GPH-MILF Peace Process for the First Quarter of 2012, Part II: Round 25

Having agreed at January's Formal Exploratory Round #24 to initiate a push for momentum within the Peace Process by holding one Round per month, both the MILF and GPH (aka "Government of the Philippines") Peace Panels once again ensconced themselves within Kuala Lumpur's Royale Chulan Hotel. Opening the three day Round on Monday, February 13th, 2012, both sides acknowledged that the fact that they were meeting at all was the best development anyone might expect seeing as how the Peace Process was in one of its periodic lulls.

Just before the two sides checked into the Royale Chulan the Philippine Media had discovered that the Chairman of tge MILF Peace Panel, Mohagher Iqbal, had claimed that President Aquino had already vowed to support the MILF's "Assymetrical State: Substate" territorial entity. The comment had been quietly published by the Oman Tribune ("No less than His Excellency President Benigno Aquino 3rd [sic] agreed to the MILF proposal" although some media hacks , amazingly, claimed to have read that blurb in Mohagher Iqbal's Opening Statement in Kuala Lumpur) Suprisingly, when word of Iqbal's comments made their way into the Philippine media, noone cared. The Philippine public are not exactly a sophisticated lot when it comes to their news intake; Al Jacinto, a Manila-based columnist with the "Manila Times," was the first to break what should have been an absolute bombshell. Instead, nobody took notice (excepting boring souls such as yours truly) and the same tired players shuffled into the Royale Chulan's Executive Boardroom on February 13th, as Round 25 began.

When the fog had cleared three days later (in this case "fog" is ALOT better than "smoke"), nothing important had transpired. Of the few things attempted:


1) AHJAG, or, Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, received another 12 month mandate, to expire in February of 2013. Some might recall that AHJAG is the bilateral entity that arose from the ashes of the 2003 Buliok Complex War. That to-do began with a policing action against the Pentagon Group. Pentagon, under its (then) leader, Kumander Tahir "Tigre" Alonto, was among the biggest players in the Central Mindanao KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) Industry. Having become a real thorn in the side of the Government-where many "civil servants" entered into various business arrangements with him-he was marked for neutralisation just after New Year 2002.

Unfortunately, alrhough a Maranaw (Maranao) Tribesman, he was related to MILF founder and (then) Chairman Hashim Salamat (a Maguindanowan Tribesman). The two had both been born and raised in the municipality of Pangalungan's Barangay Cudal, in Maguindanao Province, and so it was no suprise then that when badly in need of a safehaven, je availed himself to a generous offer of hospitality from Chairman Salamat.

The 2000 War had destroyed the MILF Headquarters, along with fifty-two other MILF-BIAF camps. Needing a safe haven of their own, the MILF decentralised BIAF operations (as in the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed component of the MILF), and split up its headquarters apparatus between three seperate camp complexes. Buliok Complex consisted of two seperate, inter-connected camps directly on the border of Pikit, a town in North Cotabato Province, and the aforementioned municipality in Maguindanao Province, the town of Pangalungan. Chairman Salamat moved into a palatial home that served as both his personal home AND the MILF Administrative Headquarters.

In and around Buliok Complex, the BIAF had three Field Divisions, the 1st, 2nd, and the National Guard, with a standing force of 1,500 well trained guerillas. Given this armed defense, and the fact that Bukiok sat well within the almost impenetrable terrain of the Liguasan Marsh, the site provided any interested parties with about as safe a haven as one could find anywhere in the Philippines. In late 2002 the Pentagon Group was sorely in need of such a plave.

Founded by the leaders of four inter-related KFR organisations in 2001, the last of those four leaders, MNLF-Misuari officer, Kumander Faisal "Mubarak II" Marohombsar, was killed by rogue elements within the PNP, or Philippine National Police, on Luzon in August of 2002. After Marohombsar was removed from the top of the pyramid, another.MNLF-Misuari officer, Kumander Tahir "Tigre" Alonto rose in power, albeit within a rapidly disintegrating organisation. With assistance from MILF Chairman Salamat Alonto ensconced himself within that main MILF Headquarters camp.

Ostensibly an operation against the Pentagon Group, President Gloria M.Arroyo gave the greenlight on February 9th, 2003. Just after midnite on February 11th, the AFP (Armed Forcesof the Philippines) pointed air and artillery at Buliok Complex and began "softening up" the terrain. The official narrative is that what was to be a precision strike against a single compound within the camp-that of Tahir Alonto- went wrong after an errant shell came too close to tge Salamat compound, prompting the MILF-BIAF to respond in kind. Of course this is not true but it doesnt negate tge premise behind the creation of AHJAG, a bilateral entity created as an interface between the Government (via the AFP) and the MILF (via the BIAF) to co-ordinate Government policing operations against criminal elements. Supposedly, such an entity would have gone a long way towards preventing a widening of that 2003 policing operation against Tahir Alonto and the Pentagon Group.

AHJAG had receded in importance until, in late 2010, it had stopped convening its bilateral meetings. Then came October of 2011 and the Al Barka incident on Basilan. An AFP Special Forces policing operation against the second highest ranking officer in the BIAF 114 Base Command resulted in two of the 114 Base Command's battalions ambushing the AFP. This in turn led to a cacophany of voices within the Government demanding that AHJAG re-convene.

2) The two Peace Panels examined the final reports of IMT-6. The sixth deployment of the IMT, or International Monitoring Team, ended a week after Round 25 ended. The IMT is an international force led by the Malaysian Military, is part of the three tiered Ceasefire Mechanism that also includes the LMT (Local Monitoring Team, made up of stKeholders who are to act as an early warning system about possible weak points in the ceasefire. The LMT has not convened in more than three years (despite weak murmurs in late 2010). The third tier is the CCCH, or Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (actually the word "Joint" is included officially, as in "Joint Coordinating," but it is always omitted). The CCCH is a bilateral entity composed of AFP and BIAF officers who are to liason on AFP troop movements, to avoid an inadvertant engagement.

3) The Peace Panels agreed to hold Round 26 in March.

GPH MILF Peace Process for the First Quarter of 2012, Part I: Round 24

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Unexplained Hiatus for January 1st through May 30th, 2012

Although I am now, and have been for years, based on Mindanao, my travels do from time to time take me to disparate corners of the world. While away from my adopted home I would, at the very least, feel disingenuous were I to continue pistng about Mindanao. Doing what I do requires not only an intimate knowledge of the land and its people, but with up to date sources on both sides of the divide playing an intrinsic part as well. Having been back now for a couple of weeks, I feel that I am finally ready to go at it again...