The BDA, or Bangsamoro Development Agency is the MILF arm for economic and social development. Enabled by the GPH-MILF Tripoli Agreement of 2001 (June 22nd, 2001) just as the Peace Process re-started after the EDSA II Coup that installed Gloria M.Arroyo as President. Then, on June 2nd, 2002 the MILF Central Committee passed the Resolution that created the entity. With 36 staff members in 5 Regional Management Offices (though they claim 6):
1) Cotabato City, Central Mindanao
2) General Santos City (GenSan), Southern Mindanao
3) Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Peninsula and Basilan Island
4) Marawi City, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte
5) Davao City, Davao Region
On May 2nd, 2011 the MILF Central Committee announced plans to expand the BDA AOR (Area of Responsibility, as in Area of Operation) into Sulu and Tawi Tawi Provinces. Both provinces have virtually no MILF/BIAF (the latter being the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military wing of the MILF). There is a BIAF Base Command, the 117th, but it operates only in parts of two municipalities in Tawi Tawi and is centered upon its Sanga Sanga Island. Despite its rhetoric the MILF/BIAF has never come close to eclipsing the nearly universal support enjoyed by the MNLF before it bowed to then dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1976.
The Central Committee is also making noises about the BDA moving into Palawan as well. Unlike Sulu and Tawi Tawi Palawan is not a part of Mindanao, administratively or otherwise. The MNLF first claimed the island as part of its theoretical MinSuLuPa, an independent Muslim nation it foresaw being created out of all area with a historical connection to Islam. While Palawan was CLAIMED by the Sultanate of Brunei who then gifted it to the Sultanate of Sulu in 1658 for sending nearly 500 warriors that enabled the Sultan of Brunei to maintain his throne, the Muslim connection is tenuous at best. There is an ethnicity known as the Palawani, composed of Islamic converts from various coastal tribes on Palawan, but they are an indistinct group along the lines of the so-called "Balik Islam," or the "Islamic Reverts." According to Islam every human is born a Muslim, it is humankind's natural state. Ergo, when one finally acknowledges themselves as a Muslim they are merely REverting, not CONverting. More than this however, the Balik Islam are Filipinos of other religions who accept Islam with the perception that ALL Filipinos either were, or would have been Muslims if not for Spanish intervention. This warped view holds that Rajah Solaiman, the ruler of Manila when the Spanish arrived there, was a Muslim. Indeed he was BUT he was from Brunei, NOT Manila. He ruled Manila as a conqueror, just like the Spanish.
The BDA shouldn't be confused with the BDAF, or Bangsamoro Development Assistance Fund, which was created via Executive Order #872 in March of 2010 by then President Arroyo. The BDAF is a GPH, or Government of the Philippines entity that is meant as a catalyst for social and economic development vis a vis the parallel GPH-MNLF Peace Process. It was one of several steps taken by the Government to bring that Process' 1996 Jakarta Agreement, the FPA, or Final Peace Agreement meant to finally end THAT insurgency, to an end. Two different agencies with the same exact mandate, is it any wonder why this island is wracked with war?
On May 9th, 2011 the Chairman of the MILF CCCH, or MILF Co-ordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, Said Shiek issued a little noticed directive stating that his GPH counterpart shouldn't even bother trying to liason with him over security for any developmental issues that aren't first vetted through the BDA. The CCCH is a bilateral entity composed of two components, one GPH, the other MILF. Among other things, if a foreign delegation wishes to survey a particular area for a farm to market road project, or say an outpatient health clinic, they would apply to the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, who would delegate the responsibility to the GPH CCCH, which is composed of AFP personnel. In turn the GPH CCCH would liason with their MILF counterpart so as to avoid an attack or KFR (Kidnap for Ransom). Now the MILF wants a bite out of any project in its AOR, pay to play, like the true gangsters the MILF truly are.
