[Applause] for decades Southern Philippines was plagued by violence as Muslim separtists fought for independence healings massacres massive displacement of people's in in the night then 10 years ago a historic peace agreement was Inked between the moral Islamic Liberation Front and the government for during the signing there was this tribulation real relief and hope but peace is Fragile with one year left to fulfill the terms of the agreement will it fall apart before the Finish Line every time there are elections or rivales related to elections families or parties would engage in violence uh to the extent of killing their opponent this is basilon some 1,400 km south of Philippines Capital Manila it is surrounded by the pristine turquoise Waters of the Sulu new sea but this Tranquility was shattered in November 2022 a fight broke out between the Philippines Army and members of the moro Islamic Liberation Front or MF it started when MF members were asked to leave their homes by the authorities huram Malanga was one of them [Music] [Music] spe each side blamed the other for firing first in the end three soldiers and four MF Fighters were killed this was the first major clash between the MF and the authorities since 2015 with so many fatalities the event was unusual because 10 years ago the MF had signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government so why did this episode of violence break out let's pleas precisely our question because there are supposedly ceasefire mechanisms and monitoring teams that are actually um put to task to affect a situation where classes should be avoided to understand the story of War and Peace is to go back centuries into the turbulent history of Southern Philippines in particular the mind and Sulu regions everybody knows that Mino and Sulu had never been part of the Philippines especially during the Spanish regime in the Philippines and uh even immediately after the exit of the spage in 1898 minano and solu remain an area that is not beyond the control of uh the Manila government these territories also known as the moro region were historically populated by indigenous majority Muslim population the religion was brought here around the 13th century by Arab traders and missionaries this put them at odds with the Filipino majority which converted to Catholicism under Spanish rule the mura populations would be oppressed was the commission of so many excesses killings massacr massive displacement of peoples in in especially the moral people the years of President feda maros cis's rule would be particularly difficult Christian groups settled in Morrow displacing locals then a major flash point occurred in the jabid massacre of 1968 there were scores of moros killed in coredor island who were part of a special uh training uh project of then Marcos uh govern intended really to form a special Mor group aim at the the invasion of sabba purportedly between 11 to 64 MOA recruits were executed by the superiors after complaining of unfair treatment another theory said they were killed for refusing to fight fellow Muslims at the time the government denied the incident and then in thean Empire province of kabato and L nor and J peninsula where there were so massacr and hundreds of thousands of oros were killed by the so-called Ila organization composed of uh politicians Christian politicians in Milo aim at uh dislodging the leadership of the moros all these factors uh accumulated into one trajectory and that was the formation of the moro National Liberation Front the moro National Liberation Front or mnlf was birthed in 1972 from other separatist movements for decades mnlf Rebel forces and the Philippine government fought a conflict that could have killed as many as 150,000 mahaga ikbal joined the movement as a young man but by 1977 he would find himself on one side of a widening divide Within the mnlf basically it was caused by ideological differences the mnlf is more political while the is more Islamic a group would splinter in 1977 and officially become the moro Islamic Liberation Front or the MF mahanga ibal found himself the leader of this smaller faction [Music] but the MF strengths would grow by the time both sides were ready to sue for peace the MF had become the main power Brokers in Moro both sides have really come to a point that it's better to negotiate it's better to sign an agreement and find a political sentiment rather than to prolong the war wherein the government cannot defeat the m in a guilla Warfare neither the can defeat the national government in conventional Warfare so there was an instalment in a sense we started our negotiations with the government in 1997 Miriam Coronel F was the chief negotiator for the Philippines government during the final stages of the peace process the negotiations itself uh took 17 years under five presidents before it was finally finally signed it was tough of course I mean no negotiation was easy everything everything was difficult every little piece that you had to put in place on March 27 2014 the Philippines finalized a landmark agreement known as the comprehensive agreement on the banga morrow or the cab so many people have suffered for so long so many of our stakeholders have worked so hard to arrive at this point a crucial demand of the government was the decommissioning of the mf's Armed Wing the bangam moru Islamic armed forces or BF 40,000 combatants would be disbanded and 7,000 Firearms were to be surrendered or destroyed in exchange the government would offer social economic assistance so it's not always easy to convince armed groups to give up their weapons [Applause] it's about giving it up and really transforming into uh civilians from an identity as fighter or combatant to a new identity as as a productive member of society uh fully integrated into the social and political process of the community and of the whole country the MF eventually accepted the terms and agreed to decommission the BF finally on March 27 2014 we