From the Moro National Liberation Front Website (May 21): Editorial: "Don't forget Bangsamoro Nation" -- Davao MNLF Chairman Olamit to Duterte Government
“There has to be a Bangsamoro Nation,” said President Rodrigo R. Duterte while serving as Davao City Mayor.
It should be recalled that President Duterte while still Davao City mayor already strongly advocated for a federal government set-up for the war-wracked and corrupt-ridden Philippines. He knew that only federalism could institute a clean government and solve comprehensively the decades-long Filipino-Moro war in
Mindanao
and the AFP-NDF/NPA war throughout the whole nation.
In achieving just and lasting Mindanao peace, he advised the Aquino government not to ignore the capability of Chairman Prof. Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to help forge peace in
Mindanao
. He pointed out that the MNLF chairman has a key role in ensuring peace in war-torn
Mindanao
.
In
Hong Kong
, OFW workers have also complained about voting anomaly because the candidates they voted for came out different than they expected. Surprisingly, the discredited Aquino administration candidates garnered more votes than the popular opposition candidates, like Rodrigo Duterte, Grace Poe and Jenjomar Binay.
As overwhelmingly elected president of the
Philippines
with the highest percentage of electorate approval in the May 9 polls, he has immediately called for the immunity of the MNLF chairman in order to sincerely talk about
Mindanao
peace.
It is noted that the Aquino administration totally rejected the MNLF-OIC-GRP September 2, 1996 Jakarta Peace Agreements in favor of Malaysia-brokered Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). Nonetheless, the Aquino government at the end of the day undermined BBL’s implementation by designing the Mamapasano invasion to court popular protest against the BBL that led to its natural death in the Philippine Congress.
The rejection by the Aquino government of the 1996 peace agreement contributed a major factor for the MNLF leadership to revert back to its original objective of pursuing independence and national self-determination for the Filipino-colonized Bangsamoro people.
The MNLF proceeded to establish the United Federated States of Bangsamoro Republik (UFSBR) and adopted
Davao
City
the capital center. The MNLF members and supporters conducted peaceful demonstrations in Jolo, Basilan, Dadiangas and
Davao
in support of the declaration of freedom and independence of the Bangsamoro people. But the prospective public rally for peaceful assembly of MNLF members and supporters in
Zamboanga
City
was forcibly banned by the local government under Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco. The sudden forcible banning and harassment of MNLF members led to the September 9-20, 2013 bloody AFP-MNLF war in the urban center, causing devastation and humanitarian disaster
Until today, there are still a big number of civilian Muslim evacuees living in refugee tents after the burning of around “10,600 houses, mosques and madrasa learning centers” in six villages by Philippine military occupation soldiers during the September, 2013 AFP-MNLF war.
In pursuit of colonial interest to justify injustice, genocide war and obvious oppressive crime against humanity, the Aquino government filed America-introduced rebellion charges against the MNLF freedom fighters, principally Chairman Nur Misuari and Ustaj Khaber Malik. The Aquino regime thought that the threat of trial court, impending arrest and imprisonment could silence and halt the militant liberation struggle of the Bangsamoro freedom fighters against Philippine colonialism.
In his radio program while mayor of Davao City mayor, President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his loud call to the anti-peace Aquino government not to forget MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari in the search for Mindanao peace. He emphasized the existing reality that, “for all his faults, Misuari is still a man to reckon with. Forget the Zamboanga incident (September, 2016 AFP-MNLF war) for a while, we have to talk with him if you want peace.”
On this light, Chairman Abdulaziz Olamit of the Davao State Revolutionary Committee (DSRC) and Acting Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has openly called today on President Rodrigo R. Duterte to fulfill his promise of establishing a Bangsamoro Nation within the spirit of the MNLF-OIC-GRP Jakarta Peace Agreements of September 2, 1996.
The 1996 peace agreement was forged by the Philippine government and MNLF under President Fidel V. Ramos, who issued a presidential decree creating the 13-province and 9-city Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD). The political move was executed in order to comprehensively solve the
Mindanao
war. But the succeeding Estrada and Arroyo government totally ignored the good-will political solution and both decided to craft and implement the farcical 5-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
However, the creation of the 4-province ARMM by President Corazon C. Aquino in 1987 and its 5-province upgrade in 2001 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not end the Filipino-Moro war in
Mindanao
. The betrayal of Mindanao peace by Philippine colonialism under the Marcos, Aquino and Arroyo regime only exposed the colonial mentality of Luzon-based political leaders to adopt military solution in solving the Philippines-Bangsamoro war in Filipino-occupied
Mindanao
to no avail.