Speaking of the MILF CCCH, Chairman Shiek says that he will file a Violation Complaint with the relatively new Civilian Component of IMT-6, or International Monitoring Team, Deployment #6. The Cotabato City-based IMT (though it is attempting to re-locate its headquarters to Zamboanga City) is a Malaysian-led multi-national entity mandated to act as a sort of referee when ceasefire-related disagreements crop up. The MILF is angry (what else is new) over what it says is a case of arbitrary arrest and incarceration of two men it claims are merely "farmers." At 6AM on May 18th, 2011 in Sitio Balang Kayan in the municipality of Lebak's Barangay Dumpilas, in Sultan Kudarat Province, Muslimin Mambulao and Paks Guiama were taken into custody by MBLT-7, or Marine Battalion Landing Team #7. That happens to be the perimeter of the main camp of the BIAF's 104 Base Command. The two "farmers" were brought to a Marine garrison in the municipality of Kalamansig, in that same province. As it turns out both men were released on May 19th without ever having been charged so I'm at a loss as to what the MILF CCCH will file.
The NDFP/CPP/NPA (National Democratic Front of the Philippines/Communist Party of the Philippines/New Peoples Army) aren't the only Insurgency Organisation bent out of shape over GPH inaction over detainees. The MILF has its own wish list of 25 MILF/BIAF detainees it wants released. Topping that list is Abraham Yap Alonto of Saragani Province who uses the alias Eduard Guerra. An engineer by degree Alonto served as one of the organisation's conduits for foreign money. He was nabbed by PNP CIDG-10 (Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for Region 10) on September 22nd, 2010 while sitting in a plane on the tarmac at Davao International Airport with one of his wives, waiting to fly to Manila where he was to catch a flight to Geneva, Switzerland. He had been scheduled to address the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Commission) on September 27th. Instead he has been kept in the basement at IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) at Fort Bonifacio charged with so called MILF-SOG, or MILF Special Operation Group bombings. On April 23, 2011 MILF Peace Panel Chairman Mohagher Iqbal and the MILF Chairman of the Peace Panel Secretariat, Jun Mantawil, met with the families of most of those 25 detainees at CCCH Joint Headquarters, in Cotabato City. Once again Iqbal vowed to get all the detainees released.
On May 25th, 2011 the MILF's BDA held its 6th Annual Implementation Support Mission wrap up meeting at Cotabato City's Etosan Hotel. Ironically, the Etosan is known for its casino but I guess convenience trumps religious convictions (gambling is verboten for Muslims). The BDA's Vice Chairman Dr.Rizaldy L.Piang met with a World Bank delegation led by Matthew Stephens, a European Union delegation, and a host of local NGOs, most MILF/BIAF affiliated which is how the MILF obtains a large chunk of its arms budget. Foreign do-gooders channel money to Islamo-fascist organisations like the MILF, who then use these funds to terrorise most of the island, quite the scam but the MILF didn't invent it. No, that credit goes to the MNLF and its various developmental conduits. Not that former President Arroyo doesn't have a lot to be ashamed about but at least she neutralised the MNLF in THAT area (with the aforementioned BDAF). My favourite MNLF cash cow? It is difficult to choose with there having been so many but the White Orchid Textbook Contract at close to 100 Million Pesos that simply evaporated into thin air is good for starters. Insurgent Organisations should NEVER be given carte blanche with developmental funds.
The to do at the Etosan Hotel was to tie up all the loose ends from PPA3, or, Programme Partnership Agreement #3. The particular agreement had the World Bank and EU (European Union) funding the Mindanao Trust Fund-Reconstruction and Development Programme, with disbursements to two Trust Fund Recipients, or TFRs:
1) CFSI, or Community and Family Services International
2) Mindanao Land Foundation Incorporated
The two organisations work to re-settle and monitor IDPs, or Internally Displaced Persons (Refugees).
