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By Inday Espina-Varona and
Dorian Zumel Sicat
Conclusion
ISABELA CITY—They troll around on scoo-ters
and pedicabs, cite drinking as their favo-rite past time, and say
they’ll sooner leave their wives than guns.
A decade of attrition has made Basileños war
weary. They welcome the arrival of US troops here and pray that
American bombs and sni-pers can decimate a small but deadly force of
extremist Islamic rebels. But no Basileño thinks the joint RP-US
Balikatan war games would bring a permanent peace.
For peace to reign in this island, two-thirds
the size of Cebu and blessed with lush hills and secluded coves, a
two-pronged approach is needed, according to Basileños.
Federalism, coupled with draconian laws is their
preferred base for stability and progress. Neither approach would
sit well with Manila, they think.
That won’t stop Basileños from pushing the
twin agenda. After all, as Basilan crisis management committee
spokesman Chris Puno loves to quip, they have only more lives to
lose.
Buying time
“Balikatan will buy time for us,”
acknowledges Louie Alano. “But we have to force Manila to listen
to us, and reach out to friends in other regions.”
Alano has experienced being called a crackpot, a
wild pistolero. He knows how cheap—or precious—life can be in
Basilan, and how different things were 20 years ago.
“Those days, I traveled freely at night. You
do that now and you’ll be lucky if we find your head.”
He’s not exaggerating. Alano, Puno and The
Manila Times correspondent, Dorian Zumel Sicat, were part of a team
that retrieved the heads of two of Alano’s laborers on June 2001,
around the same time Abu Sayyaf rebels swooped into Lamitan town.
“It took us two days to find their heads,”
the businessman recalls. “They were taken some hours away but the
killers chose to dump their heads in this city. That tells us
something: A total lack of respect.”
Alano has estates in Lantawan but he has been
forced into the role of absentee landowner ever since a 1989 ambush.
He once, too, had his own paramilitary force. He once, too, fired
guns with gusto. Not any more.
A few years ago, his friends “gifted” him
with one of his ambushers, delivered bound, hog-tied and ready for
slaughter. Alano let him lose. The man, a Muslim, has become a very
good friend. Through that brush with fate, Alano has learned to know
the people who have given him much grief. In the process, he has
come to accept that no amount of bombs and bullets, and bolo
slashes, are going to swamp Filipino Muslims’ struggle for
self-determination.
Roots of rebellion
That belief, however, does not make Alano a
dove. He’s as hawkish as ever, only more cognizant of other
components of peace.
Basilan Governor Wahab Akbar, who wonders why
the impoverished island-province hosting Balikatan is getting less
development aid than other areas, warns the national
government of misplaced priorities.
“That would be dangerous to all of us in
Basilan, and everywhere else,” he said yesterday during a dialogue
between local chief executives and officials of Task Force Gentle
Wind, the socio-development arm of Balikatan.
Akbar told Secretary of Development and Social
Welfare Corazon Soliman, Undersecretary of Defense Antonio Santos,
and the regional line agencies of ARMM and Region IX, that if
Basilan is not put at the top of the list of properties, “We will
continue to suffer, Balikatan or no Balikatan.”
In a rare display of emotion, the former Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebel reminded national officials:
Yes, poverty and underdevelopment are among the root causes of
rebellion and terrorism. Discontent breeds anger. In the end, when
Balikatan is over, and all of the troops and civilian support have
gone home, we will still be here. If our dev’t is not put on the
fast-track, so will the discontent still be here, so will the
anger… and so will the rebellion.”
‘Hear us’
Akbar made his remarks after each of the six
municipal mayors, or their representatives, spoke in favor of
Balikatan, a turnaround after last week’s threat to boycott the
military exercise and its development component.
Basilan’s governor is a staunch supporter of
Balikatan but he is deadly serious when he talks about the civilian,
socioeconomic aspects that must be fast-tracked in order for
permanent and meaningful peace to dawn on the Isle of Tears.
“Basilan is where the Abu Sayyaf comes from.
