Either All Out War

Either all-out war or Marshall Plan for Mindanao | The Manila ...
http://www.manilatimes.net/either-all-out-war-or-marshall-plan-...
Crucifixion of Jesus
Y-Jesus.com Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? Discover the Evidence From Scholars
Home
Fast Times
News
Opinion
Regions
Life & Times
World
Show Times
Sports
Business
Special Reports
Hi! Society
The Sunday Times Magazine

Health
Search
Tech Times
Expats & Diplomats
Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:29 PM PHT
FOLLOW US:
Either all-out war or Marshall Plan for Mindanao

September 19, 2013 10:12 pm Like 81 Tweet 3
First of two parts Perhaps he was too defensive over the Zamboanga sieges impact on the Philippines investment image, but it was disconcerting for Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to pooh-pooh Mindanaos role in the economy in the wake of the Zamboanga City siege.
by RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO
He told foreign investors at the recent Philippine Economic Briefing that Mindanao contributes only 20 percent to the countrys total GDP so that the Philippines grew 7.6 percent
Download Legislators' pork allocations to dubious NGOs: SAO Report No. 2012-003 Annex A
in the first half of the year (even if) Mindanao under performed. Worse, he practically disowned the region as part of the country: Geographically, if you look in the map of the Philippines, its from North to South. If you really want to know proximity, the area that has some issues is probably closer to some Asean capitals than it is to Manila. Thats practically our Finance secretary saying dont mind Mindanao. It doesnt matter to Manila and Makati.
The Manila Times

Like 9,130 people like The Manila Times.
Facebook social plugin
Purisimas mentality is exactly that which Mindanaoans have criticized as the thinking of imperial Manila. Yes, we need to settle the peace problem in those hinterlands, but the areas growth or decline doesnt much make a dent on the entire country. Thats precisely the kind of thinking that has made Mindanao the countrys backwater, and the breeding area for both Muslim and communist insurgencies. The Zamboanga siege that has lasted ten days is obviously rooted in the decades-old Muslim insurgency. It was worsened by President Aquinos flawed approach to end Muslim separatism, since it involved only one half of the Moro people, the Maguindanaoans, who dominate the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Completely left out is the other half of the Moros,
1 of 5
9/20/13 5:30 PM
the Tausugs who make up most of the Moro National Liberation Front led by Nur Misuari. The MNLFs wrath arises from its view that it has either been ignored or put under the MILF, and that the Philippine government threw to the dustbin the internationally-sanctioned Tripoli Agreement of 1976, which recognized the Misuari-led organization as the Moros sole representative, a victory paid for by the blood of their people. There is though a deeper dimension to the Mindanao insurgency. The Moro-dominated areas, mainly central Mindanao, Zamboanga del Norte, Sulu, and Basilanwhere MILF, MNLF, and even the terrorist Abu Sayyaf fighters are bredare among the poorest provinces of the country. (This is also the case for thecommunist insurgency, now based in the poorest provinces as Eastern Samar, the Caraga region, and Apayao.) Give them an explanation that it is the exploitative, Christian-dominated, Moro-hating imperial Manila that caused their poverty, and you will always have young people willing to kill and die for the MNLF and the MILF. Compared to the Philippines overall poverty incidence of 22 percent of families below the poverty line in the first semester of 2012 (the latest survey), Lanao del Sur and Maguindanaothe MILFs bastionshave a mind-boggling 69 percent and 58 percent of families there poor. With Purisima living in the National Capital Region, which has a poverty rate of 4 percent, he wouldnt understand a province where two-thirds of the population are poor. The figures for Sulu and Basilans poverty incidence are reported at 30 percent, which I strongly suspect are under-reported, for complex reasons, one being the lack of povertyresearchers to travel to areas there known to be Abu Sayyaf strongholds. An indication of this is the fact that even without any known major economic project in Sulu, its poverty incidence has gone down from 43 percent in 2006 to 30 percent to 2012, in contrast to Maguindanao whose incidence worsened form 48 percent to 58 percent.) The poverty in Muslim areas is due to a host of factors, among them: the imposition of the coconut industry there even before world war II that has been an engine of poverty, the corruption of Muslim leaders, the concentration of government resources in Luzon by a Manila-centered government, and Malaysias support of the Muslim insurgency that made it a formidable force in the early 1970s, making it a war-torn region, one investors would shirk form going into. Former MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu pointed out that the MNLF indeed was left out in the Aquino governments negotiations. He proposed a peace plan that would create two autonomous regions for Muslims: One in central Mindanao that is dominated by the Maguindanaons and the other to consist of Sulu and Basilan, the Tausugs territory. After all, he pointed out, in the pre-Hispanic period (and even today in its ghostly form though), there was a Sultanate of Maguindanao and a Sultanate of Sulu, which reflects the existence and separation of two Muslim nations. But there are peace plans and there are peace plans. There are really only two alternatives for the Philippine Republic in confronting Muslim separatism and preventing any Zamboanga-type of siege again. We have to choose. One is an all-out war against the MILF and the MNLF. This was actually the approach of former President Joseph Estrada. In July 2000, the Armed Forces of the Philippines captured the MILFs main headquarters Camp Abubakr and killed hundreds of its fighters. Having visited the camp in its heyday in 1995 as a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, I myself thought the MILF center strategically located on a mountain plateau impregnable. Estrada would even insult the MILF by having several lechons brought into the captured camp for his troops to feast on. MILF founder and revered chairman then Hashim Salamat lived in Abubakr, and his flight from it, pursued by the military, is believed to have taken its toll on his health that he died in 2003. To this day, Estrada believes that if he had not undertaken his all-out war against the MILF, it wouldnt have agreed to go into peace talks with government. Estradas belligerent approach is not without precedent in our part of the world. The Britishcontrolled Federation of Malaya from 1948 to 1960 under its so-called Malayan Emergency launched a ruthless war against the Malayan communists guerillas, even uprooting and
2 of 5
9/20/13 5:30 PM
putting into hamlets civilians to deprive the insurgents of their mass base. Historians point that if the British had not wiped out the communists, there wouldnt have emerged such vibrant economies now as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Indonesian generals in the late 1960s ruthlessly wiped out the Indonesian Communist Party, the biggest communist party after Chinas at that time, killing over 500,000 communists and their supporters. More recently, Thailands Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005 launched an all-out war against Muslim separatist in its southern Pattani region. After a coup that ousted him in 2006 though, the approach was reversed to a peace-talks one. Hostilities erupted though again in 2007. While the insurgents back is said to have been broken, they are still able to occasionally undertake limited attacks against the Thai military. Indeed, Southeast Asias tigers and emerging tigers growth path had been paved with the corpses of hundreds of thousands of insurgents. Is our country poor because we havent been ruthless enough? The alternative approach is to undertake, for lack of a better term, a mini-Marshall Plan not just for the Muslim areas or for the entire Mindanao. The Marshall Plan (named after US State Secretary George Marshall) that started in 1948 was the massively funded American plan that swiftly rehabilitated war-devastated Europe so that it would be prosperous again so as to resist the Soviet Union. The term mini-Marshall plan for Mindanao was in fact coined to describe the so-called US-led Multilateral Aid Initiative started in 1989, which raised and focused $1 billion in funds for a part of Mindanao for infrastructure and other development projects. In the way the European Marshall Plan had a target, the MAIs objective was to jumpstart Mindanaos development to rid it of the poverty that bred the communist and Muslim insurgencies. My column on Monday will expound on this, on whether we can replicate it at this period, to prevent another Zamboanga siege from breaking out again. tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com www.rigobertotiglao.com and www.trigger.ph
Recommend Send 81 people recommend this.
4 Responses to Either all-out war or Marshall Plan for Mindanao

