I served as agriculture secretary from 1999 to 2001—a time that I look back on with fondness. UP Prof. Butch Dalisay put it well in his account of my life entitled In the Grand Manner: “[T]he Agriculture position was the culmination of another dream: the opportunity to lead the greening of the Philippines and to uplift the lives of its millions of farmers and their families.”
Among the programs my staff and I initiated was the Mindanao Rural Development Program, which has since become a national initiative. The scheme was simple: empower Mindanao’s poorest regions to decide for themselves how agriculture funds should be spent.
For about six months, I spent 20 days a month crisscrossing the hinterlands of Mindanao and meeting with farmers and local leaders. Unwittingly, such work got me deeply involved in the peace effort in war-torn Mindanao.
After government forces took over the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) Camp Abu Bakr in Maguindanao, then Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zacario Candao called to say that Hashim Salamat, then MILF Chief, was ready to sit down and negotiate a peace pact. He flew to Manila and we sat down and discussed MILF Salamat’s request to help prepare a rehabilitation plan for Camp Abu Bakr. The draft would have been the start of the peace negotiations.
After briefing then-President Joseph Estrada and obtaining his permission, I convened a meeting at the Kabakan campus of the University of Southern Mindanao. With some USM professors and two of Salamat’s lieutenants present, the group spent the next 48 hours discussing the different aspects of repair and rehabilitation. At the end of the session, we came up with the outline of an 18-month, P180-million implementation program.
Back in Manila, I briefed Estrada who appeared pleased and gave me approval to go ahead and negotiate a peace pact. However, as Dalisay details in his book, the plan would never be implemented.
Earlier into my new job as agriculture secretary, I negotiated a similar peace agreement with a breakaway faction of the communist Left. The group was associated with Felimon “Popoy” Lagman and Nilo de la Cruz of the Alex Boncayao Brigade. The talks took place in Salvador Benedicto in the mountains of Central Negros Occidental and in two months the government and the communist group signed a peace agreement. That agreement still holds today.
In both cases, it was clear that economic and social development goes hand-in-hand with peace and order. Many factors lead to insurgency, but underdevelopment of the countryside is prominent. This is one lesson I have learned that has relevance to the current debate on the Bangsamoro basic law and the possible resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.