The latest round of fighting between government forces and those of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has brought to the limelight not only the US-Estrada regime’s inept handling of the Moro question, but its fascist and anti-people character as well.

It has been over a month since the AFP, in direct violation of the GRP-MILF agreement of April 27, 2000 to "normalize" the situation in Central Mindanao, attacked MILF positions in Buldon town and later the Narciso Ramos Highway. Since then, the fighting has escalated to disaster proportions, spreading from Central Mindanao to Western Mindanao and parts of Southern Mindanao. It has even extended to Metro Manila through highly questionable bombing incidents.

These bombings have sustained an atmosphere of terror, which the Estrada regime is using to legitimize its unabated military offensives in the countryside and heightened political repression, in the guise of police peacekeeping operations, in the urban centers. These terror tactics have been used by the AFP and PNP to launch operations against so-called MILF bombing squads, resulting in illegal arrests and searches, zoning operations and possible rub-outs.

But way before the April 28 offensive, the AFP had in fact been girding for war against the MILF. According to Bayan-Southern Mindanao, no less than 17 battalions were deployed in the Moro territories in 1998, causing skirmishes that led to the dislocation of some 110,000 residents. In September and November 1999, the AFP conducted military operations in Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Isulan and Bagumbayan, affecting at least 1,000 families, some of whose homes were razed by government troops.

Bayan-SM further notes that from January 25 February 28 this year, the following AFP regiments were deployed in Central and Western Mindanao: the 25^th, 39^th and 40^th IB, Philippine Marines and Scout Rangers all of the 6^th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao; the 41^st and 81^st IB of the 4^th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City; and a contingent from the 301^st Brigade of the 3^rd Infantry Division based in the Visayas.

And in mid-March this year, according to a fact-finding report by the Inter-Faith Movement for Peace-Western Mindanao (IMP-WM), there was a massive deployment of Army troops in the towns of Kapatagan, Sapad and Sultan Naga Dimaporo all in Lanao del Norte.

Such a massive deployment of government troops necessarily led to several skirmishes and big encounters between government soldiers and fighters of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), a matter which the January 12, 2000 ceasefire agreement, the February 23, 2000 Joint Communique, and the April 27, 2000 agreement sought to prevent or at least scale down. But obviously, the US-Estrada regime had other plans.

The Estrada regime’s all-out war is anti-Moro and anti-people

The government deliberately provoked the latest round of fighting as part of its all-out war policy against the MILF and other revolutionary groups like the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Such a policy was vividly expressed by Pres. Joseph Estrada during his State of the Nation Address on July 26, 1999 where he declared that "Ang rebelyon ay hindi bine-baby, ito’y pinipisa."

Estrada made that policy statement after he scuttled the GRP-NDF peace talks in January of that year. Later on, he unilaterally imposed a deadline June 30 for the MILF to enter into a "peace agreement" with the government.

But he Estrada government mouths peace even as it engages in a genocidal all-out war against the Moro people. It reaches the height of hypocrisy when it declares as "peace zones" the Moro communities and MILF "camps" bombed and overrun by the AFP. In repeatedly stating that "there is only one nation, one flag, one government and one armed forces," the Estrada regime betrays its self-serving and narrow outlook, its lack of sincerity in forging a just peace, and its obsession to wipe out the MILF and other groups engaged in just struggle against the reactionary state.

The Estrada regime uses the terrorist and un-Islamic actions of the AFP and CIA- -backed Abu Sayyaf in justifying its war against the MILF. Ironically, while it negotiates and gives in to a terrorist group like the Abu Sayyaf, the government has refused to grant the same to the MILF to the point of imposing impossible preconditions for the GRP-MILF talks to succeed.

