Even though the law establishing the BARMM was ratified in a plebiscite in February and BTA officers have been chosen to guide the transition period it was only this week that the BARMM was officially inaugurated.
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| https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/03/29/duterte-to-bta-power-to-chart-regions-future-in-your-hands/ |
Before I would start reading my prepared speech, may I just express in front of you my extreme happiness that...It gives me the high that we were able to realize at least a part ---maybe not all, but a part of what the entire country would have wished for the Moro people of Mindanao.
Maybe in due time with the prayers to our Allah that we’d able to fix also the western part and I hope to talk to our brother Nur Misuari on the western side. I pray for success and the guidance of Allah in our endeavours.
Today, we proudly open a new chapter in our history as we inaugurate the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the new autonomous entity that we had envisioned to address the injustices of the past and plot the new course towards a more promising future for Mindanao and the rest of the country.
This momentous event brings us a step closer to the realization of our decades-old dream of a peaceful region that is governed by the autonomous government that serves all Muslims, Christians,lumads,and other indigenous peoples,and every Filipino who also call Mindanao their home.
It is my sincere hope that the new Bangsamoro regional government will not just live up to its aspirations and principles embodied in the past peace agreements with different Morofronts, but also promote good governance, transparency, accountability, and inclusive political empowerment.
Before I end, let me repeat and reiterate my solemn promise to you, a sacred one which I promised also to Allah for his blessings, that in my term and for the next three years, we will all work and truly work for the benefit of the Bangsamoro people.
Surprisingly this whole speech is in English and can be read at the link above or watched here and its only 8 minutes. It is a very short speech and it is full of howlers. How about:
"we were able to realize at least a part ---maybe not all, but a part of what the entire country would have wished for the Moro people of Mindanao. "
Does the entire country really wish for a limited autonomy for the Moro people? Is that what the Moro people wish for themselves? Remember the BARMM is part of the peace deal made with the MILF and the MILF only. There was already a peace deal with the MNLF which culminated in the ARMM. It is ironic that the MILF accepted a deal of limited autonomy when they separated from the MNLF over that very issue of the MNLF accepting limited autonomy rather than holding out for full independence. Therefore when he says:
As for the historical injustices the ARMM and BARRM were and are supposed to rectify what are they? Colonisation! The MILF wants the whole of Mindanao given to the Moro people because of ancestral domain claims. They want the invading kafir, the Christians, gone. That was the sum and substance of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain which the government actually signed but the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional.
Elsewhere we read about this event:
"Today, we proudly open a new chapter in our history as we inaugurate the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the new autonomous entity that we had envisioned to address the injustices of the past and plot the new course towards a more promising future for Mindanao and the rest of the country. "
and:
"It is my sincere hope that the new Bangsamoro regional government will not just live up to its aspirations and principles embodied in the past peace agreements with different Morofronts"it's hard to know what he means. The ARMM was supposed to stop the violence and inaugurate peace and be a "new chapter in our history." What is different about the BARMM? The peace agreement with the MNLF ended up being scrapped because Misuari ultimate rejected it. Now he is threatening war if he does not get federalism and Duterte is praying to Allah that he can secure a deal with Misuari.
As for the historical injustices the ARMM and BARRM were and are supposed to rectify what are they? Colonisation! The MILF wants the whole of Mindanao given to the Moro people because of ancestral domain claims. They want the invading kafir, the Christians, gone. That was the sum and substance of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain which the government actually signed but the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional.
Elsewhere we read about this event:
Bangsamoro Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim told the President the MILF had already submitted to the President’s office last week the complete list of their combatants and firearms for the first phase of the decommissioning process.
History is repeating itself. Disarmament and eventual absorption into either the PNP or AFP or transitioning to a normal life was exactly what MNLF fighters were supposed to do.
Such were the provisions in the 1996 Final Agreement between the GRP and the MNLF. These provisions are not at all different form the Annex on Normalisation signed between the GRP and the MILF which were previously documented here. From Stanford University's Mapping Militant Organisations we read the following:
After 1996, the MNLF demobilized. The MNLF’s primary purpose and structure during this period are unclear, but it seemed to function almost as a form of political identification. The 1996 agreement originally had provisions for including a certain number of MNLF members in the regional government as well as special programs providing education and technical skills for MNLF forces that did not integrate into the AFP or the PNP. The MNLF’s alliance with Lakas enabled its members to run for elected office more effectively, and the networks between members continued to exist. The MNLF did not disarm, although some MNLF members who integrated into Philippine society chose to surrender some of their weapons through a buy-back program called Balik-BARIL (Return Gun). Approximately half of the MNLF’s fighters entered the PNP and the AFP.
However, discontent began to rise in the early 2000s as the MNLF began to view the 1996 agreement’s implementation as flawed. Many MNLF members believed that the 2001 New Organic Act for the ARMM, initiating the 1996 agreement’s second stage, contradicted the Final Peace Agreement’s stipulations of authority over mineral resources. The MNLF fractured into various new factions, including the Executive Council of 15 (EC-15)—established in 2001—that emerged in opposition to a faction still loyal to and led by Misuari. Before ARMM elections in November 2001, Misuari’s dissatisfaction with the 1996 agreement’s implementation and his own waning influence caused him to lead an armed attack in Sulu and Zamboanga City. This attack—carried out by Misuari’s MNLF faction, sometimes called the Misuari Breakaway Group (MBG)—was meant to stop the ARMM elections that Misuari did not believe he would win. Misuari escaped to Malaysia after the rebellion failed. However, he was arrested and deported back to the Philippines, where he was jailed.
http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/379
The MNLF did not live up to the aspirations and principles embodied in any of the peace agreements made with them. Will the same be true of the MILF? Only time will tell but history says yes.