Also worth mentioning, kind of, as I mentioned in my "GPH-MILF Peace Process, First Quarter of 2011" entry, the AHJAG, or Ad Hoc Joint Action Group was re-constituted during the 20th Round of Exploratory Talks, February 9th and 10th, 2011. On April 19th, 2011 it held its first meeting since gaining its current mandate, at Davao City's Ritz Hotel at Garden Oases [sic]. The AHJAG is a bilateral organisation composed of members of both the MILF and the GPH, four members from each, that aims to avoid the circumstances that launched the 2003 Buliok Complex War. After the 2000 War MILF founder and Chairman Hashim Salamat installed his headquarters in a camp located in Barangay Buliok, in the town of Pikit, in North Cotabato Province. With roughly 1,000 guerillas from two Brigades (Base Commands would only truly take form after this war), located within the no man's land of Liguasan Marsh, the MILF/BIAF felt secure after almost being torn apart in the 2000 War. Then, in an anti-KFR Operation aimed at the infamous Pentagon Group, also located inside Ligusan Marsh, AFP gunships "mistakenly" fired on BIAF guerillas, or so the story goes. In the end more than 300 BIAF dead littered Buliok.
40 people attended this first meeting in Davao City, including GPH Peace Panel Chairman Mario Victor "Marvic" Leonen who gave the keynote speech. This is why side table entities like AHJAG end up as just another useless waste of everybody's time. Are there not enough KFR victims within the MILF/BIAF AOR? Why then should they take the first AHJAG meeting to have taken place in a year and a half and waste it with more nonsense from a Panel Chairman who has nothing to do with this particular issue? They were given a 12 month mandate, but it was effective March 1st, 2011. That means that when that 40 person circle jer* took place on April 19th, they had already wasted 1.5 months! I guess I shouldn't be suprised, it isn't as if AHJAG has ever really accomplished anything to begin with. Both GPH and the MILF have been patting themselves on the back over the release of Angelina "Angie" Soken Chew Mantigue when all the MILF really did was deliver her ransom, and I have no doubt they took a healthy "commission" for their "good deed."
Seriously, AHJAG has offices in 5 locales:
1) Maguindanao Province
2) Lanao and Misamis, covering del Sur and del Norte in the former and Oriental and Occidental in the latter
3) Zamboanga Peninsula and ARMM Islands, covering all 3 provinces in the former, and Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi Tawi in the latter
4) South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Saragani Provinces
5) Davao Region, covering all 4 provinces there, the 3 Davaos and ComVal (Compostela Valley)
There are also 3 Secretariat Offices:
1) Davao City
2) Zamboanga City
3) Cotabato City
The third one is co-housed at AHJAG Headquarters but all the others? Bloated isn't the word. It is a self-serving bureaucracy.
On April 27th, 2011 the MILF Central Committee appointed a 3 member delegation:
1) Nasrullah Mohammad, Chairman
2) Abdullah B. Adam, holding a Masters in Islamic Studies
3) Zainal D. Kulidtod, Guest Lecturer at Mindanao State University in Marawi City for the last 15 years
to liason with the two European Union members of the IMT. Giving senior status by the EU is Cynthia Petreigh, a Frenchwoman who spent her formative years in Lebanon and working with her is Susan Robertson, a British Subject. The two person EU contingent is attached to the IMT's Humanitarian Rehabilitation and Development facet, a new module introduced in IMT-6.
Finally, on April 1st, 2011 the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a Note Verbale to the GPH Peace Panel via the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta expressing its willingness that the GPH finally process its entry into the IMT. This comes after the Arroyo Government had tendered the invitation in December of 2009. Now, just after President Aquino's state visit to Jakarta the Indonesians decided its time. It is couching the message as a reciprocal gesture for AFP participation in a Peacekeeping Mission to Aceh, an area of Indonesia wracked by Islamo-fascist insurgency. Neither nation can solve its own problems so they look to muck it up with foreign intervention, brilliant.
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