, let us also hold it
accountable, not merely for not doing enough to address the widespread
suffering and poverty plaguing the country, but for its measures,
policies, and acts that worsen the burden of the Filipino people such
as the VAT, deregulation of businesses and industries and
privatization of basic utilities, the neglect of rice and food
production and the liberalization of imports that kills local
production and industries, as well as the numerous corruption and
bribery cases that is being paid for by the Filipino people through
their taxes. Let us likewise hold it accountable for depriving us of
our rights and denying us justice by its impunity in committing human
rights violations and repeated attempts to constrict civil liberties,
by its corruption of the judiciary and its twisting of judicial
processes, and by its persistent attempts at perpetuating itself in
power. Bulatlat

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