Counter-intuitively, the favourite sport of the Philippines is...basketball. In any corner of this country, a nation with 7,107 islands and well over 120 ethnicities, one can rest assured that they will see a paved basketball court in or around the municipal compound. Indeed, most barangays have one as well. Filipinos love basketball. Therefore, a metaphor that should be recognisable to most Filipinos. "Three Pointers," for those readers who are unaware, involves a basket shot from a long distance. In other words, a player, against all the odds, shoots- most often hurls- the ball down court in a desperate attempt to save the game...
On Thursday, November, 3rd 2011, the Chairmen of both the Government (GPH), Mario Victor "Marvic" Leonen, and the MILF Peace Panel Chairman, Mohagher Iqbal, sat across from each other on sofas in a carefully orchestrated, casual environment. Joining each man were two members of their respective Peace Panels, for the GPH:
1) Professor Miriam Coronel Ferrer
2) Senen Bacani
and for the MILF:
1) Datu Michael Mastura
2) Maulana "Bobby" Alonto
Additionally the MILF brought along a third Peace Panrlist, Professor Abhoud Syed Lingga but Mr.Lingga, like the nerd in gym class played the bench warmer (this I'd truly turning into a sports themed post). In any event, Professor Lyngga wasn't lonely as there were more than the usual gaggle of hangers on. Worth noting is that two men who wouldn't have usually even been in Kuala Lampur not only got a free but very short trip, but also got one of the highly coveted seats on those big comfy' couches;
1) Brigadier General Ariel Bernardo, Chairman of the GPH CCCH contingent. The CCCH, or Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities is the leading entity in a four-faceted Ceasefire Support Mechanism. The other three being:
A) IMT, or, International Monitoring Team, a consortium of foreign governmental and NGO (Non-Governmental Organizational) delegates who investigate any breeches that may lead to conflict and or any actual violations. Led by Malaysia, it has four facets itself:
a) Military
b) Rehabilitation
c) Socio-Economic
d) Civilian Protection
B) AHJAG, the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, composed of representatives from the MILF/BIAF and the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines. This entity was created specifically to allow the AFP to effectively deal with the large number of criminals who hide in and operate from MILF/BIAF controlled areas. An Anti-KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) operation in 2003 inadvertantly caused the Buliok Complex War when the AFP's aerial assault of the Pentagon Group (KFR organisation) came too close to the Buliok Complex, a MILF/BIAF camp that then served as the organizational headquarters and home of founder and then-Chairman, Hashim Salamat. All AHJAG really does is serve as early warning device, benefiting the MILF/BIAF, alerting it to AFP and/or PNP (Philippine National Prison) operations, a number of which aim to neutralise certain MILF/BIAF members.
C) LMT, the Local Monitoring Team, composed of five members from the following demographics:
a) MILF/BIAF (the BIAF being the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military wing of the MILF), although the Terms of Reference (TOR) mandate that the representative be a member of a provincial political committee of the MILF. In practice this has rarely been the case.
b) LGU, or Local Government Unit (munucipal or provincial government) representative
c) Representative from an NGO nominated by the MILF
d) Representative of an NGO nominated by the GPH, or Government of the Philippines
e) Religious sector
Designed to allow the CCCH and IMT to keep one foot in the thick of it. A good illustration of this entity's utility was the July of 2007 Al Barka incident on Basilan. As the composite detachment led by Marines were pinned down by two BIAF, brigades the LMT was able to implement a Local Ceasefire through the effort of a LMT member who happened to be a high ranking BIAF "officer." The LMT has been un-officially mothballed since the beginning of 2008, though the MILF Central Committee recently issued a Resolution seeking to revive the group (in late September of 2011, ironically, two and a half weeks before the latest Al Barka Incident).
As for the CCCH, the aforementioned Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities... The CCCH is composed of two teams, one from the AFP, the other from the MILF, and is used as an interface between the AFP and MILF/BIAF in that it serves as a notification conduit, much like the AHJAG though the latter is more specialised in only co-ordinating the Government's anti-crime maneuvers. If an AFP detachment is scheduled to conduct a maneuver of any type in the vicinity of a BIAF camp the CCCH is used to notify the MILF/BIAF so that the group doesn't mis-construe the AFP action as aggressive, thereby sparking an armed conflict.
Also on hand at the Kuala Lampur meeting:
2) Major Carlos Sol, Chairman of the GPH CCCH Secretariat, which handles the administrative end of the CPH CCCH contingent.
3) Brigadier General Alan Luga, Chairman of the GPH contingent of AHJAG.
The purpose all three were serving of course was to convey the seriousnes of the October 18th, 2011 Al Barka incident. The three were there for show since anything worth knowing from a less than 6 hour meeting could have easily been conveyed through the de riguer post-meeting briefing back in Manila.
Also joining the GPH contingent was:
4) Chairman of its Peace Panel Secretariat, Iona Jalijali, the Secretariat being the entity responsible for administrative and other important but less noticeable activities.
Along with Ms.Jalijali:
5) Secretariat member, Johaira Wahab
Joining Professor Abhoud Syed Lingga in the waiting room:
6) Jun Mantawil, Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel Secretariat
7) MILF Peace Panel Secretariat Member, attorney Mike Pasigan
8) MILF Peace Panel Secretariat Member, Mohajirin Alim.
