Winning the peace

Yesterday we enjoyed brewed gourmet coffee in our newsroom. The coffee was not from Brazil, Colombia or Ethiopia, but from the scenic island group of Sulu.

“Royal Coffee (Sulu’s Best)” is called kahawa sug in the local dialect, tagged “kape-yapaan” or peace coffee and described as organic washed robusta. The coffee bag says the red ripe berries are handpicked from wild coffee trees in the “lush mountains” of Sulu.

The coffee project was reportedly started by Sulu Princess Kumalah Sug-Elardo and her People’s Alliance for Progress Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Assistance in processing and marketing is being provided by several government departments as well as the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

I’ve been to Sulu and neighboring Basilan and Tawi-Tawi. From the air, the coral reefs surrounding the three island provinces are visible in the glimmering waters. They’d make great areas for snorkeling.

The forests of Sulu and Basilan are indeed lush, and would be wonderful for hiking, mountain climbing and similar activities. Tawi-Tawi, with its distinctive Islamic culture and abundant seafood (the lobsters are mouth-watering), could be a top tourist destination.

We know, of course, that the jungles – so dense visibility can be just 10 meters on a misty day – are preserved because they serve as lairs of bandits and terrorists that roam the three provinces. The forests have lured foreign bird watchers, several of whom, unfortunately, have been kidnapped for ransom. Snorkeling and diving enthusiasts stay away for fear of running into pirates and Abu Sayyaf kidnappers.

Roaming free together with the Abu Sayyaf are the terrorist trainers and acolytes of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), brigands of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the disgruntled faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has consistently shown its inability to control any of these armed groups. Worse, as the Jan. 25 clashes in Mamasapano, Maguindanao indicated, the MILF is actually a partner in crime of the BIFF, harboring international terrorists and butchering police commandos hunting down the fugitives.

No doubt there must be some members of the MILF who are tired of fighting and are genuinely interested in peace. But after Mamasapano, they seem to be in the tiny minority. Worse, the massacre reinforced suspicions that the group is merely using the peace process to achieve its ultimate aim of dismembering the country to form a pan-Islamic state.

It has not helped that at least one MILF leader, when asked some weeks ago if the peace process meant an end to secession, said he could not say this with certainty. An accurate, honest answer, but not reassuring especially for those who are skeptical of the peace process. It inevitably raised the question: so why are we talking with the MILF?

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As I’ve written several times, talking is generally better than shooting, but the talking can be redirected.

With the sincerity of the MILF in doubt, and with the group suspected of supporting terrorist organizations, peace advocates are asking: but what’s the alternative?

Not war, for sure; this is not a case of black or white. “Running over” terrorist coddlers will eliminate certain troublemakers, but it will have to be supported by other initiatives to secure communities.

During the 2010 election campaign, several of the presidential candidates gave similar answers when STAR editorial staff asked them how they intended to deal with the conflict in Mindanao.

They would go directly to tribal and clan leaders, the candidates said, to settle internecine feuds, find out the people’s needs, and involve them directly in bringing peace and development to their own communities.

The security aspect will still be there, especially at the start when notorious troublemakers may be neutralized, but the long-term emphasis will be on effective law enforcement. Once communities are secured, it is easier to deliver basic services, upgrade infrastructure and provide livelihood opportunities particularly in agriculture. Social justice mechanisms will be strengthened so violence need not be resorted to for redressing grievances.

Clan feuding gave us the 2009 Maguindanao massacre. Clan feuds among fellow Muslims plus Abu Sayyaf terrorism have given us the worst violent incidents in recent decades in Mindanao.

Muslims already have their ancestral homeland in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Inclusion in the ARMM and selection of its leaders were done the democratic way, through free elections. It’s a Bangsamoro entity with a different name, enhanced by the peace treaty (there’s an existing one, remember?) in 1996. Expansion of the ARMM can always be done through another plebiscite, ideally coinciding with regular elections to save public funds.

Why does the ARMM have to be restructured each time there’s a new president, to accommodate every murderous armed group that comes along? Will the next president talk peace with the BIFF and Abu Sayyaf? It’s rewarding armed violence and terrorism; it’s giving in to blackmail. Taxpayers – not just in the Philippines, but also in the countries providing foreign aid – are financing the procurement of high-powered weapons used to slaughter state security forces and set up a regional terrorist haven.

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Every administration, it seems, wants bragging rights over its own peace process. How about just pouring all the energy and resources into making the ARMM a success? It already has competent Muslim men and women and civil society organizations working for peace and development. It has its own Board of Investment. Former Muslim rebels are part of the military and police. P-Noy should want to see a progressive ARMM; the special region was created under the watch of his mother, President Cory.

The MILF was given full trust by the government, with its leaders feted and sent on overseas junkets. It responded with the massacre in Mamasapano, and it has not shown an iota of remorse.

This does not have to mean writing off efforts to bring stability and improve life in the Muslim regions. Negotiating with one of several armed groups should be regarded as just one aspect of a multi-pronged approach to bringing peace and development. We need not put all our eggs in one basket.

No single group holds the key to peace. Support can instead be spread out to all those who want peace and are ready to work for it and defend it – and they are sure to be in the overwhelming majority.

Some of them are courageously growing coffee in Sulu, one of the most dangerous provinces in the Philippines. We can consider the peace won when we can sit back and enjoy a cup of kahawa sug – not just in our air-conditioned offices in Manila, but right there in the lush mountains of Sulu.