THE tragedy and disaster that occurred in Mamasapano, Maguindanao is not going away easily or without long term repercussions.
The millions of words that have been written and spoken in the last week have dissected the situation in Muslim Mindanao down to the minutest detail and accurately for the most part. We have learned more of the political and military rivalries, the dire economic situation in the region and the attempts and missteps to achieving peace on all sides.
However, if you look at the bigger picture, whatever legal form the autonomous political entity of the Bangsamoro may take, it is already a failed state.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) region was first created on August 1, 1989 through Republic Act 6734 which President Benigno Aquino III described as a “failed experiment.” The implication of the president’s statement is that the way that the ARMM was structured is where the failure lies and the new Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be better and achieve the desired results of peace and prosperity.
But what is being ignored in the conversation is that after 26 years of a degree of autonomy, the people of the ARMM are really no better off today than at the beginning.
The ARMM has its own government, its own ability to make decisions in the same way as any of the other Philippine provinces, and both domestic and international encouragement and assistance. To this day, it is a failed state with little to inspire confidence that things will change for the better under the BBL.
Poverty is the highest of any province in the country. The ARMM receives approximately 98 percent of its operating revenue from the National Government, and has yet to create significant, viable sources of additional revenue. The ARMM government is unable to keep peace and order in its own territory, not due primarily to national government interference, but because of factions within its own peoples.
A failed state by definition is a state whose political or economic system is become so weak that the government is no longer in control. We have yet to hear any rational argument that this will change under the BBL or any other framework.
If the ARMM were a sovereign country, it would probably rank in the same category as South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and the Central African Republic did in the “Fragile States Index” of the international Fund for Peace.
The Philippine government has a duty and obligation to the Philippine citizens of the ARMM. However, unless and until the leaders of the ARMM and of all the factions take a unified responsibility for their government and the people, it may be another 26 years before genuine peace and prosperity comes to the region.
Image credits: Benjo Laygo