FEATURE: Philippines president resisting call for war

The Muslim insurgency in the Southern Philippines has lasted four decades but earlier this year it appeared that peace talks between the government of president Aquino and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were on the verge of delivering a solution to the conflict. That all changed late last month after a deadly clash.

Last Updated: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:29:00 +1100

JIM MIDDLETON, PRESENTER: Now president Benigno Aquino is under growing political pressure to launch all out war in the south.

Gavin Fang reports.

GAVIN FANG, REPORTER: For the Philippine Army October the 18th was a dark day.

BENIGNO AQUINO, PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT (at press conference): Our soldiers were in pursuit of criminal elements with valid warrants of rest - among them the fugitive Ibrahim Mata Suleiman, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group and a notorious criminal, wanted for nine counts of murder.

GAVIN FANG: But the mission into territory controlled by the insurgent Moro Islamic Liberation Front went horribly wrong and 19 Special Forces soldiers didn't make it back.

BENIGNO AQUINO (at press conference): There have been calls to wage an all out war against the MILF. While it is tempting for government to join the chorus in calling for blood we believe that such a course of action is not appropriate at this point.

GAVIN FANG: It was the deadliest clash between the army and the MILF for three years and the government struck back with a series of air raids that set off more tit for tat killings and sent thousands fleeing to evacuation centres.

But weeks later nobody still quite knows what happened and why protocols put in place as part of the ongoing peace talks to prevent armed clashes failed.

BRYONY LAU, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: It does seem as though there were some mistakes. And that's particularly obvious because the commanders who had responsibility for the operation have actually been dismissed from their positions.

The MILF has conducted an internal investigation. But they're maintaining that it was the fault was solely on the side of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). Whereas the AFP is saying that the MILF should be surrendering this commander who was the target of the operation, Dan Asnawi, who they claim was implicated in the killing of a number of marines back in July 2007 in the same area.

GAVIN FANG: The fighting in Mindanao has been simmering for four decades. More than 120,000 people have been killed during those years of conflict between Islamic separatist groups and the national government.

But in August when president Benigno Aquino and MILF Chairman Murad Ibrahim met in Tokyo it appeared that long running peace talks were close to reaching a resolution.

Within weeks reality punctured that optimism when the MILF rejected a government autonomy plan for the Muslim majority Mindanao province.

The insurgent group is pushing for a sub state, a constitutional change the government doesn't want and probably couldn't sell to the Filipino public.

BRYONY LAU: The gaps are definitely significant. And I think what we're seeing is that both side are realising they maybe need to change the structure in which they're carrying out the negotiations; that rather than aiming for end game first, so trying to come up with all of the terms for a final agreement, they maybe need to negotiate in segments.

GAVIN FANG: For president Aquino the setbacks have put him under considerable political pressure.

During his election campaign he promised to end the conflict and he intervened personally by going to Tokyo. But the violence of the past few weeks has fuelled calls by his political opponents and the Philippines media for an all out war in Mindanao.

Steve Rood is a member of the International Contact Group which is assisting the Mindanao peace negotiations. He believes president Aquino will resist the pressure to seek a military solution.

STEVE ROOD, THE ASIA FOUNDATION: He's given very clear instructions to his peace team to try to get things done in a time frame that makes it possible for him to get his political capital mobilised behind a peace deal.

In the current instance the way he has threaded the needle is to say that he's not for all out war, he wants to continue the peace process. But he does want justice for any violations and so he's going for what he calls all out justice.

GAVIN FANG: After the recent violence the MILF also issued a statement recommitting to a peaceful resolution to the conflict. And last weekend the two sides renewed the peace talks at a meeting in Malaysia. Steve Rood was at the talks.

STEVE ROOD: What they need to do is to come up with a political solution that the MILF accepts as achieving their minimum goals and that the government thinks that it can sell.

But it needs to be something that is more than the current autonomy for the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao and less of course than independence because independence is not on the table.

GAVIN FANG: The situation on the ground though in Mindanao is already changing with communities deep in insurgent territory now being allowed by the MILF to access international and government aid projects.

Manila is paying particular attention to economic development.

STEVE ROOD: But at the same time there's a lot of feeling that the purely economic - although it's beneficial and makes people's lives easier - does not overcome some of the political and justice issues that have to do with the fact that Muslims are a minority within a majority Christian country and need recognition of their own people-hood in a way that would allow them to have what they call parity of esteem with the Christian majority.

