“We advocate federalism as a way to ensure long-lasting peace in Mindanao,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Monday told visiting Swiss President Pascal Couchepin.

(Updated) Madam President, with all due respect— please let me be forward and direct in my opinion: “That’s a lot of bull“. Smart lady that you are, would you please step out of your ivory tower, read and ask for the opinion of those beyond your provincial thinking?

Based on the discussions here at Filipino Voices, across the Filipino blogging community on DJB’s and MLQ3’s just to name few, it is clear that the road to peace in Mindanao involves first, the de-armament of not just the MILF but all armed groups in Mindanao. Second, a just peace in Mindanao revolves around all the stakeholders in the region.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) at this stage is appropriately tagged as a “Terrorist” group. They act under the guise of a legitimate grievance, but simply their end goal is their own self-interest. Where is the Justice in that, Madam President? 

Where is the Justice for all the lives lost to allowing a Terrorist group to hold towns this Republic promised to safeguard? Your way towards Peace is the coward’s way. Your vision of the future is flawed, perhaps because of your understanding of what Mindanao needs. A war against the kind of violence the MILF pursues, I believe is a Just War. If only to finally end the reign of terror they have perpetuated on the people of Mindanao. If only to allow the economies of Mindanao to properly prosper without a gun pointed at their head every time.

I’ve been to Davao and Cagayan de Oro and they’re beautiful places. 

Even if one argues the MILF wasn’t a terrorist organization with their own selfish agenda, Government simply can not talk with just the MILF— it needs to involve everyone in Mindanao.  What’s clear in the discussion revolving around Mindanao and the question of Peace is that even the stakeholders in the region disagree. Therefore even a Federal State of Mindanao or states in the region will not guarantee any lasting peace in the region and may even spark our own brand of Civil War. We need only look at ARMM at what a federal system at this juncture will do to Mindanao. 

(update starts here) MLQ3 in The Sultan Sa Ramain speaks, 1934 quoted a speech made during the 1934 Constitutional convention on the problems of Mindanao, which is most appropriate I think. The quote goes, with emphasis mine:

I wish to bring to the attention of the Members of this Convention as representatives of the Filipino people that the Mohammedan Filipinos have been protesting against the name “Moro”. We do not like to be called “Moro” because when we are called “Moros” we feel that we are not considered as part of the Filipino people. You als know that the name Moro was given to us by the Spaniards because Morocco had been under the rule of Spain like Mindanao and Sulu. Therefore, I would like to tell the Members of this Convention that we prefer to be called Mohammedan Filipinos, and not “Moros” because if we are called Moros we will be considered as enemies, for the name “Moro” was given to us by the Spaniards because they failed to penetrate the Islands of Mindanao and Sulu. Another fallacious theory that I would like to invite your attention to is the impression that the Moros are warlike marauding criminals branded as “juramentados”. That is not true, my friends. In the Islands of Mindanao and Sulu there are many Christian inhabitants and they can get along all right with the Mohammedan Filipinos. It is natural that even among brothers, there is a quarrel; so, how much more among people? I would like to call your attention to the fact that we expect much from the Members of this Constitutional Convention; that the customs and traditions of the Mohammedans are granted to them by the present government should not be ignored to them by the Members of this convention. Religion does not in any way bar us from joining one another, for anybody can profess any religion he wishes to. It is true that the men assembled in this historic hall are going to draft the Constitution for the future Philippine Republic and it is true that the Constitution to be drafted is not to last for only one year but for all ages; and upon us rests the serious responsibility to give to our beloved country an enduring constitutional foundation in this period of transition. The Constitution to be drafted must not only be for the satisfaction of a tribe or of a particular group of people but must be for the satisfaction of the while Filipino people.

(end of update)

To Mar Roxas , Manny Villar, Bayani Fernando, Noli de Castro and every contender to Gloria’s throne, this I say: It is imperative that Mindanao be solved in the next administration. That farce has gone long enough. The greatest legacy any Filipino president can leave his or her people is a Just and Proper Peace in Mindanao.

A few days ago, I had written a post on Federalism, “Decentralize Tomorrow“. In it I wrote these lines: 

If the last hundred years of the American experiment is to be judged, even a federal government can be willed to be centralized. If peace in Mindanao does lead to a federal government, will future states be decentralized enough to be independent of everything save those when dealing with foreign nations? if Mindanao’s peace does lead to a federal republic, will it be Arroyo’s vision of Federalism that will prevail?

The most plausible scenario in an Internet-paced world is rapid everything. A plausible scenario is that tomorrow will be about creative destruction and massive decentralization. And our people seriously need to get a handle on education to meet that future.

Do we seriously need to transform into a Federal Republic to allow greater decentralization? Will less complexity, greater decentralization and more accountability allow every city, and every province to deliver services that the National Government today can not? However the answer is, clearly in order to transform this society, however you call it and however shape it must take, is to win the primary theater of war— the back-room game. Everything else is window dressing.

I add emphasis to those lines because clearly, the road to revitalizing this country’s broken down political system is through the back-rooms of power where the game is really played. We can debate all the issues in the world. We can debate the merits of systems or how flawed or right this one is or a federal system is, but unless those playing the game themselves are willing to change the rules and right this ship of state, nothing will come out of it. That is the only way to bind up this nation’s wounds. So step up, will you?! We need leadership, not greed. We need leadership, not incompetence. 

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