signed the comprehensive agreement onoro this uh 2024 is the 10th anniversary of the signing of the comprehensive agreement on bangam Moro and we are going to celebrate that the agreement would work towards self-governance for What's called the banga moral autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao also known as Bal or bangsamoro the roughly 13,000 Square kilm Five Province Muslim region has a population of about 4 million bangsa is an old Malay word meaning race or Nation at the heart of the agreement is the banga Moro organic law this established a transition government with members appointed by the federal government and the MF from Transportation communication to environment of course um Finance Finance taxes and everything this all have to be put in place in a text the bangur organic provides that the government to be formed has to be led by the M that's why autonomous region Muslim now is being led by the M but peace is fragile in inces like The basan Clash on November 2022 threatened to derail the process as the chairman of the peace implementing panel of the moro Islamic Liberation Front mahanga ibba was tasked with investigating the [Music] Skirmish the area was populated by m members and supporters but incidentally members of the Abu were passing by the area and then government forces tried to pursue the abuaf the MF were asked to vacate the area to facilitate military [Music] operations [Music] [Music] [Music] for a series of miscommunication led to the exchange of Fire the husbands of Salah huaman and narima suan were killed in the fighting [Music] it's an isolated incident and we managed to settle the issue and uh I think until now there was no repeat of that incident nonetheless what the basan episode showed was that suspicion still existed between some elements of the MF and the government and there could be more threats to this fragile peace [Music] as part of the comprehensive agreement on the banga Moro an interim local government also known as the banga Moro transitional government was formed in 2019 it will lead until 2025 when a new permanent government will be elected for this past several years the farm government has passed a number of codes Administrative Code Education Code taxation code local government code and few others so these are all um attempts to develop the autonomous region because in the past this areas have been addressed quite very um inadequately to provide security the 2014 agreement also created The Joint peace security task force GP this peacekeeping force is unique it is made up of the MF forces the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine national police GPS normalization okay the force has over 20 stations across the bound and over 6,000 Personnel before the banga moo agreement and the arrival of the jpst The basan Province was a hot bed of violence and terrorism politically there's relative stability in the in the B because there is coordination and cooperation between the rebel forces particularly the MF at the H with that of the Philippine Security Forces but elsewhere former MF Rebels are less willing to cooperate with the authorities as part of the bangao agreement the MF is supposed to decommission its 40,000 strong armed Wing the B samuro Islamic armed forces or the BF but 10 years on and the decommissioning process has met with some resistance according to Deputy Commander Rajan there are more than 100 men under his command in this base alone who have not yet been decommissioned they are still holding onto standard issue machine guns for we are ready to date only 26,000 of the planned 40,000 combatants have stood down MF Fighters are in incentivized to decommission through the promise of monetary compensation amount [Music] of there are already some signs on the ground uh of people becoming restless and unhappy because they are not receiving what they are supposedly Reed Jerry jamali was offered a slot to decommission in 2022 for many like Jerry The Promised government assistance will be welcomed the bomb has the highest incidence of poverty in the Philippines 2022 these unfulfilled Promises of compensation have become a sticking point but could this all be a misunderstanding according to the government the 1 million peso payout was never meant to come in a lump sum of cash under secretary David diano hits the office that implements the comprehensive peace process so the 1 million issue is not a 1 million PES in cost okay the uh issue here is how to address the uh needs of the competant so initially they are being uh they they are given a 100,000 PES cost immediately after being the commissioned we explain to them that the program of the uh national government will not be onetime solution to be given right away to the comat rather it's a multi-year program for all the uh decommission combatants we have the social services the uh uh ALS or the study Grant educational capacity of the combatants will be addressed the uh livelihood program and even the infra uh structure program yet apart from the commanders of the Armed wing of the biaf and their families few of the others have received education scholarships this all adds to the grumbling among MF Fighters but in a region that has been plagued by Decades of violence determining land rights has been a major obstacle for the government all the 26,30 are alled we have also the uh indigen peoples living in their claiming that they are the first owner of this land when they want to reclaim their uh piece of land then some of these uh uh lands are now being occupied by uh armed elements not to mention some uh lless elements in the area so there's a lot of violence are being addressed slowly for now MF leaders like Dan AWI who is also part of of the interim government in bangam Moro remain committed to the process [Music] while implementation slowly moves forward outside forces could threaten to derail the peace [Music] process it took multiple Filipino presidents to push for peace in bangam