Subsiding War and Stabilization of the “No War, No Peace” Environment

After the failure of the MOA-AD, “MILF lost commands” under Commander Kato occupied Christian villages in North Cotabato. Combat then broke out between the AFP and the MILF, involving aerial bombings. Several people died and thousands fled the area. A big contingent of soldiers was sent to Mindanao among other place to secure the ARMM elections, which took place on 11 August 2008. On 27 May, the MILF released an official statement, reiterating its consistent policy of non-recognition of and non-participation in any election undertaken under the Philippine government and Constitution. On Election Day, rebels occupied the town hall of Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, to prevent the election from taking place. Apart from this incident, elections were generally peaceful. However, the following period was marked by further clashes. Commander Bravo led an attack on Christian villages in the north of Lanao del Norte on 18 August 2008.¹³⁹ He was accused of plunder and terrorizing the population, raiding towns, spraying gunfire, hacking civilians with machetes, and torching houses. A Maranao recounted:

In Kauswagan where atrocities happened again, there were many of the civilians who were threatened including my Christian uncle who was nearly killed by the so-called members of MILF. Fortunately, my uncle married a half Maranao and at the time, the MILF pointed [a] gun into his head, his wife's relative spoke in Mranao [sic] and told alleged MILF to withdraw the gun. Thanks are to Allah, my Christian uncle is still alive although his house was burned and they have not saved their properties. (Email correspondence, 2008)

In nearby Iligan 3,000 civilian volunteers organized themselves to undertake a foot patrol around the city and set up checkpoints. The city government provided them with communications equipment for easier coordination with the police. For the mayor, Commander Bravo’s attacks and bombings of two hotels one day before had an evident signification:

We only took the position that we want to be excluded! Look what they have done to us! I could not imagine [what else they can do] when we campaign for “No” to our inclusion in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity when the plebiscite comes.

(Gillera 2008).

The gun owners club in Iligan as well as civilians demanded to be allowed to carry their licensed guns to be able to defend themselves. In addition, an anti-Moro group named “Shepherds” was founded as a reaction to the attacks. Iligan Professor Rudi Rodil, who specialized in the history of the Mindanao conflict, was granted an “Outstanding Citizen” award by the Iligan government in 1994. He also became vice-chairman of the government peace panel. Nevertheless, he was

139 The affected municipalities were Kauswagan, Kolambugan, Linamon and Maigo, all included in the MOA-AD under category A. The affected barangays were Kulasihan, Lapayan, Larapan, Libertad, Napo, and Tacub.

declared persona non grata by Iligan’s City Council on 9 September for having told the Council that a high percentage of Iligan's land area¹⁴⁰ was included in the BJE¹⁴¹ and thus

for his alleged participation in the “grand conspiracy to fool the people, cut Iligan City into pieces and of the biggest blunder the Philippine government has ever made which is the carving and giving of a big chunk of Mindanao to a rebel group, just to attain the simple word peace.”

(Declaration by the Iligan City Council, in Arguillas 2010a)

Rodil answered that people tend to omit that the inclusion of the barangays into the BJE is connected to a plebiscite and that consequently the MOA-AD would not have automatically included land area from Iligan into the BJE.

The government offered PHP 5 million for information that would lead to the arrest of Commanders Kato and Bravo. The AFP launched counterattacks in Muslim areas in search of the lost commands.¹⁴² In western Lanao del Sur, clashes were reported between the AFP and the MILF. The majority of the clashes, however, took place in the Maguindanao area.¹⁴³ People in Lanao del Sur spoke of a state of war, whereas the government talked about a “law enforcement campaign to neutralize and bring to the folds of the law the MILF lawless groups who attacked the civilian communities” (Arguillas 2008b).

In October and November 2008 and then since January 2009, Basilan and Sulu were increasingly involved in violent combats. In particular, there were clashes between the AFP and the Abu Sayyaf Group, which kidnapped several persons, among them three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The MILF offered to aid in their safe release, stating that kidnapping is against the principles of Islam. The AFP frequently accuses the MILF of involvement in kidnapping cases, even though their leadership categorically denies this. The rebels proved their good intentions by helping to free an Irish priest kidnapped in November

140 The mayor of Iligan City complained that the BJE would reduce the land area of his city by 82%, and Steven Rood (2008) from the Asia Foundation added that this “would reduce by over 20 percent the block grants the city receives from the national government.”

141 Eight barangays of Iligan are listed in the MOA-AD for inclusion in the BJE; however, they were to be included only after a plebiscite to be held within one year from the signing of the MOA-AD.

