GRP-MILF Framework leads to Bangsamoro Independence

I've seen, lived and covered Mindanao for many years and have friends who are directly involved in the struggle towards an independent Bangsamoro. Frankly, the path taken by the Aquino administration is a bold step towards the right direction. It is bold because it seeks to help our fellow Bangsamoros build their own state without the need for bloodshed. As what Mohaqher Iqbal told news reporters two days ago, he is tired of fighting. He has been fighting for forty years, and he wants to quit in an honorable way. For him, and the rest of the Central Committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), this is the honorable way.

NOT QUITE though for members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the splinter group formed by former MILF commander Umbra Kato. Kato, who happens to be the protege of the late Hashim Salamat, founder and ideological leader of the Bangsamoros, believes in another path. Kato is striving towards independence. 

For many Bangsamoros, independence is really the real solution to many of their problems. Self-government is the key towards their own prosperity as a Muslim nation. Yet, the very concept of independence is being frown upon by several key groups because it is destabilizing. Traditional political groups in the area are benefitting from the status quo, and they would strongly oppose such strivings. 

LIkewise, external foreign forces would not agree on such since their own interests would be affected if a strong Bangsamoro state emerges in the critical South. The South is strategically located within the so-called trade triangle involving Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Such a state would compete both economically and politically with other Islamic states in the region. Several analysts even think that such a state would resuscitate the age-old claim for the return of the state of Sabah, a thing which Malaysia had a special interest. 

The GRP-MILF Framework for Peace is a necessary plan towards achieving full independence because it prepares the Bangsamoro as a "minority state". A state born from war would encounter a long rehabilitation phase. 

The framework tries to avoid such a scenario since this will also be tasking to the Central Government. 

Let the Bangsamoro state grow organically, from the strivings of the True Servants of Allah SBT Allah. The Bangsamoro needs peace to achieve a good life to all those living in the Promised Land. 

Bombings are really GRP-AFP-MILF CC initiated attacks against BFFM

President Noynoy Aquino yesterday ordered a swift bombing of critical areas within MILF control considered as sanctuaries of lawless elements there. The target? A remote village in Zamboanga Sibugay where lawless elements are believed hiding from the law. And when we say, "lawless elements now" these include rogue MILF members responsible for the ambush of soldiers there. Another operation is now being conducted in Basilan, where 19 soldiers were believed killed by MILF and Abu Sayyaf Group members.


Notice that government is now distinguishing two sets of MILF members: one, those who are under the control of the Central Committee and the other termed as "rogue". Who are these elements? 


It seems that they are mostly members of the splinter group, Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters Movement (BFFM) who separated from the main group when it disagreed with the main position of the MILF, that is, talk peace with the Philippine government. Without really describing them as BFFM, government seems to be conducting a psywar operations meant to hide the real problem right now---the rising strength of the MILF splinter group who want nothing but secede from the Philippines.


Former MNLF chief Nur Misuari is right---seventy percent or even more of the members of the MILF are now with Imam Ambril Umbra Kato, the commander who severed his ties with the Central Committee and refuses to honor what the MILF had committed with government.


Former US ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney already predicted this late last 2007 during her visits to the camps. The main problem is not the MILF leadership agreeing to a peace process, says Kenney, but its capability of enforcing such agreements to the bulk of MILF members who were indoctrinated by former MILF head Imam Hashim Salamat to accept nothing more than independence from "Imperial" Manila. This space already articulated this problem in 2009-2010, shortly prior to the transition to a new administration.


What is occurring now in greater speed is the severage of communication and ideological links between ground troops critical of the MILF Central leadership and the Murad-led group controlling the formal structures of the rebel organisation.


For most MILF members, Murad is not being recognized as an effective and trust-worthy leader. Murad is a political operator, a player in the true sense of the word. He is perceived to be playing in the hands of Manila's negotiators. He is being compared with the late Imam Salamat who is an ideological, political and military leader. According to MILF members, the late Imam is an epitomy of a true Bangsamoro leader. 


Imam Umbra Kato has now taken the leadership position insofar as MILF ground troops are concerned because of the inability of Murad to provide effective leadership. Like Salamat, Kato is a political, ideological and religious leader. What's more--Kato also fights with his MILF troops. He is a complete Bangsamoro fighter, based on the perception of many MILF members. 


The thing about Kato is he is not politically pliant. He has one thing in his mind--independence from Imperial Manila. 


The solution is really provide a most acceptable framework for the MILF. There are really three (3) options left for the GRP to solve the Bangsamoro Question.


First, do not appoint a political player as helm of the ARMM. Transform the ARMM into a highly effective and efficient organisation which would be the platform of the Bangsamoro in changing the socio-economic and political environment. ARMM is still a viable alternative to existing structures provided that those who will lead it will not have the same mindset as those from Manila, and that is, use the ARMM as a political tool only and not an economic tool, which is what it is. 


Second, provide for a mechanism where "rogue" elements of the MILF and the MILF Central leadership would be able to iron out their differences. This mechanism could be provided by third party mediators such as the US, Malaysia or even Great Britain. Kato should be convinced by the Central Leadership to abandon such an enterprise so that whatever agreement the Bangsamoro leadership enters into, it will be respected by MILF ground troops as well. Otherwise, it is useless talking peace with these Moro rebels, since de-militarization will not take place after all the talks.


Lastly, consider the possibility of an all-out, drawn out, protracted war. 

Kato and the Bangsamoro Question

IMAM Umbra Kato, some say, is just following what former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Hashim Salamat wanted--liberation from the main Philippine territory. Liberation means just that--liberate Bangsamoro territory from the Philippine territory. Now, the question is--what means?


For Kato and his growing Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, it is only thru armed struggle. Autonomy is neither synonymous to liberation nor to the concept of a sub-state. For majority of the MILF, autonomy has failed with the ARMM. A sub-state is also a minimum demand. Kato wants all the powers of a state invested in a proposed Bangsamoro Islamic Republic. 


Another question is---is Kato's perspective, historical or does it has basis in history? Yes, it has. Prior to the inclusion of the Bangsamoro homeland to the main Philippine territory, the Bangsamoro has a fully functioning and well-developed state. When US colonial forces defeated them in 1915, the state was demolished. All territory was absorbed by the Philippine state. The Bangsamoro, thus, became an organic component of the Philippine republic. 


Fast forward, and we have a group that demands liberation. He is now being tagged as a renegade by his own companions in the Bangsamoro struggle simply because the Central Committee of the MILF had already abandoned the struggle towards liberation and has now accepted the alternative of creating a sub-state or probably a strengthened autonomy. 


This is just a repeat of what happened in 1993-1995, when MNLF chairman Nur Misuari accepted the government's offer of autonomy and tried to lead it--to no avail. Misuari's experiment in autonomy failed. 


Kato's organisation is now deadlier and more lethal than the first because it now uses the words or terms "Islamic Freedom", as opposed to the use of "liberation" from the MILF/MNLF. 


Islamic Freedom is a religious or theological term. It is not solely a political term but more than that.


Freedom, in Islam, if we will discuss it here, is quite lengthy. IN brief, it is but saying that the recognition of the right of the Bangsamoro to self-rule is not just historical or even a political right---but it is also a religious one. 


Thus the new Bangsamoro movement has become or has morphed into a more religious organisation than a political one. The previous two, are politically-inclined. 


Kato's new organisation is both---religious and political. The political struggle has now morphed into a religious struggle, something which, for non-Muslims, is quite worrisome. 


When religion has seeped into a purely political problem, that becomes more serious. 


(a discussion of freedom in Islam will be written here very soon)