Moro president aroyo she weighs war in the earlier part of her term but at the same time also came up with peace agreement then it was through president Akino when some kind of a peace process continued it would take president to3 in his early period of his turn when that bang samuru basic law was transformed into an organic law the basic law was the draft legislature that outlined the establishment of the autonomous region it became an organic law when it was ratified by Congress and signed by president duterte in 2018 the final leg of the transition to self-governance will be completed by President feda maros Jr who was sworn in as president in June 2022 the United bangam Moro Justice party the political party of the moro Islamic Liberation Front had preferred Marcos Junior's rival it's an off secret and United Justice party we supported [Music] L one reason for that is that the Cal candidates for president only Robo came and visited thean and talk to the leadership of the M then there was also the historical baggage of the Marcos name president ferdinan maros senior the current president's father was associated with several massacres of moral people during his regime be very Frank the actuation of the father really affected the decision of the m and the United Bank Justice party but moving forward that's part of History can be lessons for the government for the president for our people and uh it will not Humper especially the M people to move forward for his part president Marcos Jr has kept the momentum going he retained Key Personnel in the interim banga moral transitional government ensuring continuity by not taking the whole situation negative he acted like a Statesman in terms of um still working quite progressively with the MF even supporting many of the uh programs of the Barm and um maintaining the status quo but the banga MOA region is a complex one outside the MF powerful Clans hold a lot of sway in the region some families Trace their lineage to royalty we know that there are significant established political Clans who have governed the localities for the longest time these Clans saw in the election of President Marcos junor a chance to lobby for more power in the banga Moro government and all of this traditional politicians Governors and Mayors are actually would actually would want to V for position conditions in the barn either they themselves their um families and relatives their supporters as members of parliament and so on so forth that was so crucial the pressure from politicians the MF could have been dislodged yet president Marcos continued to um support the m but in one year things could change the transitional government will step down the people will have to elect a new permanent government every time there are elections or or rivales uh related to elections families or parties would engage in violence uh to the extent of killing their opponents so if there are problems say during election or say in their business instead of going to the court so they would fight against themselves they would shoot each other and so on and so forth these Clan feuds are known as redo redo result in massive collateral damage in the form of Civilian deaths and Mass displacements from the areas where hits and attacks are carried out you cannot prevent some uh armed conflicts between and among these groups most if not all of the uh reasons why they are fighting against each other are personal or family problems so we cannot prevent that so that would mean the B that supposedly promises stability and development in the area would still be put uh into questions because of the presence of these traditional forces you know maybe be instigated to create new rounds of um threats and problems in the future that's also precisely what we wanted to strengthen in the bangsamoro that there are effective Justice mechanisms where differences can be resolved whether family feuds or even electoral contests election related conflicts we need the national leadership to be able to manage the behavior the unruly behavior of the political class in these localities the clan feuds are not the only thing that threatens peace in bangam Moro while the MF may have gone Mainstream other militant groups are still active in the region in 2017 fighters from the mor and abayah groups with links to the Islamic State beseech marawi a city within bangam Mor What followed was a 5 Monon long battle between the insurgents and government forces and you have the radical groups who are as you mentioned in the French creating extremism in many instances so they are all in ense um actors in the in the Barm come 2024 scatter recently last December an explosion during Catholic mass at a University gymnasium killed at least four people and injured dozens in the city of marawi the Islamic State later claimed responsibility MF members disgruntled with the dawling peace process made defect to these radical groups there are still remnants of radical groups you know after the marawi SS in 2017 and it appears that uh these groups have um mutated into different subgroups and personalities I think it was their plan to create an impact on the Christians particularly so they uh did the thing that in the case of the Barm government we do not have the police power only the government has that police power so what we can do probably in terms of maintaining peace and order is really to engage in dialogu with all these armed groups for instance the Abu theb maybe to a certain extent through Community leaders we can uh try to uh reach out to [Music] them but currently the central government could be distracted by external events escalating tensions with China and the South China Sea have occupied president Marcus's attention and resources in the last few months the government recently announced plans to spend some 35 billion US on upgrading its military in the next decade the government has continued to procure Max firearms and ammunition this past several years so why