STATEMENT of Waging Peace Philippines: Let the broader dialogue on the MOA begin!

Waging Peace in the Philippines
Saturday, 09 August 2008 00:47

So much furor has been generated by the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Ancestral Domain being forged between the Philippine government and the MILF. Tragically, the lack of transparency and consultation, and the contentious political context of President Arroyo's questioned legitimacy, have led to intense negative reactions that may even fuel more conflict. Yet after four decades of armed conflict, the majority of people long for peace in Mindanao. In recent years, many citizens have also been doing their share to build peace : establishing peace and development communities and sanctuaries of peace, monitoring ceasefires, sustaining interfaith dialogues, celebrating the annual Mindanao Week of Peace, understanding ourselves as a nation of nations..

Let us first then, amidst the anger and confusion, affirm our support for the peace process. Let us also insist that utmost effort should be taken to ensure the integrity of that peace process, built on the informed participation of the widest constituency.

Now that the MOA has been revealed, let us fully take the opportunity and time to understand, discuss, and dialogue on its actual content and implications.

The Waging Peace Philippines, a national civil society network advocating for a comprehensive peace, believes that the mechanisms for the broadest consultations should now be quickly put in place in order to give peace through the MOA a chance. The nationwide provincial consultations organized through the National Unification Commission in 1993 serves as a possible model. But more care will have to be taken to discuss the MOA soberly, thoroughly, with open minds and the participation of all stakeholders. It is especially important to listen to those who are not often heard in the majority-dominated media: the youth, women, Bangsamoro and indigenous peoples.

Hopefully the MOA will be understood as a product of many years of peace negotiations, embodying the aspirations of the Bangsamoro struggle, and the commitment of the government to some form of reparation for historic inequalities. In a struggle in which many lives have been lost on both sides, the negotiation that honors those lives can never be easy.

Therefore it is even more important that the peace process and the MOA, should not be used for any other agenda, like charter change for regime extension. We will join the people in resisting any attempt for such constitutional change before 2010.

In the end, the MOA, no matter how terrible or wonderful it is, will only be realized with the acceptance and participation of the people, if they can take it into their homes and hearts. We must all decide: how can we help to implement the MOA? or: If not this MOA, what are we willing to do to achieve peace in Mindanao?


For the Waging Peace Philippines convenors,

Karen N. Tanada