Government chief peace negotiator Teresita Quintos-Deles expressed the above opinion during her talk to 28 students graduating from a Dual Campus Masters in Peace Studies in the wake of call for President Aquino rejected calls to launch an all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to retaliate for the deaths.
“Many have fueled the clamor that we launch an all-out war against the MILF. It did not help that many members of the media made this into a simple ‘them-versus-us’ case,” she said at the rites held at the Ateneo de Manila University.
The rattling of sabers came after 19 soldiers were killed in an encounter in Al-Barka, Basilan, while hunting alleged armed members of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group who had been criminally charged in court.
Quintos-Deles, formally the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, quoted President Aquino when he disavowed “knee-jerk reactions that will jeopardize our efforts to address the roots of conflict in the region.”
“Consider the context and the history in your reporting,” she commented. She said sobriety and introspection are more important at this stage, “so that we could be guided on what to do next.”
Quintos-Deles said the media should consider first the costs of an all-out war.
“During Erap’s [President Joseph Estrada] time, what happened? Two million civilians were displaced. And it’s a generational thing; the pain and suffering doesn’t only include that generation.”
Nearly 11 years ago, the military, on orders of former President Estrada to launch an all-out war to wipe out the MILF, captured the main rebel headquarters of Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao, as well as several other smaller encampments.
This has the unintended consequence of leading the MILF to divide itself into smaller groups and scatter throughout Mindanao to make it more difficult for the military to go after them.
“Look at Maguindanao, it remains an area with the lowest human development index,” said Quintos-Deles in emphasizing her point against all-out war.
She added that the media should consider that “it will take 15 years before you [can] bring a region up on its feet again after an armed conflict.”
This is why, she said, the Aquino administration remains focused on peace negotiations with five armed groups.
“We intend to end all armed conflicts within this administration,” she said in her speech, adding that the Aquino administration is reviewing the implementation of the 1986 signed peace agreements with the Moro National Liberation Front and two splinter groups of the Communist Party of the Philippines’s armed wing, the New People’s Army.
These are “some of the factors at play that should be considered” in the public debate on the conflict in Mindanao “and media has a big role to play in this.”