142 In Lanao the 104^th AFP Infantry Brigade was assigned to hunt down Commander Bravo. About 60% of this unit are former MNLF rebels who, after the 1996 FPA, had been integrated into the AFP. Among them was Captain Alonto Maamo, a Maranao who helped 112 families return home in military vehicles in October 2008. The families were Maranao IDPs from the highlands of Paiton (Kauswagan), Pantaon, and Tangclao (Poona Piagapo) (Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. 2010).

143 Maguindanao was according to the Philippine Human Development Report of 2005 the province in Mindanao with the highest number of encounters between rebels and AFP and the highest number of casualties from 1986 to 2004. Lanao del Norte numbered second in terms of casualties, followed by North Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, and Sultan Kudarat. In terms of encounters Maguindanao was followed by North Cotabato, Basilan, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, and Zamboanga del Sur.

2009. Criminals from Lanao had abducted him for ransom. However, neither the government nor the MILF could prevent the beheading of another victim, a state school principal from Sulu, abducted at about the same time as the Red Cross members by the ASG.

Several bombings in major cities outside the ARMM areas that are claimed by Muslims took place, including, in Iligan, on 17 August 2008, one day before Commander Bravo’s attacks on barangays in Lanao del Norte, and on 18 December, one day before President Arroyo was scheduled to visit the city. In other places, like Sulu, military installations were targeted. No group took responsibility for the bombings. Among the injured were Muslim as well as Christian citizens. The government in most cases blamed hardline MILF rebels, a MILF Special Operations Group, bandits, or members of the Abu Sayyaf Group for the attacks. The MILF officially condemned the bombings.

Table 3: Bombing Attacks in 2008-2009

Date Place Region Target Killed Injured

8/17 Iligan Lanao del Norte Hostels 0 3

9/14 Kiamba Sarangani Public market 0 0

12/11 Isulan Sultan Kudarat Public market 0 7

12/18 Iligan Lanao del Norte Department stores 2 36

4/26 Besana Beach Resort Sultan Kudarat 1 3

7/5 Cotabato City Lanao del Norte Near the cathedral 5 51

7/7

Jolo Sulu Near the cathedral 5 30+

Iligan Lanao del Norte In front of a lending firm 1 21

After the first escalation of the conflict at the end of August 2008, both negotiating parties were very strict in their demands. The MILF declared that the MOA-AD was a “done deal”

especially since the MOA-AD had already been initialed,¹⁴⁴ and because it saw it in the context of international, not national, law (referring to the UN framework;¹⁴⁵ see also Santos 2004).

144 Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon disagreed with the MILF position; according to him the affixing initials to the draft accord was meant only to ensure that it would not be altered or changed, not to indicate that an agreement had been reached.

145 The MILF, for example, in July 2010, hailed the ruling of the United Nations International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence as “a trend in the resolution of the conflicts in the world today” and

Additionally it had supposed to have negotiated not only with the executive but with all three branches of the Philippine government. The GRP thus had to consult the other branches before making major decisions. The MILF would only go back to the negotiating table if the government signed the MOA-AD. The scholar and human rights activist Attorney Soliman Santos supposed that the MILF would not reconsider negotiations with the Arroyo government at all but would wait for the next president, taking what had happened to the MOA-AD as evidence of “the GRP having negotiated in bad faith, and thus the basic trust built by years of peace talks has been seriously eroded. The bottom line is that the Arroyo administration cannot deliver after all” (Santos 2008). Additionally, the drafting of the MOA had already marked the success of the MILF in putting its demands on the national agenda and in unifying Moros under the agreement.

“They cannot for their own self-respect go into ‘further negotiations’ which would not be on the basis of a signed MOA.” (ibid.). The MILF also considered the possibility that any further peace negotiations apart from the MOA might end up in the same way.

Because of violent incidents in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte and mass protests against the MOA-AD from concerned LGUs, citizens, and the opposition, the government, which initially had been positive about resuming peace talks, stated that it would not sign the MOA-AD even if the Supreme Court decided on 14 October that it was constitutional. On 3 September 2008, it dismissed its peace panel, not wanting to negotiate again before the DDR (disarmament, demobilization, and rehabilitation) of the rebels had been completed. By doing so, the government set impossible conditions for the return to the negotiating table. Murad Ebrahim characterized this demand as illogical since DDR was designed to happen after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Compact. The government announced that it would focus from then on

“on working with Moro communities and civil society to bring peace to Mindanao” (Martin 2008). In September, an increased reward of PHP 10 million was promised to anyone who captured, dead or alive, Commanders Bravo or Kato, who were by this time held responsible for the death of 62 civilians and the displacement of about 200,000 people. The Ilagas¹⁴⁶ announced

an example that seeking independence under international law was possible. It further highlighted the strong support of the Kosovo struggle for independence by the US (MILF Central Committee on Information Official Website).

