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COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The major highways in North Cotabato and Maguindanao that have witnessed the most intense gun battles between government troops and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels are now adorned with green buntings, streamers, tarpaulins and MILF flags as both parties sign a historic roadmap to peace today, Monday, October 15.
In this city, tricycles, jeepneys, motorcycles and private vehicles are seen with little green flags. Green is the color of the MILF.
Hundreds of supporters are expected to join a peace rally here. Similar peace rallies will also be held in the towns of Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao and Pikit in North Cotabato.
Thousands of MILF fighters and supporters are also expected to gather inside Camp Darapanan in Maguindanao, one of the strongholds of the Moro rebel group.
The challenges to peace are daunting, however. Residents here said they are still poor and hungry.
Dealing with hunger, they said, is tougher than ducking bullets.
“I am definitely joining the peace rally tomorrow because we are excited and happy that after years of conflict we can now see a glimmer of hope and peace,” said Anisa Markaban, who has witnessed numerous wars in Cotabato and Maguindanao since the Marcos regime.
Markaban claimed that it would be difficult to describe the people’s thirst for peace in the region.
“After decades of conflict and thousands of lives destroyed, what is clear right now is that the people are calling for peace, change and development,” she said in the local dialect.
As a young girl in a poor community in Maguindanao, Markaban recalled that their village was raided by government troops and destroyed in the fighting between Moro rebels and soldiers.
“We were always running. There was a period when we slept in small wooden bangkas and let it float on the river just to evade being trapped in the firefight. Life in a war-torn area is very difficult. Death is hanging in the air,” Markaban said.
“Many have suffered not because of gunshot wounds but due to hunger. Hunger is fiercer. Because we have evacuated, we have no access to food. Sometimes we are lucky if there are relief goods. Our husbands cannot go to the fields fearing that they would be shot,” narrated Markaban.
Markaban is now a mother to 11 children. Nothing much has changed in the region, she said.
“We are still poor. We are still hungry. And people are still dying because of the fighting,” Markaban said.
Beyond ceasefire
She sells unripe native mangoes in a makeshift stall outside the public market of Cotabato City. Unlike hybrid mangoes that are being exported to other countries, the native mangoes are sold cheap in the local market.
Markaban said she sells at least two sacks of mangoes a day.
She said she has high hopes that the Bangsamoro regional structure would help address their problems, but added that an end to the fighting should not be the only barometer of the peace deal’s success.
“We are not just expecting a cessation of hostilities in this peace agreement. We are also expecting concrete solutions that will end poverty, hunger and unemployment,” Markaban said.
Quality social services, including health and education, must be given priority in the peace deal, Markaban added. – Rappler.com
Read the full text of President Noynoy Aquino’s speech: Agreement paves way for enduring peace in Mindanao
Read the full text of the Framework Agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the establishment of the new autonomous political entity, Bangsamoro, that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
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