Today, with the sound and bites of the May 9, 2016 national election over to erase forever the ghost of the present “daang matuwid” Aquino government, the triumphant President Rodrigo R. Duterte from so-called “
Land
of
Promise
”
Mindanao
has taken center stage as the 16th President of Philippine Republic.
Thus, on a hypothetical note, is the incoming Duterte government a portentous political whirlwind of change that finally will bring peace to Luzon, Visayas and
Mindanao
that previous Luzon-based presidents only promised and trumpeted, but never delivered?
COMPLETE REPUDIATION FOR THE ANTI-PEACE AQUINO GOVERNMENT
What of the betrayal of
Mindanao
peace by the present Aquino government? It cannot be denied that the Aquino regime designed the controversial Mamapasano invasion to presumably neutralized one “Malaysian terrorist” in the midst of the on-going ‘peace process’. The supposedly clandestine military operation led to the death of 44 PNP policemen and several MILF members as well as innocent Muslim civilians. Consequently, it also resulted to the “killing” of BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) and its eventual burial in the halls of Philippine Congress?
Deceptively from the beginning the anti-peace Aquino government was never serious of achieving “just and lasting peace” in war-torn
Mindanao
and anywhere else in the country. It only used the high tone of peace in a grandiose propaganda in highlighting the “daang matuwid” program. But it never succeeded to end the 2-front Filipino-Moro war in
Mindanao
and AFP-NDF/NPA war throughout the whole region.
Similar to the other Luzon-based colonialist leaders before him, President Benigno S. Aquino III could not abandon but patronize still the stark injustice inflicted upon the Muslim and Lumad natives of
Mindanao
by the Manuel L. Quezon-led Philippine Commonwealth government in 1935.
In the darkest side of Philippine and Bangsamoro history, it was the 1935
Quezon
Commonwealth
government that enacted the draconian land-grabbing law Quirino-Recto Colonization Act. Clearly, this colonial gross injustice and judicial land-robbery led to the colonization of the Bangsamoro homeland of
Mindanao
, Sulu and Palawan (MINSUPALA).
Subsequently, the colonial nightmare continued with the immoral and illegal incorporation of the Bangsamoro homeland into America-created Philippine Republic on July 4, 1946. Clearly, this injustice driven by political and economic greed of the previous unscrupulous Filipino leaders has contemporarily brought about the decades-long Philippines-Bangsamoro war in
Asia
.
In modern history, unfortunately but deliberately, Luzon-based colonialist leaders, like President FEMarcos, CCAquino and GMArroyo, have only become blind and deaf to the loudest cry of suffering, misery and agony of the colonized Mindanao Tri-People (Lumad, Muslim and Christian). Instead, they only adopted the deceptive colonial policy of divide.rule.destroy and accommodation.cooptation and used only the so-called ‘peace process’ methodology in perpetuating Philippine colonialism in the Bangsamoro homeland of Mindanao, Sulu and
Palawan
.
Similar to the Spanish, American and Japanese invaders in the past, the Luzon-based Christian Filipino slavers today have utilized colonization as a lethal weapon to perpetuate per se the colonial slavery of the Muslim and Animist Lumad natives as well as conscious Christian settlers of
Mindanao
.
On this end, the present but outgoing Aquino government is no different. It tried to bamboozle the Filipino and Bangsamoro communities with “daang matuwid” deodorant propaganda. Yet, the window dressing was only based on false peace promise coupled with massive corruption and spoils of pork barrel system in the 4-branch government and other Malacanang-made societal ailments.
Thus, it was seen that the May 9, 2016 election was also a national referendum for the 6-year performance of outgoing President Benigno S Aquino III, who for the 4th time betrayed
Mindanao
peace. Before him,
Mindanao
peace was betrayed by Luzon-based Filipino colonialist warmongers, like former Presidents Ferdinand E Marcos, Corazon C Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. They all chose to continue the Filipino-Moro war in Mindanao rather than establishing
Mindanao
peace.
In the final analysis, now under Mindanawon President Rodrio R. Duterte, is
Mindanao
peace probable and peace throughout the Filipino nation possible? Is it possible for the Duterte government to change the ugly image of the Filipino nation that is today looked upon by foreign observers as “most corrupt” country and “sick man of
Asia
”?
Indeed, the Filipino and Bangsamoro communities have always prayed, hoped and anticipated genuine change and clean government coming. Now, by a stroke of historical reality the phenomenon that is the rising Duterte government is given the political opportunity to make a difference. So be it!
http://mnlfnet.com/Articles/Editorial_21May2016_Don't%20Forget%20Bangsamoro%20Nation%20-%20Olamit.htm