146 The Ilaga (rats) are sometimes said to have been founded in 1968 by Commander Toothpick (Feliciano Luces), a Christian Ilonggo. But the movement of Luces is a different movement. McKenna (1990) writes that Luces led the first of the sectarian conflicts in Cotabato, in Upi Valley in 1970, which became rampant later on, mainly as a result of land conflicts and political rivalry. Commander Toothpick, who later on earned a reputation as a fanatical anti-Muslim, was initially perceived as a local Robin Hood who defended poor Christians, Muslims, and Tirurays against Muslim outlaws. “Influential Muslims and Christians had reportedly titled a good deal of occupied land in the area and were using Muslim outlaw bands to gain possession by scaring off the inhabitants” (p. 264). And Muslim datus

that they would take part in the manhunt. On 23 September, according to the Philippine Institute for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, the government declared that it would ask the UN to add the “renegade commanders” Abdullah Macapaar (alias Commander Bravo), Umbra Kato, Alim Solaiman Pangalian, and nine other MILF commanders to the list of terrorists. The main argument was that many of them were “secretly trained in bomb making and urban warfare and propaganda by Al-Qaeda-linked JI” (Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, Inc. (PIPVTR), 24 September 08).

The rather drastic measures against the MILF are partly the result of pressures by the opposition. According to the Social Weather Station, Arroyo’s popularity rate (June 2008) was the lowest of any president since the start of the study in 1986. The opposition blamed the Arroyo government for acting against the Constitution by signing the MOA-AD. Some speculated that the agreement was a tool for charter change and thus for the extension of Arroyo’s term. In Mindanao, settlers, being at the same time landowners and politicians, reacted the strongest to the MOA-AD. The ICG writes that these groups feared that

if the document became official, it would be a recognition of Moro land claims whether or not the population voted to join. From the point of view of settlers who acquired title through dubious means during the Marcos years, it would be a threat to vested interests. In some areas such as North Cotabato, where land disputes have been particularly bitter and clashes often take place between farmers and MILF fighters at harvest time, there was a sense that the MOA could be an invitation to “renegade” commanders to take back land by force. (ICG 2008) Complains about lack of information as well as about the vagueness of the memorandum were issued by governmental groups, civil society organizations, and indigenous groups. The lack of public information was finally one reason why the Supreme Court declared the MOA-AD unconstitutional. The MILF therefore created in November the Department of Mindanao Migrants to focus on non-Moro issues. It sought to establish contact with the Lumad groups of the Tedurays, Manobos, Arumanens, and B’laans. Additionally, it declared that it would increase its information campaign (Arguillas 2009).

demanded tribute from Christian and Tiruray villagers. Later on Luces was employed by Liberalista Christian politicians in the attempt to oust the local leading Muslim political family (the Sinsuats). Thus he gained his anti-Muslim reputation. The Ilaga were also founded around this time. They are described by Abreu as an anti-anti-Muslim vigilante group. They were founded by “ultra rightist traditional politicians in Cotabato under then AFP Deputy Defense Minister for Civil Relations (and later North Cotabato governor) Lt. Col. Carlos Cajelo” (Abreu 2002: 3; see also McKenna 1990: 267). Yegar (2002) reports that they were financed by large businesses and companies and supported by the AFP (p. 254).

In addition to the protests of local politicians, initiating rallies and filing petitions against the signing of the MOA-AD, civil society organizations urged the GRP and the MILF to return to the negotiating table.¹⁴⁷ The Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus (MPC) accompanied IDPs to Malacañang to pressure Arroyo for a return to negotiations. Symbolically, the personal meeting took place on 11 September 2008, on the seventh anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, which had led to a radicalization of Filipino politics towards the MILF. Arroyo promised no more air strikes during Ramadan but did not agree to renewing negotiations. The visit was part of MPCs campaign “Bakwit sa Syudad II” (Evacuees in the City II). (Bakwit sa Syudad I had taken place during the heavy military clashes in 2003; see Woodward 2005: 26).