procure ma for arms right when you can use the budget for this to support you know socio economic development program uh in the countryside so we just hope that this contradiction would not woren in the coming in the coming years and that it would not affect the peace gain in in now in the in that part of the BX areas the current president shouldn't be comfortable that there's no fighting within between the government and the MF because I think uh and that's it's not enough right because even if the there's no fighting but if the real reforms are not being implemented eventually things will uh things will not be very stable um and then that affects your ability to be able to address all the other issues so what lies ahead for the banga Morrow come 2025 and what of the MF are they truly ready to transition into a civilian organization we're reaching a crucial point in 2025 when all hell can just break loose precisely because of Elections it has been 10 years since the comprehensive agreement on banga Moro was signed between the Philippines government and the moro Islam isamic Liberation Front bringing a semblance of peace to the region But A decade is not enough to wipe away the scars of [Music] violence since 2014 save the children of minda now and NGO working to improve the lives of children have come to the strongholds of Rebel groups they want to help erase the trauma of Decades of violence [Music] bakis or alar Y kasalan so um experience um [Music] [Music] cars dolls Barbie um Teddy Bear encounter in the same way while the MF wants to look to the Future it can be difficult to let go of their past their days of Glory as Freedom Fighters of the people of Morrow it's just rational I think that the M would be a little bit hesitant to fully mainstream itself and change totally its traditional course when the commissioning remains unfinished come 2025 the Mi left with a brison to say that we could not sign the exit agreement because the decommissioning is still unfinished so that would mean the MF would still have certain legitimacy to continue uh play its role as a revolutionary group precisely because of the arms the remaining firearms that it holds with the arms intact there are remains to be forces to be Recon with next year when the transitional government is to be replaced by an elected Parliament the people of bangsamoro will get to decide if they still want the MF in charge we're reaching a crucial point in 2025 when all hell can just break loose precisely because of Elections the MF would have to engage against traditional politicians in a democratic process where their future is quite uncertain there is that mix of um impressions there's some kind of a development on one hand but there's also lot of things to be done in main areas in IND in particularly the bangsamoro areas still the leaders of MF say they remain committed to the cause since we have signed an agreement which included or which includes decommissioning then we have to undertake that because we we cannot and we will not forso our right to self-determination through the use of uh force or weapons it's through electoral struggle meaning through elections you'll be in government if we win election they can tell their land and like before they be very fearful the dividend of p is uh we are equally benefited by the dividend of the peace with the clock ticking bums remain on the road to the full implementation of the comprehensive agreement on the banga moral on one hand unfulfilled Promises of development on the other unfinished agreement to disarm so it's not enough to be just say everything is going smoothly because there are a lot of things that needed attention and there's need to fastra the socio economic components the weapons component and also the important messaging why it's important to have a really good election that is free from violence and for for the government instrumentality is really to enforce observance of election laws and then there is one more thing putting the central government at odds with bangsamoro a conflict almost 10 ,000 km away the wall in Gaza president Marcos has said he stands with the Israel and has drawn closer to the US meanwhile the Muslim majority bomb has sided with the Palestinians president Marcos also recently had a falling out with his predecessor Rodrigo duterte a popular figure in the region all these mean that President Marcus's trust rating in M now fell from 70% to 38% in the latest polls could these areas of friction derail the peace process the uh election in 2025 will surely happen and uh the president is very vocal our expectation is that the normalization program will still be uh continued until the end of uh the uh present Administration that he made mention that will finish all the uh the uh commitments to the m and uh during his term so meaning uh until 2028 when the president Administration will be uh finished we have invested so much in the peace process we lost uh so much if either of the two parties not only the government but the mm would have a you turn attitude in Rel to the peace process there is no other option except really to pursue the peace process through to the [Music] end it has been 10 years since the peace deal between the MF and the government was signed one year from now bang samuro will take a big step towards self-governance the stability that comes with it could be the spring board for development progress Foundation progress we have covered a lot of grounds already we have so many success stories and uh the credit should be given to the government to the m to the Filipino people in general including our people here and the International Community the end of all this undertaking have to have peace with Justice in M now so that there would be progress there would be development for all as for former militants it is finally a chance to put Decades of violence behind them and perhaps create a brighter future for the children of Moro graduate static service [Music] [Music]
