War is stupid!

By Carlos Isagani T. Zarate

"HOW true is this text message: 'War situation in Minda bad. News blackout since last night'?" a troubled Cookie Diokno of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) texted me last Wednesday afternoon. I replied that indeed the situation is getting bad, if not becoming worse, after the military waged a renewed all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). But no, I added, a news blackout is not evident since these events have been closely monitored and reported by the media. The biggest news so far reported that afternoon was the counterattacks made by the Moro rebels against several AFP positions in the central and western regions of Mindanao. These attacks came, following the alleged call to war by MILF Chair Hashim Salamat, in response to the government's military offensives in the Buliok Complex in Pikit, North Cotabato.

Little did I and, apparently, most of the mainland's 18 million residents, imagine that another blackout would hit Mindanao that night, plunging 90 percent of the island into its darkest night in years. An eerie atmosphere greeted me when I woke up at midnight Wednesday, with Davao City enveloped in total darkness.

A toppled major transmission steel tower in Iligan City, according to the National Transmission Corp. (Transco), caused the Feb. 26 blackout, which the military, as expected, immediately blamed on the MILF, despite the latter's vehement denial. It was the 18th toppled and damaged Transco steel tower that the military claimed as the MILF's handiwork since the renewed war began on Feb. 11.

"I thought war has already escalated, spreading now to Davao," commented Dexter, a legal researcher, who was then at a downtown coffee shop when the lights went out. Other similar reactions and wild speculations also gripped the already jittery residents, who days before were bombarded with "text-misses" or false text messages, warning of simultaneous attacks allegedly by the MILF on Feb. 22.

Last Wednesday's blackout is surely an act of sabotage. But by whom? Some arguments are being set forth that a "third force" may have been behind these acts to further drag the peace process into limbo. The military's justification of the Feb. 11 assault on the MILF forces was earlier predicated on the alleged harboring by the MILF of members of the Pentagon Gang. Yet, a week later, no less than the hierarchy of the AFP and defense department admitted that the real target of the operation was the MILF itself for allegedly massing its forces in violation of the existing ceasefire agreement.

If it were so, the massive military operations are clearly not justified since there are mechanisms to address such problems as outlined in the various interim agreements made by the government and the MILF, including the one signed in Malaysia last May 7, 2002 on the humanitarian, rehabilitation and development aspect of the peace process. The signing of these agreements somehow raised hopes that the peace process with the MILF is proceeding despite the protestations of the "hawks" in the Macapagal administration. Sadly, recent events showed that it is a short-lived spark of hope as the "hawks" once again managed to spread their deadly wings.

The government's latest response of pouring millions of pesos into the so-called rehabilitation of the Buliok Complex, which incidentally partly straddles the resource-rich Liguasan Marsh, is a clear giveaway as to the real objective of the renewed war. For decades, big investors, both local and foreign, have been eyeing the Liguasan Marsh, but have been prevented from developing it by the presence of the MILF and its mass base in the area.

It is quite ironic, then, to see President Macapagal-Arroyo calling for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to seek a "win-win" solution in the current Middle East crisis. Apparently made to ward off isolation by members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the temporary smoothening of her hawkish feathers is betrayed by the fact that back home her administration is not seeking the same "win-win" solution in dealing with the stalled peace process, not only with the Moro rebels, but even with the communist guerrillas. Her peace policy is nothing but aimed at surrender and defeat, similar to the one being promoted by George Dubya with the Iraq problem. And, just like her US idol, she continues to ignore calls by peace advocates for the resumption of the stalled talks and avoid a costly war, which the '80s icon Boy George aptly said is "stupid."

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HISTORICAL NOTES: March 2 marks the 99th year of the US unilateral abrogation of the Bates Treaty, upon recommendation by then Moro Province Governor Wood, for two main reasons: the Sultan's failure to quell Moro resistance in Sulu and the treaty's hindrance to effective colonization. On the other hand, March 5-7, marks the 97th year of the massacre at Bud Dajo, Sulu, where General Wood ordered his men to "kill or capture those savages." Of the 1,000 men, women and children who fortified themselves in the 50-feet deep crater atop Bud Dajo, only six men survived the two-day carnage.

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