Remarks of Senator Orlando Mercado
Former Secretary
Department of National Defense
Transcribed from the video coverage of the forum

[Presented at the public forum GRP-Moro Conflict: Is there an end in sight? Human Security and Human Development Revisited, held on September 19, 2009, 2-5pm at the UP School of Economics Auditorium, jointly organized by the Human Development Network and the UP School of Economics and sponsored by the UNDP]

Discussion

Thank you Winnie, Mr. President, fellow members of the Panel. I would like to thank you for the invitation.

I was not around in 2005 when this was presented, and so I read it for the first time when I was given a copy. And I would like to say that so far I have not heard anybody complain or controvert any of the provisions or any of the policy recommendations of the report. My first reaction after reading the report, and I told Winnie, you know, this should be at the desks of all of our government officials from director up. And they should be able to refer to it because it gives us a comprehensive understanding of the history of the conflicts, not only with the MILF, but with the CPP-NPA. And I would like to commend those who have written it. This report at the same time also shows us the way to go.

I’ve been listening very intently to what has been said. I just would like to make a very short reaction. First as regards the remark of Dr. Mastura. We have owned responsibility for what has happened in Camp Abu Bakar because we were at helm. But I would like to clarify, as I have done in the past, and apologize for that litson incident. There was really no intention on our part to humiliate or to express in a non-verbal manner disregard for the Muslim religion. It is unfortunate; we’ve never stopped apologizing. But I don’t think it sets the mood if we focus on these things. It is much the same as those on the other side who focuses on the beheadings. These are unfortunate things that have happened. We can put them aside, then I think we will be able to move forward.

Now, one thing is very obvious from my point of view, listening to the statements and having read the report very carefully. Indeed, one of the most serious problems that we face as regards our conflict in Mindanao, aside from thinking of it as a Mindanao problem and not as a Philippine problem, as the report has noted, is that it is a manifestation of our problems in governance. The lack of coherence in policy is obvious, and the report indicates to us that there have been three competing policy positions: pacification and demobilization, military victory or institutional peace building. It has been very clearly indicated to us that there has been no coherence and it has been a zig and a zag as far as policy is concerned. Now this is also symptomatic of our own country as a whole. The problems of lack of continuity in terms of policy is obvious. A mayor gets elected; the moment he gets sworn in he changes everything. He does not build on what was previously done by his predecessors. We can see this also even among secretaries or heads of departments. So it is a serious problem.

How do we move forward? Indeed, as it has been stated in the report, we have to ensure policy consistency and coherence. What are the most serious problems that we face in governance? It’s that we don’t have a culture of strategic thinking. And we cannot legislate a culture of strategic thinking. It is something that grows on us. We ask: why can’t we see these things with a long term point of view? Even in today’s debate, it is almost always as if it were a choice between a military victory or surrender as Frank has mentioned. Indeed, we cannot have a situation wherein we have peace by surrender, or a dismembering of the Republic. But there is another problem. The other problem was that there has been a real lack of transparency in the negotiations. My little experience in 1993 to 1996 as an Adviser from the Senate (I was there because I was Chairman on the Committee on Defense and Security) was that was a more open negotiation that we’ve had in Jakarta. We even had media covering our negotiations. Of course there were some instances we would tell them, you know we can’t reveal everything because we’re in the middle of negotiations. But it wasn’t done in secrecy. You have to have dialogue. We cannot negotiate without building, as the report indicated, a peace constituency. And you cannot build a peace constituency if there is no transparency. This is the most important thing that we have to focus on.

The report indicates the things that we have to do in many areas – delivery of services, education, electoral reform, governance reform, and reform in the security sector. It is for that reason that reform in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, reform in the Police, is a categorical imperative for us to be able to negotiate and solve these problems. It is germane to, and is part and parcel of this peace process. So there must be a continuing effort to reform the military establishment, a continuing effort to reform the Police organization, so that we will be able to craft a lasting solution to the problems that we face.

One of the more serious things that we face is the fact that we have had surprises in this MOA. This is the tragedy of it all. We would like to see our presidential aspirants reacting and telling us how they feel about this report. It can be required reading for all presidential aspirants. Tell us whether you agree or disagree so that we will have a dialogue. Now I know it’s a little difficult because we know in Mindanao that the greatest number of voters are the Christians. But this is precisely the challenge. Can we once and for all have an election wherein we can test the real courage of our leaders by coming up with a solution to this problem without first counting the votes? It’s almost impossible but it can be done.

Two days ago I was fortunate to attend the lecture by Kishore Mahbubani. He’s the Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew Institute of Public Policy. He had a very interesting lecture. His book is about why Asia is rising. But what attracted my attention was his discussion of conflicts. He reminds us that China and Vietnam fought a war recently in the late 70s. And for a while, there was about a million soldiers, Chinese troops and Vietnamese left facing each other. But things changed. With economic reform, little by little they pulled out the troops, the mines were removed. There’s some smuggling activities still going on but there’s mostly trade, and the conflict has been marginalized. Vietnam and China are today trading very well. Many of the centuries-old problems get to be marginalized with economic opportunities. And he was saying, you know, sometimes we’re following the Western process wherein we try to have an agreement, something we can sign, and then from there, we proceed and enforce it. Sometimes, it is important to remember, as Asians, things just work out. Work it out. Make it imperative for the government to really start delivering basic services. If we cannot agree about Ancestral Domain, fine. If we can marginalize the issue for a while, fine.  But we can really move forward by reducing infant mortality, school dropouts, etc. cited in this report. The lowest scores in practically everything in terms of the services is in the ARMM region. If only from the humanitarian point of view, we should be held responsible. Now, of course people would say, I know it’s this administration versus that administration. Let’s have a strategic view! No president has the monopoly of good intentions or a monopoly of mistakes as far as Mindanao is concerned. But at this time, with the right attitude, maybe we might be able to do something about it.

I’m sorry I did not prepare a paper. I was about to but Winnie said, just speak out. Thank you very much. (End.)