Peace talks with the NPA have been called off but that's not stopping them from celebrating their 50th anniversary.
Peace talks with the NPA have been called off but that's not stopping them from celebrating their 50th anniversary.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/689370/with-peace-talks-off-new-people-s-army-to-mark-50th-year-on-friday/story/ |
In a nation plagued by armed groups ranging from kidnap-for-ransom outfits to Islamist secessionist movements, the communist New People's Army (NPA) is among the deadliest.
Yet after decades of failed peace efforts, there is no end to the killing in sight as the campaign marks its 50th year.
The NPA's staying power and deadly reach are rooted in the Philippines' deep poverty and the group's ability raise large sums of money, even after the US labelled it a terrorist group in 2002.
It imposes a so-called "revolutionary tax" in its strongholds, the equivalent of two percent of any business project, that police say generates a minimum of 200 million pesos ($3.8 million) per year.
Failure to pay results in violence, like torching a company's heavy equipment or facilities.
This year promises to be a particularly lucrative one due to legislative elections set for mid-May. Candidates are hit with "permit-to-campaign" fees if they want to hold events in NPA areas.The government has already warned politicians and businesses not to pay those fees (though Duterte said back in 2013 to just pay them) but that likely won't deter them from paying the fees.
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| http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1065751 |
As the campaign period for local bets kicks off on March 29, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) on Wednesday reminded candidates not to pay permit to campaign fees to the New People’s Army (NPA).
In a joint statement, the DILG and ULAP reminded aspirants in the May 13 mid-term polls that “financing the NPA and their terror activities will make them criminally and administratively liable under our laws”.
“We will not hesitate to file criminal and admin cases against politicians who will support terrorism. And we will expose your names to the public,” Malaya said.
Perhaps the government should release their list of NPA tax payers so voters won't vote for those people. Aside from politician and business paying extortion directly there is the problem of CPP front groups receiving money and passing it on to the NPA. The EU has been unwittingly guilty of this practice but now has been officially warned.
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| http://www.canadianinquirer.net/2019/03/28/ph-formally-requests-eu-to-cease-funding-cpp-npa-fronts/ |
National Security Adviser and Vice Chairman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTFELCAC) Hermogenes Esperon formally wrote to the European Union (EU) to “immediately cease” its funding being funnelled to groups acting as legal fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.
Esperon underscored that the funds are being used “to propagate terrorism” through international alliances and networks, and are utilized to finance terrorist front organizations to recruit, traffic, and exploit children to become child warriors.
He added that EU funds are also being used “to recruit and exploit vulnerable sectors such as indigenous people (IP), the systematic destruction of the latter’s culture and value system, and the murder of their leaders.”
Hopefully they can dry up the funds of the CPP-NPA. In the meantime NPA fighters continue to surrender.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1101920/45-npa-rebels-yield-in-calabarzon |
“These rebel surrenderees are now free to rebuild their lives and enjoy peace and prosperity with their families and take the opportunity to avail of the government’s amnesty program and livelihood assistance under the E-CLIP,” Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde said in a press briefing at Camp Crame on Monday.
The program features the establishment of halfway houses or receiving facilities where the former rebels can stay during the facilitation of their surrender, said Albayalde.
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| https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/03/29/19-npa-members-return-to-the-folds-of-the-law/ |
Nineteen members of the Communist New People’s Army Terrorists (CNTs) returned to the folds of the law on the day of its founding anniversary, March 29, 2019.
The 19 former rebels also laid down 13 high powered firearms, explosives, and various ammunition. They are from the various CNT units operating in the provinces of Cotabato, Davao Del Sur, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces.
“Their surrender on the very day of the NPA’s supposed founding anniversary is a very clear indication that its ranks continue to decline due to the relentless efforts of the troops on the ground to hunt them down while providing space for them to peacefully surrender”, Col Efren Baluyot, the Brigade Commander of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade, said.
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| http://www.visayandailystar.com/2019/March/28/topstory8.htm |
She added that Ka Vic is joining 10 other former rebels who will soon avail of the Enhanced-Comprehensive Local Integration of the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Ka Vic is also expected to receive cash assistance, the amount of which is equivalent to the firearms and explosives she had surrendered, Veluz also said.
Nice. More NPA fighters who will be given taxpayer money and won't be held accountable for their crimes.
This is supposed to be a martial law update but it has become a catch-all for the Philippine government's dealing with various terrorist groups. Let's end with some recent news about martial law.
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| http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1065589 |
"Do not believe those news, those reports are coming from Luzon, not from IPs communities in Mindanao," he said in Filipino.
In fact, Bayaan claimed martial law's implementation has prevented the New People's Army (NPA) from executing or killing many IP for not following rules set by the rebels which include none participation in rallies and refusal to join up with the communist terrorist movement.
This earned the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and President Rodrigo R. Rodrigo the gratitude of IP communities, he added.
Yeah. Sure. The indigenous peoples of Mindanao love martial law because it protects them from the NPA. Martial law forever!
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