Mindanao a never ending conflict of interest?

I wrote this article a while back, during the heat of the battle of MOA-AD here in North Cotabato... thought of adding it up here, as it seem, it is a never ending battle and conflict here in mindanao......

What would it take to achieve peace in Mindanao?

This seems to be a million dollar question for Mindanao and up to now, with all the mind boggling and intricacies and web spinning of peacemakers, peace has been illusive to capture.

A few weeks ago, intense fighting erupted in North Cotabato when the Moro Islamic Liberation front (MILF) reported occupied 21 barangays of the province at the eve of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing for Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity (BJE). The question is, why would they do that? Is it the pressure the government to assure the MOA signing?

As Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol of North Cotabato sounded the trumpet against the neglect of the government in protecting its people as well as the non-consultation of the populace for inclusion in the BJE; the government to the rescue with an ultimatum of 24 hours to give the MILF time to vacate the occupied barangays and send Army troops ready to free the said areas. With fire power of 105 howitzer, mortar shelling, and air support fighting ensued intensely, it left casualties of civilian populace, houses burnt, and animals slaughtered. These are considered collateral damages in a war. Yet we cannot deny the fact that brothers of the same fate, Christian and Muslim alike are the victims. Lives and livelihood transformed into chaos and poverty.

One may ask who’s the big spinner for this to happen. Is it really peace that we want? Or is it a part of a big political plot?

As the raging MILF fighters shifted the fight to the province of Lanao and other areas of Mindanao, casualties of war has increased on both sides. MILF and soldiers bring home their dead to be buried, while families and relatives wail for the loss of their love ones! The question would be who is winning? What did we achieve so far as peace is concerned?

After the armed groups of MILF under Commander Umbra Kato of the 105^th base command had allegedly left their fighting stance in the province of North Cotabato, bombs had started to explode in different towns of the province, gripping fear and uncertainty of the future. As an ordinary Mindanaoan, we have learned to live with it as part of our living condition in a tumultuous and warn torn Mindanao.

As the sword of Damocles hanging by the thread and ready to chop off the head of the peace loving dove with leaves of peace hovering over Mindanao, one wonders what future awaits us.

Recalling my younger days, I remember playing marbles with my Muslim brother Musanip and shooting it out with him with our wooden guns like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood while his Mom Babu Pitua prepared us lunch. Never would I dream that our peaceful co-existence would not last long as we go our separate ways evacuating from our place of “Shangri-La” in Libungan North Cotabato as the fighting sparked with the Ilaga movement and the blackshirts of the late 60’s and early 70’s erupted.

Our school activities were disrupted as I moved to Cotabato City in the early 70’s, almost during the declaration of Martial Law in 1972. It had been another time of adventure where my schoolmates and classmates belonged to the Muslim communities of the City. We argued and reasoned in our classroom as seasoned fighters in the academic arena, while we hovered and went for cover when the mortar shells rained the area of PC Hill Cotabato City coming from the marshland of Carcar where the Moro National Liberation Front is holding up while seeing the Philippine Air Force drops bombs against the Muslim rebels. We all shed our tears when one of our teacher died as her house was hit by the mortar shelling. Yet in spite of it all there was no animosities amongst us students of the Notre Dame Boys Department of Cotabato City.

Looking back, I could not help but feel the same scenario unfolding. Christian men arming themselves fighting the Muslim rebels while the firefight ads up to the numbers of people evacuating. The danger now is that, the fighting shift into the urban areas, where the rebels are turning non combatant populace into hostages and shields to create havoc and fear in the hearts and mind of the people.

Does the MILF really believe that by doing so, they are winning their fight for a Muslim Mindanao? Or is it adding fuel to escalate a possible atrocity between Christians and Muslim? Is it a war of ideology and freedom, or is it terrorism in its ugly form cloaked in fighting for Muslim land? Is Muslim Mindanao only for Muslim or also for Christian?

My dad always tells me when I was young that Mindanao is a Land of Promise. And I was told to fight for the right to live on it in co-existence with my Muslim brothers – to live in harmony and peace. Yet this fragile situation in Mindanao keeps me wondering how it would possible. Would my children experience peace in their future? Or would they have the same experience as I had when I was young?

Could war bring peace? Or could peace be achieved by war? Are we all just pawns in the big chess game of peace, in the pursuit of others for political and economic gains?

Am reminded by this scripture that I was taught when I was young “From whence come wars and fighting’s among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. James 4: 1-3

I personally believed that peace as elusive as it maybe can be achieved if we let go of our personal vested interest and pursue peace genuinely. And that we can be counted on to achieved peace no matter what the cost and the sacrifices maybe in our lives, for our future and the future of children!