Armed Violence in Zamboanga City

3rd Week September

News reports claimed that around a hundred fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have taken hostage some civilians in Zamboanga City. As of this writing, the firefight between MNLF fighters and government troops is still ongoing. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is on heightened alert because of reported attacks by the combined forces of the MNLF, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Abu Sayaff in other areas in Mindanao. Once again, the region is mired in chaos, bloodshed and uncertainty.

The MNLF had launched a separatist rebellion in the 1970s against the Philippine government in a bid to establish an independent Bangsamoro Republic in Mindanao. These armed hostilities have ceased with the signing of the Final Peace Agreement in 1996 between the MNLF and the government.  As part of the agreement, many fighters of the MNLF were absorbed in the AFP while the claim for a separate republic gave way to a renewed autonomous region. Despite of this, critics and the hardcore elements of the MNLF have continued to assert that the fight for the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro people remains alive.

Meanwhile, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a splinter group of the MNLF, has continued with its claim for an Islamic Bangsamoro Republic in Mindanao. The government has tried both military and political approaches to deal with the MILF. The Estrada Administration had launched a total war against the MILF but failed to root out the armed group from the region. The Arroyo administration had tried to make peace with the MILF. Its effort towards peace resulted to the forging of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain Aspect of the Tripoli Agreement (MOA-AD).   However, the controversies which the agreement created and the oppositions posed by many traditional politicians prevented the signing of the agreement.

Last year, the Aquino Administration has announced the signing of the Framework Agreement between the MILF and the government. In the hindsight, the Framework Agreement is a soft version of the aborted MOA-AD. Practically, it is Episode 1 of the MOA-AD.

Meanwhile, Chairman Nur Misuari of the MNLF has declared the establishment of the Independent Republic of Mindanao. His declaration failed to get serious attention from the national media; not much was heard from concerned government agencies also. And now, the armed clashes between the MNLF and government forces put Zamboanga City in the center of the Philippines. They give Misuari’s declaration the attention that it did not get before.   Is this the opening salvo of a renewed armed conflict between the MNLF and the Philippine government?

Nothing is certain at this point. An internal armed conflict is a protracted armed violence between an armed dissident group and the government. Whether the MNLF can still sustain a protracted armed campaign against the government remains to be seen. Most of its fighters are aged but veterans of the armed conflict that lasted for almost two decades. On the other hand, the government claimed it will certainly contain the armed violence and prevent it from spilling out of Zamboanga City. However, its actions in the past days show its capability to do so.

If there is anything certain, it is none other than the displacement and suffering that the armed clashes are bringing to innocent civilians. As long as the fighting continues, civilians will continue to suffer injuries and sustain damages. The fighting must stop now. By what means? Let the circumstances dictate the strategy and the tactics.