______________
For comments and suggestions:
Email us at feedback@insidemindanao.com
or send us a message thru our MESSAGE TO THE EDITOR portion on our homepage
First Posted on Inside Mindanao (www.insidemindanao.com) on November 9, 2008
International Monitoring Team tour of duty ends this month
By Baikong S. Mamid
COTABATO CITY—The International Monitoring Team (IMT), an international peacekeeping team led by Malaysia's contingent, announced that their tour of duty will end on November 30, and the team of 29 members will leave Mindanao on December 1.
The peacekeepers from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya, Japan, and others have overseen the ground implementation of the 2003 agreement of cessation of hostilities between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a revolutionary group in Mindanao.
Due to tensions and the release of temporary restraining order (TRO) by the Supreme Court of the Philippines thereby stopping the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA–AD) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last August 5, the extension of the tour of duty of IMT is unlikely to happen.
It can be recalled that local politicians from Mindanao such as North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol, Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, and Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat were behind the filing of the case before the Supreme Court.
The October 23 International Crisis Group (ICG) Asia Briefing states that "the revelation of the planned geographic scope [the ancestral domain definition and the territories included in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity] led to outraged from local politicians, whose land would be affected and who had not been consulted during the negotiations, to demand an injunction. President Arroyo's opponents and potential successors after the 2010 elections also saw political advantage to be gained from condemning the MOA."
According to Malaysia's Star Online, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak agreed to GRP and MILF peace panels' requests to extend the participation of Malaysia in short–term peace initiatives last August. The request is a three–month extension in which both parties are expected to agree and sign the MOA–AD.
A week after the request was granted, the Philippine Government dissolved its peace panel negotiating with MILF. The government also proclaimed that they will not sign the MOA in any form. On October 14, by vote of 8–7, the Supreme Court ruled that the MOA–AD is "unconstitutional."
IMT was created based on the agreement signed by the negotiating panels of the GRP and the MILF. Extending the IMT tour of duty can only be requested by both parties.
The IMT term of reference mandate is one year, and is subject for request by the GRP and MILF. Since October 2004, four batches of peacekeepers arrived and played significant roles in sustaining the ceasefire on the ground together with the GRP and MILF Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), and third party ceasefire monitoring teams.
"The mandate of International Monitoring Team (IMT) is finished. But the MILF stands firmly that it will not launch an offensive even after the exit of IMT," said Eid Kabalu, spokesperson of the MILF, in a phone interview just recently.
Brig. Gen. Rey Sealana, deputy commander for peace process of the Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom) and head of the government's Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) said that the government panel is dissolved already, but the CCCH is under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) which is headed by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon.
Brig. Gen. Sealana also said that there is no ceasefire against the so–called "recalcitrant" three MILF commanders (Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar, aka Commander Bravo, and Aleem Solaiman Pangalian) and their members, but ceasefire continues with the rest of MILF base commands.
Punitive operations are on–going and enforced in the Pigcawayan, Alamada, North Cotabato, Pikit; portions of Lanao del Norte and Sur, Maguindanao, and Shariff Kabunsuan, and Sarangani.
As of September 2008, more than 100 skirmishes were recorded compared to only eight armed skirmishes last year between MILF troops and government troops. More than 70 of the skirmishes took place on August 2008, right after the aborted signing of the MOA–AD in Malaysia.
When IMT first came in to oversee the situation in Mindanao after the 2003 all–out–war, from more than 500 recorded armed fightings between the government and MILF troops, the number went down sharply to 16 in 2004; and an average of 10 recorded skirmishes from 2005–2007.
With more than 100 armed skirmishes in August and September alone of this year, an estimate of half million civilians are reportedly displaced. There are also reported and undocumented human rights violations on the ground. Investigative and fact–finding missions by non–government organizations, some institutions, and even church–based organizations were conducted that have validated the reports. This, calls for a deeper investigation and call for action, for justice to those innocent civilians who were afflicted by the violations.
Nowadays, more anxieties are brought up by the uncertainties of situation after the tour of duty of IMT ends this coming November 30.
END