Also present in the waiting room was an unusually large ICG contingent. The ICG, or International Contact Group, consists of foreign Governmental representatives and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). It may be recalled that 72 days prior, at the 22nd Formal Exploratory Round, it was the ICG that prevented the entire Peace Process from going up in flames and that is certainly apt imagery given the guaranteed consequences of the Process ending abruptly. On the second of that planned three day 22nd Round, the MILF Peace Panel ended up screaming at their GHP counterparts after digesting the Government's long awaited Draft Comprehensive Agreement, a long awaited Interim Agreement meant to rapidly pave the way for an FPA, or Final Peace Agreement.
The GPH Chairman, Marvic Leonen, handed his MILF counterpart Mohagher Iqbal a watery mush that Leonen ridiculously describes as a "Three-in -One Agreement." The problem however, as the MILF correctly noted, was that the the "Three" major points- all of which I discussed at length on my Third Quarter entry analysing both the Round and the Draft so that for the sake pf brevity I will continue without touching upon both- is that nothing offered was new, and nothing offered even required negotiation. Three weeks before that Round both Chairmen had met at what was initially a secret meeting in a Tokyo suburb as President Aquino held his (initially) sectet tet a tet with MILF Chairman al Haj Murad Ebrahim. That meeting- again, analysed in depth in another one of my Third Quarter entries- was a bait and switch scam to alleviate some of the pressure coming to bear on the Aquino Administration after it had repeatedly failed to provide that Draft in repeatedly re-scheduled meetings since its actual due date in April of 2011. The date was pushed back to August 22nd when both sides were to convene for that repeatedly mentioned 22nd Formal Exploratory Round.
Then, after handing over the Draft, the Round imploded. Amid screaming GPH Chairman Leonen and his Panelists stormed out of that very same Boardroom where the couches had replaced the boardtable. Upon leaving the Talks the GPH Peace Panel pointedly sat down to a huge spread in the hotel's Chinese Resturant, on the same floor. Seeing as how it was Ramadan, the Islamic holiday in which adults forgo all food during daylight hours, Leonen's choice of meeting place seemed to many- myself included- to be a direct statement aimed at Iqbal, his Panel, and the MILF/BIAF on general.
It was then that the ICG represenatives on hand saved the day, quickly walking between the Boardroom and the resturant, ferrying messages and replies between the two Chairmen. In the end it produced tangible results with the GPH Panel returning to the Boardroom in the late afternoon, just enough time to agree to disagree but with civility and an eye on future Rounds.
Therefore, the ICG's cache has gone up considerably. At this "Informal Meeting," the ICG was represented by Political Officers from the Turkish, British, and the Japanese Embassies to Malaysia. On the NGO end, David Gorman from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Dr.Markus Sudibyo from the Indonesian-based Islamic-centered NGO "Muhammidiyah Foundation," Emma Leslie of Conciliation Resources and lastly, Dr.Stephen Rood of the Asia Foundation. I find the Asia Foundation's inclusion highly questionable in that it is a CIA front although it supposedly went independent back in the late 1960s, nearly two decades after it first began meddling in Mindanao from its Cotabato City offices. I could go off on a riff about the MILF hypocritically portraying itself as "Anti Colonialist" and "Anti Imperialist" and yet it pays fawning obesiance to both the American Embassy to the Philippines as well as to the Asia Foundation but alas, this is neither the time nor place for such observations. Don't despair fair reader because I do intend to out both sides in due time ("due time" being whenever I finally catch up in more pressing entries).
Regressing to attendees, one must not neglect to mention the Malaysian Facilitator, Dato Abdul Ghafaar Tengku Mohammed, who himself continued the ICG's Shuttle Diplomacy by spending the better part of the two and a half intervening months between the 22nd Exploratory Round and this latest meeting by flitting to and from in the Philippines. To his credit he even made what must have been excruciatingly maddening trips to the current MILF Headquarters, Camp Darapanan in the municipality of Sultan Kudarat (not the province of the same name) in Mindanao's Maguindanao Province. It was mostly due these exertions that this latest meeting was at all possible.
There was no Joint Statement at the end of the 6 hour meeting though it is clear that both unilateral Statements had been co-ordinated with each other, being nearly identical. I will not waste time analysing them because they offered absolutely nothing. Both sides agreed to meet again, sooner rather than later. Both sides agreed to allow the investigation being performed by the Ceasefire Mechanism entities- CCCH, IMT, and AHJAG- to serve as the Official Investigation of the October 18th, 2011 Al Barka incident, as opposed to the individual, parallel investigations performed by the MILF Central Committee and the AFP, the latter having been completed even before this November 3rd meeting transpired. Finally, the MILF agreed to co-operate with the AFP on operations in and around MILF/BIAF camps so long as the AFP abides by the protocols bi-laterally
implemented via the aforementioned four Ceasefire Mechanism entities: CCCH, IMT, AHJAG, and LMT. In other words, it is merely re-iterating its agreement from 2004 when it agreed to create and implement AHJAG.
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