More Trouble In Mindanao
Christmas eve found violence in the Mindanao city of Cotabato. Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels are thought to be behind the attacks. Moro 
leaders claim that they were reacting to attacks from the Philippine army. The Philippine army claims they were not part of any offensive actions as there was a cease fire in place for Christmas.
The attacks left an elderly woman dead, a family of three kidnapped and at least eight wounded.
I’m really confused by the situation in Mindanao. Nearly every expat I meet here in the Philippines tells me Mindanao is safe. Most say that even the area known as Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is safe but not all of it.
I continue to be able to understand how that can be. The US State department warns American’s to use extreme caution in all of Mindanao, especially in rural areas. At least one bomb exploded in Northern Mindanao last week. Another bomb was found and defused.
The Philippine Legislature has signaled it is ready to renew peace talks. Military conflict has been ongoing for over 40 years. Peace would be welcomed by many. Seems most long term expats and Filipino are jaded about the prospect of peace. Peace seemed to be at hand in July but it 
ended up with renewed fighting instead of peace.
However, once Ireland and England agreed to peace it took around ten years to see it implemented. I don’t think anyone could expect for 40 years of armed conflict to suddenly end. After 40 years of fighting, for some rebels it is all their life has ever known. I doubt a transition to peace would be easy for many people that have endured war for their entire lives and trust would be next to impossible.
I will continue to hope for a more peaceful world and a more peaceful Philippines.
Tagged with: Cebuano Culture • Terrorism in Philippines
Filed under: Expats Living in Cebu
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Get
To The Philippines Faster
Hi Rusty
I think that we will be long dead and buried before there is a resolution to the MILF problem in Mindanao. Maybe the insugency started with noble but misguided causes. The MILF have routinely burned houses, robbed stores, and killed civilians. When confronted they are like little children and deny their actions even when there is overwhelming evidence. It doesn’t matter what they are given they will never be satisfied. There are many tribes that are the original inhabitants of Mindanao but only the Moros are murdering people. I have not read any news about militant Tipoli or Blaan fighters. Do you think that the MILF fighters will be happy to become farmers after forty years of just taking what they want from their victims?
It is probably accurate to say that the populated areas are relatively safe but the remote areas could be risky. That is true for all of the Philippines not just Mindanao.
Your chance of being run down by a buss are probably higher any where in the Philippines than being kidnapped or blown up in a bomb. Your chances of being robbed are probably higher in Cebu than Mindanao, but I can recover from robbery, death is pretty serious. LOL
Your chances of being blown up are far worse in Mindanao than it is in Cebu or Luzon, though not a lot better than Luzon. Same goes for kidnapping and yes the risk go up if you’re out alone and not in the middle of a crowd. Well, robbers and pick pockets more likely in a crowd.
Nothing is completely safe. Its a numbers game. Most of the terrorist activity occurs in Mindanao but not all of it. There for a while there were lots of bombs going on in the Malls of Manila. A hotel was taken over and threats of a coup were met with tanks in the street.
If we accept the idea that nothing can be done, then the only logical answer would seem to be genocide to stop the violence. I’m not going to buy into that. Things can change but it wont be accomplished by the sword. The sword is necessary at times but it wont bring about peace. Giving people a reason to get along is the only thing to bring long lasting peace.
Most civilized people would hold genocide is not acceptable so that leaves us with only one choice, try to find peace.
Your point about laying down your weapons after 40 years is the same one I made in the article. That’s no reason to do things that encourage new members to join the armed insurgency.
Misguided? I’m sure that’s what the Brits said about the American Revolution. I’m not supporting the actions of any terrorist, I’m only looking at thee world through the eyes of others and not just what is best for me.
I suppose the US could just nuke the ARMM and that might solve most of the Moro problem for 10 or 20 years. Muslims tend to be very loyal to other Muslims though, probably not a workable solution in the long term. I hope that’s not the only reason we don’t do it!
These issues will not be solved by blowing people up.
Hmmm you hit on a point that needs to be made ” Muslims tend to be very loyal to other Muslims though” There are a huge number of Muslim victims of the insurgents. When they toss a bomb at a community center or a school who do you think are the victims. There are a lot of attacks in Muslim areas like Cotobato City I think that the MILF would love a holy war but so far the two religions have joined together against the chaos It is shameful that there is no regard for human life.
From a historical standpoint the American Revolution was a rebellion against paying back the investment that the British made in the colonies. It was very much like having your employees rise up against you and steal your business. It was not as squeaky clean as Mel Gibson portrayed it.
If you hide in fear then the terrorists have won.
If they kill you, your dead and they still win.
I’m having way to much fun to be dead.
I’m trying to stay away from policy as the Filipino don’t appreciate foreigners weighing in on such things. So it’s not my place to address the questions of fear, winning or loosing.
I see much more violence there, I avoid going there. Its not very complicated. The terrorist also win when they cause governments to kill innocents which is going to happen in these type of conflicts and it always breads more militants.
Expats keep saying nothing has ever happened to me. It didn’t happen to the others either until it happened.
I don’t think I have a distorted view of Mindanao at all. Have you ever visited http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html there are not a lot of places in the world with travel warnings. The Philippines is one of them and specifically Mindanao. I also listen to what the Filipino in Cebu and Leyte tell me. All things considered, there is much more trouble in Mindanao.
You’ve got family ties down there. I don’t.
I don’t think anything I wrote could be even held to even slightly support of terrorist. Terrorism should never be excused, it is a cowardly act.
I went to the State Dept. warning on the Philippines, it is not as scary as it once was. It seems the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is now seen as mainstream and not a terrorist organization. They still recommend extreme caution and suggest personal security detail wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_2190.html
yes there is