MindaNews: Malaysian-led monitoring team in Mindanao ends tour of duty

DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Unless there is a new mandate, the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) that oversees the ceasefire implementation between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will end it tour of duty in Mindanao on November 30 and its 29 members will depart for their respective countries by December 1. Lt. Col. Badrul Hisham bin Muhammad, IMT chief of staff, said the Malaysian team, comprising 12, will likely leave by December 1 if there is no mandate for extension. An extension can be done if both government and the MILF peace panels request it. But the Philippine government on September 3 dissolved its peace panel, barely a week after it sought, with the MILF, an extension of the IMT’s tour of duty. The IMT’s stay is usually for one year. There have been four IMT batches since October 2004: IMT 1, IMT2, IMT3 and IMT4 whose stay, supposedly until August 31, but was extended for three more months from September 1 to November 30. Until the departure of the first batch in May, there were 57 members of the IMT, 41 soldiers from Malaysia, 10 from Brunei, five from Libya and the lone development specialist from Japan. Today, the IMT has 29 members – 28 of them soldiers – 12 from Malaysia, 10 from Brunei, six from Libya and the only non-soldier member, from Japan. Tomonori Kikuchi, Senior Advisor for Reconstruction and Development of Mindanao and concurrent First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan, is the new IMT member. He arrived in the Philippines last week of August and has been based in Cotabato City. Kikuchi told MindaNews he may have to move to Manila by December 1 if there is no new mandate for the IMT. Badrul told MindaNews in a telephone interview that they continue to monitor the other areas where there are no operations against what the military claims to be “recalcitrant" MILF commanders Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar aka Commander Bravo and Aleem Solaiman Pangalian. “We went to Davao, Bukidnon, Iligan, Zamboanga, General Santos," he said. Brig. Gen. Rey Sealana, deputy commander for peace process of the Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) and head of the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) told a forum in early October that punitive operations are being enforced in the PALMA Alliance (Pigcawayan, Alamada, Libungan, Midsayap and Aleosan) and Pikit in North Cotabato; Maasim and Kiamba in Sarangani; portions of Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan and portions of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. Sealana said there is no ceasefire against these three commanders and their men, he said, but ceasefire continues between government forces and the 16 other base commands of the MILF. He cited the main reasons behind the punitive action as follows: “to uphold the rule of law; implement the mandate of government to protect the people; to give justice to all the victims of the criminal and terror acts of the MILF;" and “resorted to as a last option." From only eight recorded armed skirmishes between the military and the MILF in 2007, 128 skirmishes had been recorded as of September 30 this year, Sealana said. Seventy-seven of the 128 skirmishes happened in August, shortly after the aborted August 5 formal signing of the MOA-AD. The number of skirmishes dropped to 39 in September. He attributed this to the Ramadhan, the Islamic month of fasting. Sealana presented a table that showed that from a high of 698 incidents in 2002, the number went down to 569 in 2003 even as there was a war then in the Buliok area and neighboring towns. In 2004, the year the IMT came, the number went down to 16; down to 10 in 2005; up to 13 in 2006; down to eight in 2007 and 128 in 2008. In 2008, Sealana said, the joint CCCH of the government and MILF recorded one incident in January, zero in February, March and April, two in May, four in June, five in July, 77 in August and 39 in September. The government peace panel has been dissolved but Sealana said the government’s CCCH is presently under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. At least half a million persons have been displaced by the renewed hostilities between the government and MILF forces. Then government peace panel chair Rodolfo Garcia and MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal, respectively, went to Kuala Lumpur on August 27th and 28th to seek extension of the IMT’s tour of duty. No joint communiqué was issued by both panels whose members were all in Putrajaya, Malaysia in early August to formally sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), the last of three agenda items prior to the discussion on the political settlement. The MOA-AD was initialed by Garcia, Iqbal and Philippine Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon on July 27 but a temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued by the Supreme Court afternoon of August 4, preventing the government peace panel chair from signing the MOA-AD morning of August 5. Malaysias’ The Star online reported evening of August 28 that Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had agreed to requests for Malaysia to continue to participate in IMT “for a short term of ‘at least three months.’" Yatim said the Philippine government and MILF had requested Malaysia “to extend its presence pending the Philippines Supreme Court’s decision on the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral domain." “We are not fixing a deadline but that is how long we hope it will take both parties to be able to sign the agreement, which was cancelled early this month," The Star online quoted Yatim as saying. On October 14, by a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court ruled the MOA-AD was unconstitutional. - Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews