MERGED: MILF-GRP Peace Process, Related Issues and Developments

[gareb]

The government should tell them to surrender first before negotiating for a compromise. If the MILF is really serious about the peace talk and settle for a compromise they should surrender first, but they probably think that having their own "force" can give them a leverage to make demands on the negotiation. So this is very unlikely to happen. This is a dilemma which I think the only real solution is to go to the extreme. Either give them what they want or finish their rebellion by going to war until the last one of them surrenders.

how can you bargain if you surrender?

As what Sri Lanka did to the Tamil Tigers...

can we afford something like this?

U.N. Report Says Tens of Thousands Killed in Sri Lanka Civil War
Video: Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

yeah! sakto jd kaayo. they are asking too much mn sd gd...

who says what is "too little" and what is "too much"? from who's perspective are we looking at?

from the point of view of those who will be adversely affected by their claims of "ancestral domain", their claims would of course be "too much". yet for them who felt severely disenfranchised by the land grabbing of old, and the failed promises of ARMM, their demands are just right.

what we need to understand that each side of the conflict has diametrically opposite interests which are fundamental to their everyday living. this is why it has escalated into an armed conflict in the first place.

again challenge now is to find a workable compromise that is acceptable to all parties involved. this is tougher than going to war, but then there is no easy way to peace. and this is why everybody needs to sit down and talk peace.

this is because peace with justice can never be "too much".

[entz_fire]

problema kay gsakyan dayon ug media para naay hot issue permi

[boom_box]

Deles blames former President for hostilities

GMA again... ahh.. okay
Accountability is totally a joke in this country...

[peewee_toot]

^^hahaha. sala na lagi ni gloria.

limpyo lagi ang AQUINO admin. sila na ang anak sa Ginoo.

[gareb]

Deles blames former President for hostilities

GMA again... ahh.. okay
Accountability is totally a joke in this country...

you are quite right. accountability is suppose to go hand in hand with political power. but in a country whose idea of accountability and rise to power goes only along kinship and patronage lines, modern civil society's concept of "public accountability" is just a phrase with no meaning.

i think Sec. Deles was right to point out that the ATS was put in the MOA-AD during GMA's term, and since it was an agreement between the GRP and the MILF, it needed to be upheld. take note, the ceasefire agreement together with the ATS was working until this recent incident of the military's blotched operations.

understandably, the ATS can be better worded and it is just right to subject it for further review to patch some holes. but focusing too much on the ATS redirects our attention to the main reason why this issue has exploded to the ceiling, which is precisely how the military conducted its operations. and i am not talking about blaming the soldiers (everybody knows they have become pawns to a game of generals), but the move of the AFP hierarchy that lead to their deaths. until the chinks in the agreement between the GRP and the MILF has been thoroughly ironed out, it has to stand for peace to hold.

can the Aquino administration improve the situation? of course.

• stop the bombs. it's not working. you are just bombing abandoned areas and ruining the livelihood of civilians. the people you are looking for are most probably no longer in the area. that's guerrilla fighting 101 for you.
• disclose the details of the encounter. disclose the main objective of the operation and why it failed.
• if their objective was to secure certain personalities who are not members of the MILF, determine if there was any lapses with the AFP for entering the ATS without any coordination with anybody else. if these were MILF targets, same thing. the AFP is in a place that it should not be.
• demand and explanation from the MILF why these personalities (if not MILF members) are hiding in the ATS, and demand for their surrender, specifically due to the brutal treatment of the soldiers in their hands.
• offer to sit down and talk about the most recent skirmishes and ask what the MILF can do to help stop it, lest the military continue it's somewhat-blind operations in the area; something that the MILF wants stopped as well.

[gareb]

Method To Madness: This is war
Patricial Evangelista

(excerpts; highlights mine)

It is true that the men who sent back Ricafranca’s body were brutal in their killing. Justice is the answer, not war on an entire populace and the end to peace—especially since there are reasons to blame men who should know better.

Yet Mindanao has a cause, and a binding unity, one that is often justified by the idiocies of Manila politics. Theirs is a demand for a proper share of national resources, for autonomy when autonomy can be granted, for roads that do not slide down mountains and schools that do not depend on Italian missionaries named Father Pops.

This is the reason peace talks persist, in spite of a pork-eating Joseph Estrada and the barbarity of the Abu Sayyaf. There is no other option but peace, no matter how many men are killed on both sides. The talks stalled in Fidel Ramos’ time, they stalled during Estrada’s term, only his response was an all-out war. The talks stalled when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office, they will stall now, even with a President whose surprising commitment to peace is assailed by the conceit of men. We do not have soldiers with enough blood to drown the minority that takes up arms after the inevitable slaughter; neither is courage a reason for the arrogance and impracticality of leaders, living as they do on some vague premise that they can crush Al-Barka tomorrow and call for peace the next week.

[bosin]

pulboson na ni sila oi! ngano si p.noy dle man gyud mu lihok ani oi! maypa to time ni erap kay hadlok kau ang MILF niya!

[handurawan]

hi-skol pako nagsugod nani ilang peace talks... hangtod karon peace talks lng gihapon... grabe negosyuha....

[bosin]

may lage ni boombahan! evacuate ang mga civilians nya ambush dayun ang lugar!

[blue_lagoon25]

sus,kung bahaon og mag.landslide na ang basilan for sure, manggawas ra na silang mga rebelde..