GAVIN FANG: But that's a goal that has proved elusive over the 40 years of this conflict.

JIM MIDDLETON: Gavin Fang reporting.

JIM MIDDLETON, PRESENTER: Zen Malang is executive director of the Mindanao Human Rights Action Centre. It's part of the peace process between the government and the Muslim insurgents.

Zen Malang, welcome to the program.

ZEN MALANG, MINDANAO HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION CENTRE: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me over.

JIM MIDDLETON: You've been a close observer of the peace talks. How do you rate their chances of success at this stage or indeed failure?

ZEN MALANG: My estimation of the peace process in Mindanao right now is that it needs a serious boost from the international community.

The peace negotiations has been going on for a dozen years and it has reached a stage where the two parties are unable to move forward. And it's going to take a serious push from the international community for them to finally come to a negotiated settlement to end the conflict.

JIM MIDDLETON: But why the stalemate now? After all president Aquino did make a point of turning up in person in Tokyo and it did seem that things had got off to a pretty good start.

ZEN MALANG: The problem faced by the peace process right now is the same problem faced by the previous president, presidents even before president Aquino.

And that is there are some groups in the Philippines, powerful economic and political groups, who see that the peace process is detrimental to their interests.

And these people, these groups are powerful, they have lots of political and economic resources. They will do everything they can to throw a monkey wrench into the peace process.

JIM MIDDLETON: When you say powerful interests can you be more specific? Are you talking about the military, business interests or landowners? What sort of people are you talking about?

ZEN MALANG: It's a combination of all of those.

The main agenda right now in the negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is natural resources and political power.

Unfortunately right now the control over natural resources and political power in Mindanao is held by a clique of oligarchs.

Now when these groups, when these families, when these interest groups learned that the government is about to turn back control over natural resources to the minority in Mindanao, then they mobilised their political and economic resources.

They do not find a dearth of support from more ambitious members of the Philippines military.

But I was just talking among a few members of the Philippines military at the conference in Sydney and it seems that even in the military some of them expressed disappointment, frustration, that their institution is being used for political purposes.

JIM MIDDLETON: It plays into the hands of such people, does it not, when have you an incident like the one last month where 19 soldiers were killed in Moro territory. That must have been a major setback?

ZEN MALANG: That's exactly what my friends in the military were telling me earlier. They were telling me that it seems that their comrades in the army, in the Special Forces, were sacrificed because that incident would not have happened if the ceasefire mechanism was followed. Unfortunately the ceasefire mechanism was ignored in that particular instance.

JIM MIDDLETON: How worried are you that incidents like that will provoke president Aquino to order or to retaliate with all out war?

ZEN MALANG: I was very worried and I still am worried.

Before coming to Australia, before flying to Sydney, earlier this week the media, it was all over the media. The pressure on the president from the media and from national politicians to abandon the ceasefire was very strong.

It took a lot of encouragement from civil society, from NGOs, from the Church and from the diplomatic community, from the different embassies in Manila, for the president to stick by the peace process and to stick by the ceasefire agreement with the MILF.

JIM MIDDLETON: Why is it then that the government cannot agree to give the insurgents a form of autonomy? They gave out their demands, the idea of independence years ago. But why won't the government grant them autonomy?

ZEN MALANG: That is precisely the question. When you have the rebel group abandoning their demands for independence, when the rebel group publicly announces it has no intention of driving out people who does not belong to the minority company back to their original place of origin in Luzon and Bizayas, it makes you wonder why the government cannot sign a peace agreement or conclude a peace agreement with the rebels.

And the only explanation we can come up with, if you adopt a political, economic tool of analysis, is that when it comes to Mindanao it's not the president alone who decides on the fate of the peace process.

You have powerful interest groups who weigh upon the president. And unfortunately these interest groups have been very effective in lobbying for their agenda, not only the current president but mind you even with the current president's mother who used to be a president in the Philippines also.

Let us remind ourselves that president Corazon Aquino, the mother of the current president, was also if not even more powerful than the current president, and she was just as committed to ending the conflict, and yet even she could not end the conflict.

JIM MIDDLETON: Zen Malang, thank you very much.

ZEN MALANG: Thank you.

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