The Real Score (and Scourge)

by Barog Mindanao Batok sa Emergency Powers
Davao City, 24 July 2000

Today the President of the Philippines will deliver his version of the state of the nation.  We expect to hear him gloat over the "total victory" of the Armed Forces in Mindanao and his promise to fast-track development in the island.

The irony seems lost on Erap that his administration recently destroyed Mindanao with its "all-out war" approach to the Bangsamoro struggle.  After sending an estimated 70,000 soldiers to Mindanao -- about 60 percent of the entire Philippine military force -- to wage unrelenting war on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Erap now talks about Mindanao's development.

Mindanao is a devastated land.  An estimated 600,000 residents in Central Mindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have been displaced, casualties on both sides and to civilians run to the thousands, while the Mindanao economy has lost millions in four months of war.  More tragic, the war has torn the social fabric of the island.  Relations between Christians and Muslims are damaged, along with this generation of children who have experienced war and state-encouraged religious intolerance.

The war is over, peace has been achieved, and development can now begin in Mindanao, according to Erap.  He wants flagship projects fast-tracked to make Mindanao "more conducive to business activities and to attract more people and investments."  He has also created a 20-member superbody, the Mindanao Coordinating Council (MCC), as the vehicle for exercising the emergency powers he covets.

True, Mindanao needs infrastructure, roads, airports and ports.  But we pose these questions:  Who benefits from flagship projects the most, other than the investors, the business sector, and the landed?  Can development begin for the Bangsamoro masses who are still landless, poor, and unrepresented?  Can development spring from emergency powers, which are being criticized, as broad and dangerous and susceptible to abuse?

Erap is already the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Phils., the head of the Phil. National Police, and the Chief Executive of the land.  Now he heads the MCC.  What more emergency powers does he need? His emergency powers will include the power to ban strikes, ban courts from issuing TROs against government projects, and suspend social programs including land distribution.  How can peace and development stem from a gagged labor force, a crippled land reform program, and a voided judiciary?

During the period of "emergency," Erap also seeks to overrule actions or resolutions passed or undertaken by the different authorities, offices, and agencies in Mindanao.  Then whatever for are the Southern Phils. Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD), the ARMM, and the Office of the Presidential Assistants for Regional Concerns (Parecos) and other existing bodies created for Mindanao's economic development?

Erap has already crushed to pieces with military might the Muslim dream of independence under the MILF.  We fear that with the emasculation of the ARMM and the SPCPD, he can also kill whatever aspiration for autonomy is left to the Muslims under the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).  That situation leaves no option for the Bangsamoro people but to resume their armed struggle.  In the meantime, the roots of the Bangsamoro problem remains unresolved and the peace process is stunted. Our President Erap, for all his rhetoric as the man who broke the MILF's back and brought peace and development to Mindanao, is actually the scourge of Mindanao.  In just two years, he has done much to destroy Mindanao and bring back social unrest.

As member organizations of the Davao United Peoples' Movement for Peace (DUDMP), we hereby state our calls:

  1. For the Estrada government and the MILF to stop the shooting war and restart talks -- without preconditions imposed -- to address the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people and Mindanaoans in general;

  2. For the military to adhere to international conventions on the conduct of war by sparing civilians from warrantless arrests, disappearances, and summary killings and by granting due process to those arrested;

  3. For the government to address the evacuee problem in Central Mindanao and the ARMM, and recently in the Davao areas;

  4. For the involvement of Mindanaoans and all sectoral stakeholders in the peace process and the development of the island; and

  5. For Mindanaoans to resist the arming of emergency powers to the Estrada government because it is politically dangerous and totally unnecessary in the development of Mindanao.

END THE WAR; WORK FOR PEACE!

NO TO EMERGENCY POWERS!

ADDRESS THE BASIC ISSUES OF THE PEOPLE!

BAROG MINDANAO BATOK SA EMERGENCY POWERS
Davao City, 24 July 2000

Signed:
KATIPUNAN-DABAW
Circle of Aware Students (COAST)
UMPONGAN
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC-Davao)
ALAB-KATIPUNAN-Mindanao
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)
Philippine Peasant Institute
Task Force Detainees of the Philippines
FIND-DAVAO
KABAKAS
MITALIC
AKBAYAN-Davao
MALUFAI
Mindano Rural Congress
Mindanao Farmworkers Dev. Center
MOVERS
Katipunan ng Anak Mindanao
PFL
AFRIM
Mandug Women Cooperative
Talomo Moro Women