The news about the killings in Mamasapano came to me via Facebook, not through my news feed but via an angry personal message by a Facebook friend, a fellow Mindanawon that has been critical of my support for the Bangsamoro. The message was chilling: “Just because they replaced two letters, doesn’t mean they are not the same people. 27 lives lost. You and others like you are naive to believe a*sholes like these sir. I’m praying that I can live long enough see all of them die along with the idiots handling the ‘peace’ talks.”
Shortly after, the reports started coming. Very sketchy at first, and then becoming more graphic: quickly I realized that something horrific had happened in this small village in Maguindanao, with a hard-to-remember name. And in the absence of any statement from the government, speculation mounted about what really happened to those dozens of Special Action Force (SAF) policemen that lost their lives on January 25, 2015.
What is unbelievable is that it took another three days before the national government, first through Secretary Mar Roxas and then finally the President, gave an official account of what happened. It is as if the decision maker of the country thought this was a nightmare and wanted to wish it away, until they had no choice but to finally deal with it.
And it is a nightmare. For the country, for Mindanao and its long suffering peoples, for those of us who believe that the peace process is the only way forward to resolve long standing injustice in this great island, and for me personally.
Prior to this incident, momentum seemed to be on the side of the peace process. There was wide acceptance of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). And while some legal issues have to be resolved with respect to the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the Aquino Administration had the votes in Congress to get a good law enacted. Congressman Rufus Rodriguez and his committee has done an excellent job in conducting nationwide consultations. The Senate, led by Senators Bongbong Marcos and TG Guingona, was likewise making progress even as Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago raised important constitutional questions.
Unfortunately, all of this progress is now endangered. With what happened in Mamasapano last Sunday, it is as if all those who were against the peace process suddenly came out of hiding. While I acknowledge that many of these skeptics are motivated by patriotism, and a few actually understand the CAB and the BBL, there is also some who are bigoted and bloodthirsty whose criticisms and opposition are based not on facts or merits but on prejudice and ignorance.
Even good people like former President Fidel V. Ramos, whose views I usually share and whom I consider him one of the very few statesmen in the country, was quoted as criticizing the women in charge of the peace process – Secretary Ging Deles and Prof. Miriam Coronel Ferrer—for not listening to military and security experts. I thought this was unfair, unfounded as in not based on facts, and not at all helpful. If anything, the reason why we have succeeded so far in this process is because these two women, and Justice Marvic Leonen when he was chief negotiator with the MILF, actually gets/got it, understood the concerns of the military and as far as I know earned their trust.
Former Defense Secretary Rene de Villa also criticized the administration for “delegating the mission to academic professors who have no experience dealing with fully-armed and battle-hardened Muslim secessionists”. He should be reminded that an unconstitutional MOA-AD that led to a major outbreak of hostilities in Mindanao was the product of a government panel headed by a retired general. For the record, I do not think it was the fault of that general, a good man who only wanted to do the right thing.
In any case, how should peace advocates respond to the challenge before us now? In my view, this is time to be as “wise as an owl”, “cunning as a fox”, and as “courageous as a lion”.
To be wise means to know what it will take to move on from this tragedy and return the conversation to where it was before Mamasapano happened. And this is the full disclosure of the truth – nothing less than the people knowing everything that happened and who are responsible for the deaths of the best of our policemen can make the country move on. In my next column, I will weigh in on the questions that must be answered by the government and the MILF.
To be cunning means we have to be strategic and this might be a time to actually follow what I have always considered a good adage from Chairman Mao: “To take one step forward, take two steps backward.” This will not be popular among advocates but maybe it is best to allow the anger of the people to be fully expressed first and wait until the full truth is established before moving on with the enactment of the BBL. I am not even sure we have the votes now to pass a good law. If we force the issue, we might end up with a mangled bill that will not reflect the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. In that case, I believe the President will have to veto such a law. At this point also, with the political consensus on the Bangsamoro dissipating (hopefully, this is temporary), there will be no political restraint on the Supreme Court if it decides to issue a TRO against the plebiscite or even to declare the enacted BBL unconstitutional. So even if I support fully its passage, a short time-out, a month or two, would probably be beneficial in the long term.
Finally, to be courageous means to stand up for peace: to be in solidarity with those in government like Sec. Deles, Professor Coronel Ferrer, and their co-workers who are now embattled; to walk with and support the families of the fallen policemen and others who died in this incident; to resist the demonization of the MILF and our Moro brothers and sisters; to demand from our President, our senior military, police and civilian officials the highest standards of accountability for what has happened. And from our politicians, the courage to say no to the drums of war even if that may be popular.
As for me, I will follow the profound advice of my boss, the President of Ateneo de Manila, Fr. Jett Villarin SJ: “At this time of our nation’s mourning, there is nothing that is more peripheral, nothing shoved farther to the edge than this thing called peace. Let us resolve to be instruments of God’s peace to his people, so that where there is hatred, we may sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.”
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