By Rene V. Carbayas
MANILA – The bloody Mamasapano incident has
brought about public interest and public discussions on the proposed Bangsamoro
Basic Law, but this has also unveiled that many Filipinos are ‘alien’ to
the peace process.
Government of the Philippines (GRP) Peace Panel Chair Miriam
Coronel-Ferrer was saddened that the January 25 Mamasapano incident had revealed
that many Filipinos do not understand the peace process.
“What that single [Mamasapano] incident had revealed to us is
basically how few people understand the complexities, the dynamics, and the
mechanisms of the peace process,” Coronel-Ferrer said at the multi-stakeholders
forum held last March 5 at Dusit Thani Manila on the “Implications of
Mamasapano on the Peace Process: Moving Forward.”
The government peace negotiator said that it is easy for some
sectors to say that the peace panel has not done consultations on the ground.
“This news has been in the newspapers all the time beginning in
1986. Since we overthrew the Marcos dictatorship the agenda of finding peace,
seeking political settlement of the different armed conflicts has always been
part of the national agenda,” Ferrer said.
For some observers, the public seems to have selective memories
and occasionally talks about the peace process. But for the GPH panel this
single Mamasapano incident has jarred people’s mind and reminded them once
again that there is this peace process that has been going on for the longest
time.
Ferrer said “there is this kind of difficulty for the public to
appreciate the complexities of the very nature of the political negotiation.
For instance, understanding the concept of transforming the MILF from an armed
revolutionary group to a political group, in the hope of finding their
legitimate space in the political construct of the body we call the
Philippines.”
She noted that people seemed to forget that when government
entered into formal talks with the MILF and the subsequent signing of the
Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, there have been less and less or no
armed confrontations between the government and the MILF forces, until the
unfortunate Mamasapano incident.
Ferrer identified some implications of the Mamasapano incident
like how parochial Filipinos are in terms of national issues and concerns and there
is a need for the nation to “go back to the basics such as understanding the
Mindanao’s history and the struggle of the Moro people and their right to
self-determination towards understanding the nature of BBL.”
She said that since the incident, the government has also been
engaging in “firefights” of the top two trending lies: the issue on the
Bangsamoro police and the P75 Billion for the MILF. With the delay in the
passing of the BBL, the peace panel hopes that Congress could pass the law by
June this year.
Other speakers of the panel discussion include Congressman
Rodolfo G. Biazon; Prof. Abhoud Syed Lingga of the Bangsamoro Islamic Studies;
and Gen. Emmanuel Bautista (Ret), for AFP Chief of Staff, Executive Director,
Cabinet Cluster on Security, Justice and Peace.