The government’s militarist solution to armed conflicts spurred by historic social injustices and requiring economic, political and cultural solutions is reflected in the AFP’s counter insurgency program dubbed Oplan Makabayan, later repackaged as the government’s much-touted "comprehensive approach" to the Communist and Muslim-led rebellions. Data gathered by the IMP-WM and the Moro Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA) also cite Oplan Pisces Alpha and/or Oplan Pheonix as the AFP’s particular design to either overrun Camp Abubakar and/or crush the MILF-led rebellion by June 30, 2000, the government’s unilateral deadline for a negotiated agreement.

With respect to the MILF, the Estrada regime’s policy is to "degrade" the former’s armed capability, then negotiate "from a position of strength" to impose the government’s terms. This approach relies on military offensives to either wipe out or weaken the MILF into negotiating for surrender.

Simultaneously, in a bid to coopt the MILF leadership and the Moro communities, the government plans to pour in millions worth of livelihood programs, "development" projects and infrastructure like roads, bridges and school buildings. As shown in the bitter experience of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD), the Manila government’s aim is to deceive the people with empty promises of development, neutralize or coopt the revolutionaries, and make money from funds allocated for its so-called development programs.

Such an approach fails to address the root causes of the armed conflict in Mindanao. By branding the MILF as terrorists and common criminals, the government aims to taint the legitimacy of the Bangsamoro’s armed struggle against the central government based in Manila. By insisting on the Philippine Constitution as the sole framework for negotiations and by setting ridiculous deadlines for the peace talks, the Estrada regime further exposes its own insincerity in finding a just and lasting solution to the armed conflict.

The Moro people’s struggle is just and legitimate

Bayan recognizes the Moro people’s right to self-determination and supports their historic struggle against foreign and national oppression, including the Estrada regime’s anti-Moro chauvinism. The Moro people’s aspirations, today represented by the revolutionary struggle of the MILF, are legitimate and just, and form part of the Filipino people’s protracted struggle for national freedom and democracy.

The Moro people have proven themselves to be the staunchest enemies of Spanish colonialism and U.S. imperialism. In their quest to maintain their identity as one nation under Islam, the Bangsamoro have resisted foreign domination, including its colonial and neocolonial forms of authority, for hundreds of years.

The past regimes, all puppet governments of U.S. imperialism and the local ruling elite, have been instrumental in the massive landgrabbing and extraction of resources from the Moro’s rich ancestral lands in Mindanao and Palawan. Through acts and policies of outright subjugation, assimilation, swindling and legal sleight-of-hands, the central government has robbed the Moro people not only of their rich heritage but also of their rightful place in history and nation building.

Such an atrocity continues to this day. In the guise of protecting the Constitution and preserving the Republic, the Estrada regime’s military offensives in Mindanao is aimed at protecting the interests of the imperialists and the local ruling classes. At present, the U.S.’s economic and politico-military interests permeate Mindanao. At least 19 major corporations, many of them multinational firms, operate in the Muslim areas of Basilan, Sulu and Maguindanao. The Liguasan marsh is touted to have one of the biggest deposits of natural gas, while other Moro-occupied territories have yet to be exploited for their rich mineral, water, land and forest resources.

On a bigger scale, the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) looms as the next strategic region for monopoly capitalist expansion. As early as now, the U.S. wants to project a strong military presence in the area, as attested to by its construction of a military airfield and naval port in General Santos City.

It is perfectly justified, then, for the Moro people, the MILF in particular, to engage in armed struggle against a government that has not only denied their right to self-determination, but which has played a central role in their continued oppression.

Bayan, together with all national democratic forces, supports the Moro people’s struggle for self-determination and against foreign and national oppression. In the same vein, Bayan opposes the fascist, all-out war policy of the Estrada regime in Mindanao. It calls for peace negotiations between the GRP and MILF without preconditions, such as the MILF’s surrender to the GRP’s constitution and political authority.

These calls not only help the Moro people’s just cause and deals a big blow to the U.S.-backed Estrada regime. They also strengthen and develop the anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, and anti-feudal struggle of the Filipino people. In this sense, the Moro people and the MILF are allies of the ongoing national democratic mass movement.

Long live the Moro people’s struggle!

Long live the struggle for national democracy!