Mindanao: What are the stakes?

Mindanao: What are the stakes?

By Erick San Juan

The volatile situation in Mindanao is getting uglier each day. In fact, pocket-wars are now raging in some of the remote areas of North Cotabato and Maguindanao. There are mass evacuations that have been triggered by a spate of killings and burning of houses in Aleosan and Midsayap towns, which have been occupied by pillaging elements of the Mindanao Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

In Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, there have been reports of troop movements being carried out by the Moro bandits, who carry new firearms and bullets, which are very much similar to the basic issue of the Malaysian armed services.

To ensure the safety of their communities against the pillage and incursions by the so-called mujahiddins, the Christian civilians in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato , Sarangani, Zamboanga-Sibugay, Zamboanga City , southern Palawan , Davao del Sur, southern Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Sur and Lanao del Norte are on a war footing. No doubt, they have all started to arm themselves and preparing defense trenches and perimeters all over their communities. Ditto with the Moros.

In the meantime, the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have declared that they will oppose all and every attempts by both the government and the MILF to ink a pact that would grant ancestral domain or a Moro homeland to the fighters of Al Haj Murad, a small break-away armed group, especially if this group of bandits are allowed to maintain their own regional armed forces.

But, what are the stakes in this looming civil war? Who are the Masters? What are the scenarios to expect?

First, there is no doubt that the government of the United States of America is maintaining a contingent of military intelligence and specialist operators, who, they are confining to barracks, in various areas of the Philippines, specifically in western Mindanao. In the Sarangani gulf, the US financed the construction of the world-class standard General Santos International Airport and its support infrastructures, supposedly to fill in the needs of its’ secret submarine base in between the town of Glan and Sarangani island, which is the staging point of illegal Indonesian immigrants in the Philippines. Many believe that this is the principal reason why US Ambassador Christie Kenny is often seen in the area – even with the least coordination of her movements with the Philippine military and police authorities.

To do these, all the US wants is to keep its strategic control over the Strait of Malacca , which serves as the cross road between the Middle East and Southeast Asia . Control over the Malacca strait, means effectively controlling passage into South China Sea, thus effectively putting in check whatever plans the Peoples’ Republic of China (PROC) might have enroute to the Mainland US and across the Pacific. It would also enable the Yankees to monitor every movement of men and cargoes between the west and countries like Japan and the two Koreas . Its’ conduits are Malaysia and Australia , whose interest in southern Philippines is to prevent entry of unfriendly forces into the Land Down Under.

For Malaysia, brokering the peace talks between the government and the MILF means it has effectively installed a buffer against every attempts by the government to pursue its’ territorial claim over the State of Sabah, which the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu had effectively ceded to the Philippine government.

The marginalized and impoverish Jesuit-led social democrats (SocDem) led then by the late Fr. Jose Blanco and now by Fr. Archie Intengan and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales are reportedly the ones orchestrating the balkanization of Mindanao, in an effort to find their congregations’ place in the sun. Hence, they are allowing themselves to be used by foreign powers in deploying a strategy, which is the reverse of what the Jesuits allegedly did in East Timor, where the Christians drove away the Muslims, while in the Philippines, they are the minority Muslims who want to lord it over, if not to drive away the enormous Christian population of Mindanao.

Truth to tell, the government knew from the very start that the peace formula they are trying to spouse wont work, but it has to employ the strategy nevertheless, to show Uncle Sam the importance of covering her tracks when it is time for her to go.

God bless the Philippines !