Exultation and great
expectations

The land of Mindanao yesterday broke out in effusive expectations of hopes when President Benigno Aquino III and MILF chair Murad Ebrahim formally launched the Sajahatra Bangsamoro, a social development program for the 12,000 strong MILF and Muslim communities.

The president, himself, without the slightest indecisiveness and hesitance plunged into the various facets of the Sajahatra Bangsamoro. For the first time, “the President is coming not for war but for lasting peace,” was how Mike Pasigan, MILF spokesperson for Sajahatra Bangsamoro described the occasion, reports said.

Perhaps, the more correct appreciation of yesterday’s affair in Sultan Kudarat is to describe it as a meeting among brothers who had been fighting against each other for decades in a bloody war.

It was unprecedented because in the first place the President was accompanied by most of his Cabinet. Those present were Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras, Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Deles, Strategic Communication Secretary Ricky Carandang, Communication Secretary Hermonio Coloma, Education Secretary Armin Luisitro, Secretary Luwalhati Antonio of the Mindanao Development Authorities, Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Higher Education Commissioner Patricia Licuanan, and Director Joel Villanueva of the Technical Skills Development Authority.

The beautiful thing about it was that while 24 Army armored personnel carriers and joint forces from the 41th, 7th and 37th Infantry Battalions of the AFP were positioned on all the roads leading to Crossing Simuay, the entry to Camp Darapanang, according to the military.

But the roadside also boasted foreside 3,000 uniformed but unarmed MILF fighters according to Ghadsnail Jaafar, MILF Chief for political affairs, reports said.

They represented the security for the key government and MILF officials meeting at Camp Darapanang of Sultan Kudirata, said Col. Arnuldo Burgos Jr., the military’s spokesperson.

That force was also reinforced by members of the International Monitoring Team and the Coordinating Committee in the Cessation of Hostilities in Mindanao, Burgos added.

Houses along the way displaced green flaglets. This signified support for the MILF and also welcomed the President.

It may be recalled that in 2000, then President Joseph Estrada entered the MILF main camp, Abubakar, in Matanong town, of Maguindanao.

Estrada then celebrated the fall of the Camp Abubakar by feasting on beer and pig, both taboo for Muslims.

The President’s visit also responded to Murad’s visit to Malacañang last October 15 for the signing for the Framework Agreement for on the Bangsamoro.

Some 300 MILF uniformed fighters led by Murad received yesterday their Philippine Health Cards, which symbolized the Philippines” including of the MILF and all Bangsamoro people in the government health services.

Afterwards, the President joined a fluvial parade for peace on the Rio Grande de Mindanao. This was sponsored by the military.

But on Saturday, soldiers and MILF mujahedeen had a “boodle” fight – eating together at the same table using bare hands. This was during the send-off ceremonies for those who would secure the President.

Later, athletes from both forces also played friendly matches in football, softball and volleyball. But while celebrating their reconciliation there was another troubling development in Sulu. This was the square-off between the Al-Qaida linked bandit groups in Mindanao with their fellow Muslim insurgents under the Moro National Liberation Front.

Last week, at least 22 combatants died in the mountainous jungles of Sulu Jolo. A Moro rebel was beheaded, an Abu Sayyaf’s signature act.

The government, however, declined to get embroiled in the fraternal war between two camps. The MNLF, headed by Nur Misuari, is trying to rescue Jordanian TV journalist Baker Atyani and two European tourists whom the Abu Sayyaf refused to release.

Sulu Gov. Ajdusakur Tan said he would allow the MILF attacks to continue at least for the time being. But the government said that it was not trying to encourage the fight between the two Muslim camps just to weaken both.

***

In Negros Occidental, however, excitement swept the ranks of the Nationalist People’s Alliance yesterday with the visit over the weekend of business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., founder of the NPC.

Cojuangco debunked reports that he was having second thoughts about helping the bid of Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez. Instead, he left his meeting with them with the NPC local candidates wearing big smiles, reports said.

But the situation may have changed a lot over the years. The insurgency may have helped liberate farm hands from the control of their landowners. And CARP may have helped change the socio-economic structure of the countryside since the landscape has become fragmented into small Agrarian Reform Beneficiates who are independent–minded and no longer beholden to their landlords.

That is why the former spectacles of hired hands obeying the wishes of their landlords on whom to vote for man nolonger be true. And that may be something that the present generation of candidates may have to contend with.*

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