Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the peace panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said this is how  the MILF views the recent developments and said that even if they are not ready for war, they have to be “prepared for it”

The MILF, in a statement issued September 5 by its vice chair for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar, said they will not disband its peace panel and will “continue to uphold the Peace Path as still the best way forward to address the centuries-old Bangsamoro problem in Mindanao” even as the Philippine government has disbanded its peace panel and shifted to a new “peace paradigm” of negotiating with armed groups only within the context of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR).

Iqbal said the continued deployment of Army and Police reinforcements from other parts of the country and the dissolution of the government negotiating panel are among the manifestations that Iqbal cited to back his claim that government is out for a bigger war.

On September 2, soldiers of the Army’s 64^th Infantry Battalion said they were sent to Talayan, Maguindanao from Samar, Leyte to reinforce the soldiers fighting the MILF. In Dalengawen, Pikit, North Cotabato, elite policemen, on August 14, said they were deployed in the area direct from Cebu City.

The government dissolved its peace negotiating panel on September 3. Press Secretary d Jesus Dureza said they did it amid the shift in their strategy in dealing with the Moro rebels. "We will now negotiate with people at the communities," a move he described to be "a long process of building blocks."

Dureza said the government would only negotiate with the MILF if it lays down its arms, saying "mahirap makipag-usap sa kanila kung yung baril nila ay nakaumang sa atin” (it’s difficult to talk to them if their guns are aimed at us).

The Philippine government and MILF have been sitting across the peace negotiating table for 11 years now.

"The government's option is nearer to war than peace," Iqbal said while raising fear of a widespread humanitarian crisis with around half a million displaced persons, according to statistics from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).

Jaafar said the MILF Central Committee’s policy declaration is that DDR “is the last item in the talks.”

The DDR approach, Jaafar said is “part of successful conflict resolutions in many parts of the world,” forms part of the comprehensive peace settlement, but “is the last item in the talks.”

“When DDR is taken up ahead of the comprehensive peace settlement, it is interpreted to be a military approach, not part of a political approach, as in the case of the Philippines, contrary to what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said early on in 2001 when she replaced the all-out war policy of President Joseph Estrada to all-out peace policy,” Jaafar said.

"While DDR is a term that doesn't sound good, it is an inevitable part of conflict resolution. But that has to be discussed much later when there is already a final agreement," Iqbal said.

He added that discussing DDR would mean "talking about the combatants and what to do with them -- it is managing the combatants.”
 
He said this can be discussed later "because who (will be) in need of firearms when everything has already been settled?" (Romy B. Elusfa/MindaNews contributor)

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