Basilan is where the terrorists bring their victims and where the
people themselves are victimized. For 20 years we have been pleading
for projects. For 20 years we have been receiving not much more than
lip service. It is too much. It brings us to tears to see that
project sources for Zamboanga City that are larger than those for
Basilan. Please do not do that to us,” Akbar said to Soliman and
Santos.
Akbar told officials projects do not need to
pass through the provincial government. “Give the projects
directly to the municipalities. They are the ones that are
suffering,” he said. He cited the road to Tuburan, among the most
violent of Basilan’s six towns, saying it could not even qualify
as an all-weather road.
With all of the mayors now in favor of Balikatan,
Basilan can now focus on inter acting with the national government
to get the funds and resources it needs in order to accomplish
success in the six-month socioeconomic project window of Balikatan
through Gentle Wind.
Problems of governance
Provincial information officer and spokesman for
the provincial crisis management committee, Chris Puno, told THE
MANILA TIMES, “Had this consultation and dialogue been conducted
before, the problem of opposition, or rumors of opposition would
have never happened. Governor Akbar did the right thing by insisting
on these dialogues, and Secretary Soliman did the right thing by
acting swiftly in this matter.”
Bishop Martin Jumaoad agrees partly with Akbar.
“Let’s face it, the central government
hasn’t really given much concern or attention to this area,” he
says.
But the Bishop also scores the inept performance
of local officials. “I also hope mayors also give more to the
people. We need a greater sense of accountability here. This
doesn’t belong only to you.”
Basileños are no angels. But while Akbar can be
autocratic at times, most constituents acknowledge him to be less
corrupt that most politicians. He crisscrosses between his two
wives’ modest homes and is wont to lecture younger officials on
good management techniques.
Alano says the problem of corruption could also
be addressed by harsh laws—and the political will to enforce
these.
He and many business and civic leaders here look
to Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohammad, believing that the brown
race is not suited to live under the US-type of democratic system.
“We keep on acting like children. To solve
these problems permanently, we should change the rules of the
game,” Alano insists. He likes the idea of “being guilty until
proven innocent,” claiming this would level the legal playing
field between haves and have-nots.
Change of system
There is also a growing cry here for a
parliamentary form of government, which people believe, will lessen
corruption. Under that system, Alano notes, one only needs to win in
a district for a crack at being chief of state.
In contrast, the current presidential form of
government fuels waste and bribery during elections, and holds the
country hostage to intangibles like charisma or superstar-like
poses.
A parliamentary system should also usher in
federalism, according to Alano and Akbar, allow peoples to live
under laws that respond to unique cultures and socio-economic
realities.
Akbar, however, frowns on the idea of an Islamic
state, which the Abu Sayyaf and other rebel groups are fighting for.
A society can be Islamic and conform its laws to
hew to the dominant religious faith, he says. But the time has
passed for rigid obedience to the laws of the Koran, he notes,
citing the near impossibility of finding any exclusively Muslim or
Christian area.
Alano wouldn’t mind exclusivity if it brings
peace. Already, some of his family’s properties have been
foreclosed because a stagnant economy would not allow for debt
servicing. He and other businessmen here have urged children to
leave for more peaceful realms, while they wait out the rest of
their lives.
Alano says it wouldn’t matter if his lands are
taken over, as he hasn’t stepped foot on them for years.
Christians can always rebuild again, he notes.
Before that happens, however, peace has to reign
in the land. Alano, a former member of the Southern Philippines
Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) warns the government to
begin listening seriously to gripes of the people in Mindanao.
“What do they (Muslims) want? Economic
reforms? Religious freedom? Talk to them and find a middle ground.
And then change the system to ensure everybody walks that line.”
If nothing happens to dialogues? If the system
doesn’t change?
Alano snorts. Akbar stares towards Basilan’s
mountains. One Christian. One Muslim. Both men have known death,
both men yearn for peace. Both feel their backs against the wall.
There’s always an alternative, says Alano.
“Annihilation. All sides. Annihilation.”
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