Bernard P. Tansiongco says:
September 20, 2013 at 2:12 pm
Dont blame the government for the woes and poverty these areas are experiencing. Our country has wasted enough of our taxes because of their foolishness. Enough is enough! The government must stop their foolishness pronto, if we want a bright future for our Mindanao brothers.
Reply
Gerard says:
I do tend to agree that Manila has neglected mindanao for decades but as for the lack of development in the ARMM thats mostly the MNLF and MILFs fault there are no investors there because not only is there a threat from these groups but also massive corruption of the government under the MNLF. If you look at the other areas in Mindanao there is great progress but in the ARMM there is none and as long as groups like the MNLF and the MNLF continue to harass, threaten and extort from people this will never happen. The Philippine
3 of 5
9/20/13 5:30 PM
government and the muslims themselves must ask the question Will giving the MILF this region really help the people or are the MILF just going to help themselves? weve already seen this scenario when the government handed the ARMM to the MNLF Will history repeat itself?
Reply
shaw says:
though i havent finished reading your article, let me correct you that Zamboanga del Norte is not moro-dominated province because majority of the population is non-muslims..
Reply
Migs Doromal says:

September 20, 2013 at 6:37 am
Isnt it that Cesar Purisima hails from General Santos City? Such a shame for a fellow Mindanaoan (and Finance Secretary at that!) to have uttered such tasteless and tactless remarks. Seen his YouTube video scandal. Shameful.
Reply
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Name *
Email *
Website
Comment
We will be glad to publish your opinion and relevant information you would like to share with our readers in our comment section. We do not however publish ad hominem criticisms, vulgar language, and off-topic comments. The views expressed in this comment section do not necessarily reflect that of the Manila Times editors and stockholders. Can't find your comment? Please check our comment guideline. Post Comment
4 of 5
9/20/13 5:30 PM
Confirm you are NOT a spammer
Contact Info
Address: 2/F Sitio Grande Building 409 A. Soriano Avenue, Intramuros Manila 1020 Philippines Tel. : +63 (02) 524 5664 up to 67 Fax: +63 (02) 528-1729 Email: newsdesk@manilatimes.net opinion@manilatimes.net
Copyright 2010-2013 The Manila Times - All Rights Reserved.
Archives
Advertise
Contact Us
About Us
Sitemap
Privacy Policy
5 of 5
9/20/13 5:30 PM

Either All Out War

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Either All Out War

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Either all-out war or Marshall Plan for Mindanao | The Manila ...

The Sunday Times Magazine

Expats & Diplomats

Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:29 PM PHT

Either all-out war or Marshall Plan for Mindanao

The Manila Times

Facebook social plugin

4 Responses to Either all-out war or Marshall Plan for Mindanao

Migs Doromal says:

Confirm you are NOT a spammer

Copyright 2010-2013 The Manila Times - All Rights Reserved.

You might also like