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Several distinct rebellions are being waged against the government of the Philippines in 1993. Full-scale war or low-intensity conflicts which continue throughout the country involve the general class-based insurgency led by the New People's Army (NPA), the separatist struggle of Muslims led by the Moro People's Liberation Front (MPLF) in the southern island of Mindanao, a right-wing militarist rebellion centered in Manila, and multiple conflicts involving indigenous peoples who occupy several different regions, especially northern Luzon and southern Mindanao. These poorly-understood latter conflicts are the main subject of this report; however, confusion which results from the complexity of the overlapping arenas necessitates a brief review of the former struggles first.
A "national democratic revolution" has been underway for over twenty years in the Philippines. The insurgency is led by the NPA, which is allied with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political wing of the movement. The movement is linked historically to the "Huk rebellion" of the 1950s, but has been more extensive and successful in its attempt to incorporate many sectors of society, including workers, peasants, youth, women, and some indigenous peoples. Government reaction to the movement over the last two decades has ranged from martial law under the Marcos dictatorship to the "total war" counterinsurgency operation initiated under the Aquino regime (1986-92) and continued by the present Ramos government.
When the Ramos administration came to power in 1992, it created a National Unification Commission (NUC) to begin exploratory peace talks with the communist insurgents, the Muslims of the south, and the right-wing military rebels, all of whom opposed the government from different sides. The NUC was decommissioned only a year later (in July of this year), having accomplished little more than to propose creating four new government offices to carry on the peace process and to offer an absolute and unconditional amnesty to the members of the NPA and the MPLF in exchange for their cessation of hostilities. The NUC rejected the idea of a negotiated settlement with the several rebel organizations, however, and so the situation is stalemated while the Ramos regime decides whether to follow through with the amnesty and/or to create the offices proposed by the now-defunct NUC. At this stage, initiatives are coming ad-hoc from the President's office; there is no intermediating agency.
In trying to apply the amnesty idea to the class-based insurrection, the NUC proposal was confounded by differences within the NDF. The NDF insurgency government in exile in the Netherlands considered the proposal of amnesty without peace negotiations to be a counterinsurgency tactic designed to take advantage of internal struggles within the movement. The NDF exile faction also was suspicious of the government's sincerity, because the NUC ignored the NDF's recommendation (which was supported by popular sentiment during nationwide polling) that the government suspend its military operations, abrogate its "total war" policy, and dismantle the paramilitary "Citizens Armed Forces Geographic Units" (death squads). Due to all its misgivings, the NDF exile group has insisted on a neutral venue like Tokyo or Hong Kong for future peace negotiations. The government is very reluctant to concede that point; to do so would diminish its sovereignty and legitimacy.
Meanwhile, the NPA has been losing some strength; it numbers now about 11,000 armed fighters, down from some 20,000 during the years of Aquino's regime. It is strongest in the Marag Valley in the Cordillera of the north island of Luzon, where it is allied loosely with indigenous peoples there through the Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front (CPDF), discussed below. The NPA and NDF are also strong in Mindanao, although there is no linkage with either the MNLF or the indigenous movement on that island, also discussed below. On Mindanao the NDF is strongest among peasant capitalist settlers who, after World War II, began moving to the island and displaced and dispossessed the indigenous peoples who had theretofore occupied that territory.
The Muslims (Moros) are indigenous peoples (mostly Maranao, Maguindanao, and Suluano [Tausug, Samal and Yakan]) who occupy thirteen western provinces of Mindanao. They generally do not identify with either the NDF insurgency or the non-Muslim indigenous movements on the same island, inasmuch as they seek separation from the rest of Philippine society, which is largely Christian and hostile toward Islam. In response to Moro separatist demands, the national government created the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) following a plebiscite in 1989, but due to fact that most Moros rejected ARMM as an answer to their claims, the administrative unit turned out to consist of only four of the thirteen Moro provinces. In 1979 the Moro movement fragmented into the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front), which is mostly Suluano and is supported by the powerful Organization of Islamic Conferences; the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), which is predominantly Maguindanao; and the MNLF-RG (MNLF Reformist Group), which is mostly Maranaoan.
Continued Muslim aspirations for genuine autonomy remains most strongly represented by the MNLF armed resistance led by Chairman Nur Misuari. Under the exploratory Jakarta Agreement of April 1993, the MNLF and the NUC scheduled formal peace negotiations for July of this year, to search for a way to implement the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, which would have granted "self-rule" in all of the thirteen Moro provinces. But then the NUC was dissolved, and Nur Misuari, like the NDF exile government, remained suspicious of the amnesty proposal in any case. He refuses now even to speak within Mindanao, because of threats against the lives of his aides and of visiting observers from the Organization of Islamic Conferences.
On the third opposition front, the right-wing rebellion against the government comes from within the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM). RAM emerged from the official Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) after Aquino took power and appeared to be making too many concessions to the NPA, Moro, and indigenous rebellions. The "RAM boys" are headed by Colonel Gringo Honasan, who led five unsuccessful coup attempts against Aquino. The RAM boys are the only rebel group so far to have accepted the amnesty proposal offered by the Ramos regime.
Fourth World Bulletin • December 1993
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
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