Calculating the costs of the Mindanao war

Calculating the costs of the Mindanao war

BACOLOD CITY: I joined Alay sa Kawal Foundation president
Ramon Pedrosa and executive trustee Ed Santiago in this city the
other day to award checks of P10,000 each to the widows of 12
soldiers from the 6th Special Forces Battalion of the 303rd
Infantry Brigade, commanded by Col. Alphonsus Crucero, based in
Negros.

The soldiers, some of whom were native to this province while
others were married to Ilonggo women, were among the troops sent
to Basilan last month and involved in the rescue of hostages
kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf. Unfortunately, in the battle to free
the kidnapped teachers and children, the soldiers were slain,
some in a most brutal manner. It has been a period of mourning in
Negros Occidental.

In Bacolod we got to see the faces of the victims of the
Mindanao war up close, and we realized all the more how senseless
that war is. Except for one woman who is 37 years old, the widows
are very young (their average age is 25 years) with two or three
young children each. One widow delivered her third baby the day
after her husband was buried, while another will give birth any
time now.

Touched by the outpouring of sympathy for them, the widows
couldn't hold back their tears during the simple ceremony.

Looking at these young mothers as they went up the stage with
their little children to receive the checks from ASK, and talking
to them afterwards, we realized how difficult it would be for
them to raise and educate their children on the meager pensions
of their late husbands with today's cost of living. Those widows
have to work to supplement those pensions, but unfortunately some
are only high school graduates or college dropouts. Only one
finished college.

This is where livelihood training must come in. We hope ASK's
small donation would be used as seed money to put up a sari-sari
store or carinderia or buy a sewing machine.

The turnover of checks drew sympathetic souls touched by the
poor widows' plight. Bacolod civic leader Nena de Leon, who
founded the Mindanao for Peace Movement that is also raising
funds for the soldiers' families, co-hosted the ceremony held at
the Bacolod Pavilion Resort that she owns and where she put up
the ASK officials for free. Businessman Sammy Palanca, who is
undertaking a multi-billion development of the city's new port on
reclaimed land, shouldered the expenses for the ceremony and the
simple lunch.

Bacolod Bishop Camilo Gregorio delivered the invocation. Local
politics took a backseat when the city's lone representative,
John Orola, and the opponent he beat in the 1998 congressional
fight by the smallest margins, lawyer and former councilor
Renecito Novero, took part in the ceremony. Both good sports,
Orola delivered remarks in praise of the soldiers' patriotism,
while Novero, a gifted tenor, led the singing of the national
anthem and Pagkakaisa.

Orola was the only Bacolod official around when the remains of
the 12 soldiers arrived at the pier two weeks earlier. It was
only by accident that he heard the news of their arrival over the
radio.

Rushing to the pier, he ended up with the frightful task of
consoling the wailing widows and families (he was able to
persuade President Estrada to give P50,000 per family of the
slain soldiers).

When we invited him to grace the ASK ceremony, Orola, whom we
knew from his days as a tourism attache in Tokyo in the early
1990s, skipped last Thursday's session at the House of
Representatives and caught the 5 a.m. PAL flight. "I have to be
here," he said.

Rep. Apolinario Lozada, whose district was home to nine of the
slain soldiers, couldn't come because of pressing House
activities, but he sent Brig. Gen. Raymundo Jarque (ret.) to
represent him. The ailing Mayor Oscar Verdeflor was represented
by his wife Barbara.

What are the other costs of war? As of the first week of June,
the Mindanao fighting had affected 306 barangays in 11 provinces,
displaced 200,000 people and caused an average of three deaths a
day. The recent "Summit of Mindanao Leaders" said this has
exacerbated the damage wrought by the recent drought and the
financial crisis, which have adversely affected 500,000 families.

Summit participants expressed fear that the continued armed
confrontation in Mindanao would further erode the agricultural
sector, as the ground preparation for the next and larger harvest
has already been delayed.

Business and investments have been set back, prompting Prof.
Fermin Adriano to forecast that estimated growth rates for this
year could be cut by some 1.7 to 2 percent .

A 50 percent reduction in play production in Central Mindanao
and the ARMM translates into a deficit of 320,000 tons of milled
rice.

Last year, the Philippines imported 1.2 million tons of rice
and this year, even without the projected shortfall in Mindanao,
we are importing at least 500,000 tons. At this point, however,
no one can accurately factor in the full effects of the Mindanao
war on the rice supply.

ARMM and Central Mindanao could also experience a drop in corn
production which would further affect the poultry industry that
is already reeling from the flood of cheap imports.

The Mindanao Summit pressed for immediate government action in
terms of emergency agricultural packages, short-term intervention
focusing on the second half of the year, the participation of
Mindanao officials in the Cabinet Cluster E and "inspiring
leadership with the correct vision" for the island.

Lawyer Jess Dureza, the last presidential assistant for
Mindanao of the Ramos era, recently spoke before some 100 CEOs of
multinational companies assembled in Makati by Peter Wallace of
the Economic Intelligence Unit.

Dureza's thesis expectedly was that peace under former
President Ramos proved to be a far better option than war under
the Estrada administration. He said that from 1992 when Ramos
assumed office, up to the second half of 1997, when the Asian
region was hit by the financial crisis, Mindanao exhibited a
steady growth rate. In fact, he said, the Mindanao-BIMP-EAGA
growth rate was far higher than the rest of the Philippines,
triggering the phenomenal growth of such boom areas as General
Santos City, Davao City and Cagayan de Oro.

Dureza pointed out that the Mindanao economy experienced a
downward trend only after 1997, and that the recovery from 1999
to the present has been slow. He stressed the need for an
immediate resolution of the conflict.

It is now being asked whether or not the Ramos administration
was justified in choosing to look the other way with regard to
the MILF question, in its preoccupation with growth for Mindanao.
Was the MILF allowed to grow in order not to disturb the
"peace" that became the basis of that period's economic growth?
(To be continued)

-- The Philippine Daily Inquiry/ANN Asian News Network