Whereas the National Disaster Coordinating Council noticed that clashes slowed down in September, they increased again at the end of Ramadan.¹⁴⁸

On 14 October, eight of 15 justices of the Supreme Court voted to declare the MOA-AD unconstitutional. In response, the MILF announced that it would take the accord to the UN and the OIC to seek their guarantees that if talks resumed their outcome would be respected.

Coincidence or not, four days later Arroyo awarded 73 soldiers who had been involved in military operations against the MILF with medals of honor in Cotabato. On 19 October, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) documented a new peak in IDPs, reaching a total of 391,266,¹⁴⁹ with 91 dead and 120 injured (mostly civilians) since the outbreak of the conflict in 2008. The Moro umbrella organization Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)¹⁵⁰ organized a demonstration, in Marawi in front of the AFP military base, to call on the UN and the OIC to intervene to stop the war in Mindanao and to put pressure on the government

147 As part of the celebration of the United Nations Decade of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence to Children of the World (2000-2010), and the Mindanao Week of Peace, the religiously mixed NGO MCW and Mothers for Peace initiated the campaign “Million Thoughts and Acts for Peace” (1 September-1 December 2008), urging the GRP and the MILF to go back to the negotiation table.

148 The governmental CCCH recorded (on 8 October) for the year 2008 one incident between the AFP and the MILF in January; zero in February, March, and April; two in May; four in June; five in July; 77 in August; and 39 in September. Of these 128 skirmishes, 66 were initiated by the AFP in their manhunt for the lost MILF commands.

149 As of 14 October 2008, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), a majority of IDPs were from Maguindanao (123,324), followed by North Cotabato (87,555), Lanao del Sur (62,258), Lanao del Norte (58,532), Shariff Kabunsuan (24,485), Basilan (13,870), Sarangani (6,775), and Misamis Oriental (17). The IDPs in Lanao del Sur are from the following municipalities: Balindong – 8,425; Bubong – 150; Butig – 11,640; Calanogas – 3,000; Ditsaan Ramain – 1,525; Ganassi – 1,410; Kapai – 1,300; Lumbayanague – 2,680; Madalum – 3,170;

Madamba – 4,490; Malabang – 3,585; Marantao – 2,990; Marawi City – 2,785; Marogong – 4,605; Masiu – 1,000;

Malundo – 115; Pagayawan – 505; Picong – 1,188; Poona Bayabao – 70; Pualas – 1,160; Saguiaran – 5,000;

Tamparan – 750; and Tugaya – 715.

150 The CBCS describes itself as “a conferential body and network of 168 Moro civil society organizations based and operating in the whole of Mindanao who have converged for the purpose of advocating for peace, human rights and good governance.” It was founded in 2002 and has its main seat in Cotabato City. It was one of the first umbrella Moro NGOs, helping to strengthen the by-then rather limited tradition of Moro NGOs.

to honor the botched MOA-AD. NGOs spoke of a humanitarian crisis in the region. On 2 November, six Maranaos were killed, including two children, aged five and nine. Ten were wounded in the municipality of Magsaysay, Lanao del Norte. According to relatives of the victims, they were killed by Ilagas in Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVO) attire. The Police, the AFP, and media branded this incident, regarded by Moros as a massacre, as a rido, ignoring laments made by Moro civil society groups about mounting human rights violations against Bangsamoro people, including illegal arrests, torture, the burning of houses of civilians, looting, and harassment.

In November 2008, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the OIC, appealed to the Philippine government and Muslim rebels to end clashes and return to the negotiating table.

Moreover, the OIC promised to mobilize resources from affiliated institutions to alleviate the suffering of civilians. Later on, the European Parliament, which had spent EUR 13 million in aid to Mindanao by April 2009, also urged the groups to renew their negotiations and even offered to facilitate the peace process (European Parliament Resolution, 12 March 2009). The American Ambassador Kristie Kenney announced that her country had released USD 2.5 million in additional aid for the evacuees, asking in return that both parties agree to a ceasefire. Clashes between the AFP and the MILF decreased again in December during Christmas holidays.

Moreover, the OIC promised to mobilize resources from affiliated institutions to alleviate the suffering of civilians. Later on, the European Parliament, which had spent EUR 13 million in aid to Mindanao by April 2009, also urged the groups to renew their negotiations and even offered to facilitate the peace process (European Parliament Resolution, 12 March 2009). The American Ambassador Kristie Kenney announced that her country had released USD 2.5 million in additional aid for the evacuees, asking in return that both parties agree to a ceasefire. Clashes between the AFP and the MILF decreased again in December during Christmas holidays.