Concern for Mindanao

In our conversation aboard the presidential Lear jet, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed satisfaction over the completion of the Davao International Airport which she inaugurated last Monday. The infrastructure will facilitate the movement of travelers and investors to Mindanao. In addition to the facility, the creation of a more efficient and less expensive system of carrying fruits and other agricultural products from Mindanao to the Visayas and Luzon is accelerating the growth and progress of the strife-torn island.

The President’s special concern for Mindanao goes back to when she was a child, shuttling between San Juan in Metro Manila where the Macapagal family lived, and her maternal grandparents‚ home in Iligan City. She said she saw the disparity between the urban middle class of San Juan and the poor residents of Mindanao, particularly of Muslim areas.the poverty gap exists until now, she said, "because of economic exclusion."

Accordingly, her policy for Mindanao has been three-fold. First is the imperative of peace and development going together. "If we don’t develop the poor areas in Mindanao we will not have peace."

Second, the search for peace, she said, "must always be within the framework of territorial integrity, sovereignty, and constitutionality. We cannot surrender a piece of Philippine territory."

Third is the recognition that the Philippines is a multi-ethnic society. "We must have social justice for all, and institutionalize accommodations for ethnic divisions." Christians and Muslims are as Filipino as each other, Cebuanos and Tagalogs are as Filipino as each other, the Chinese Tisoy and the Chinese are just as Filipino as each other.

In this day of terrorism, the President has had to add a fourth dimension to her policy – and that is, eliminating terrorism.

She has used a "left-hand" and a "right-hand" approach to the fight against terrorism. On the right-hand approach, some gains have been made, she said. "My approach is the strong arm of the law. Terrorism is a transnational crime, that’s why the approach has been transnational." She pointed as an example to the modernization program of Armed Forces of the Philippines, which the United States has been helping under the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement. She also changed what she calls the "curriculum – from external defense to capability to fight terrorism." That’s why Balikatan was born."

In October this year, she said, the Philippines became active in the United Nations Coalition Against Terrorism. "I think I was the first one to declare that fighting terrorism is also fighting poverty." A multi-lateral agreement has since been signed by Indonesia and Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei and the Philippines in a common effort to fight terrorism. "So we operate transnationally to look for terrorists. We cut off their networks and their funds flow."

The left-hand approach involves the development of areas "that suffered so much from economic exclusion. That’s where the terrorists come from, where the hatchetmen come from." Since the Balikatan exercises, and bilateral support from the US, changes ,she said, have been seen by the residents of Basilan, Sulu, Sultan Kudarat, the Western Zamboanga peninsula, and Central and South Mindanao.

She mentioned the economic gains made, which her detractors do not seem to want to accept. For example, she said, the country’s GDP has increased by 4.4 percent, and the GNP by 5.9 percent. Investments have increased by 22 percent," the highest since the Asian crisis of 1997." In fact, she added, of the 21 economies in Asia Pacific, the Philippines is No.6 in the growth rate.

As to her critics, "I can understand their impatience. I am impatient, too. But in my 2 1/2 years in office, there has been achievement that we can proud of. I hope that these can serve as a baseline from which we can work." She paused and looked out the window, then said, "But we cannot sustain these without reconciliation."

By reconciliation she does not mean political parties getting together. "There is need to heal the divisions of our society. There are deeper divisions – between communists and those for democracy, the Muslims and Christians, the proponents of EDSA and 3. These divisions are being exploited by political parties."

Her call for fundamental change touches on charter change. She is for a change to the federal form of government. "We need to cut through the gridlock that happens between policy-making and legislation, so there is a common direction without, without our having to debate each other all the time."

"We need fundamental changes in our political system". Her move to transfer the operation of the Department of Agriculture to Mindanao is a sample of the federalism she espouses.

She said the Bush visit was that of "allies who have a common history of devotion to democracy and who are partners in the fight against terrorism. We have graduated from a relationship of colonizer and colonized. It is a partnership in the common fight against an evil that stalks the whole world, including our two countries."

As to the peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front panels, she expressed hope of peace "being in our grasp", with the coming of an advance party from Malaysia initiating the international ceasefire monitoring system, and the support given by Malaysia, the OIC, the United States and Libya.

E-mail: dominimt2000@ yahoo.com