The Mind of Rody Duterte ‘PEACE DEAL WITH MORO PEOPLE MUST NEVER FAIL’ – RODY DUTERTE

By Manny Pinol

As the leader of a city which had its painful share of violence and terrorism believed perpetrated by Islamic extremists where 45 people were killed in three bombing incidents in 1993 and 2003, Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte still remains hopeful that a negotiated settlement would end the conflict in the Southern Philippines which has dragged on for generations.

“If there is anybody who wishes that this bloody problem would end soon, it is I because I am both Moro and Christian,” Duterte said.

“I feel the fear of the Christians and share the dreams of the Moro people who feel that they have been dispossessed of their land and identity,” the City Mayor said.

Duterte admits publicly for the first time that his maternal grandmother had a Moro lineage.

“There is a part of me which is Moro,” he said.

Duterte’s ties with the Muslims of the South were made even stronger because his eldest son, Paolo who is now Vice Mayor of the City, embraced Islam when he married a Muslim Tausug girl.

“I have grandchildren who are either Muslim or Christian. Would I want to see a situation in the future where even my own grandchildren would be dragged into this conflict?,” he asked.

Duterte understands the meaning of conflict first hand and he knows how indiscriminate the resulting violence could be.

On December 27, 1993, suspected Islamic extremists, one of who was arrested two years later in Sulu, bombed San Pedro Cathedral, the city’s major Catholic church, killing seven people and wounding at least 150 others.

Ten years later, two more bombings would rock the city, one in the Davao City Airport on March 4, 2003 which killed 21 people including an American Baptist missionary and wounded 148 others, and in the Sasa Wharf on April 2 which killed 17 more and wounded 56 others.

In the San Pedro Cathedral bombing of 1993, the retaliation was immediate. A few hours after the church bombing, grenades were thrown at several mosques in the city.

In the airport and wharf bombings, the actions were aimed at arresting the suspects and preventing further violence in the city.

Following the bombings, the national government approved the city’s recommendation to organize Task Force Davao, a military composite group which established check points all over the city to control the entry of bombs and guns.

When Duterte ordered that the City will no longer allow the entry of powerful firearms usually brought in by bodyguards of politicians mostly Muslims from the Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces, everybody followed.

“This city is open to everybody regardless of tribe or religion for as long as you abide by the law,” Duterte once declared when the issue of the presence in the city of members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was raised.

MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari has a wife who lives in Davao City.

Top ranking officials of the MILF are also believed to have homes in Davao City where their children live while studying in colleges and universities in the city.

Davao has thus become a model “peace city” today where members of warring groups – the Moro rebels, the New People’s Army (NPA), policemen and soldiers – live and abide by the strict rules of the city under the leadership of Rody Duterte.

It was also chosen as one of the Safest Cities in the World to Live In.

Muslim businessmen, mostly Maranaos, swear that they are never harassed in Davao City while selling their wares, unlike elsewhere in the country where they are the favorite prey of corrupt policemen who mulct them of their little earnings.

But Duterte’s dream of peace transcends the boundaries of his city.

“For as long as the misunderstanding between government and the Moro groups continue, we will always be unstable,” he said.

Duterte is aware that the problem is not simple.

He says the Moro people are largely misunderstood because they embrace a religion which is not known to many Filipinos in other parts of the country.

Feeling that they do not belong to the mainly Christian Filipino society and that they were never given much importance by the Central Government in its national policy formulation and decision making, the Muslims of the South have always struggled for independence and self determination.

“The danger here is that unless these legitimate issues are addressed, there is the grim scenario of the younger Moros gravitating towards radical Islamic organizations,” Duterte said.

“I will be the last person who will agree to the dismemberment of this nation,” he once declared.

Duterte maintains that while he understands the resentment of the Bangsamoro to being called Filipinos based on the belief that it is a Spanish imposed name, he believes that Christians and Muslims in this country belong to one race.

“We can call ourselves by any other name but the fact that we are brothers will always remain,” he said.

Duterte’s position on the peace settlement being pursued by the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino gained controversy recently because of his insistence that Nur Misuari and the MNLF must not be left out in the new agreement being worked out with the MILF.

While the MNLF leader is hated by the people of Zamboanga City and wanted by the national government for his role in the siege of the city which killed several people and displaced civilians, some of who are still living in tents until today, Duterte said government must talk to Misuari.

“There are enemies who must not be killed because if you do, you will be left with nobody else to talk to,” he said adding that if Misuari disappears from the scene, the government will have to deal with the terror group Abu Sayyaf in the western part of the Moro territory.

Duterte said that talking to Misuari does not mean absolving him of whatever crime he has committed in relation to the Zamboanga siege.

“His guilt is a matter which must be proven in court,” Duterte said correcting the impression his previous statements made that he was recommending an immunity for Misuari.

He said that while the Philippine peace negotiators have the noble intention of forging peace with the MILF in the Southern Philippines, they failed to consider some cultural realities involving the Moro tribes of the South.

“The Moros of the islands are distinct culturally from the Maguindanaos, Maranaos and Iranuns of mainland Mindanao. Offering a generic solution to their peculiar problems and concerns may not work at all,” Duterte explained.

The Tausugs will never be comfortable being under the leadership of the Maguindanaos or Maranaos, a situation which is also true inversely, Duterte explained adding that this could be the reason behind the failure of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which was first headed by Misuari.

Duterte also said that while he hopes that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will pass Congress, his lawyer’s instincts tell him that the measure will be questioned before the Supreme Court because of some Constitutional infirmities.

It will be difficult to reconcile a parliamentary autonomous government with a Presidential central government, he said.

Duterte, a San Beda law graduate, said there must be a back up plan should the BBL fail to pass the Constitutionality test.

“We cannot afford to fail here,” adding that Federalism and a two Federal States set up for the South could prove to be the best solutions.

A Federal Parliamentary form of government in the Philippines would not only serve the interests of the neglected regions of the country but also accommodate the desires of the Bangsamoro of the South.

A Federal State for the Maguindanaos, Maranaos, Iranuns and other Moro tribes of the main island and another Federal State for the Tausugs, Sama, Yakan and other island tribes could address the cultural issues.

Duterte said that what happened in the past could not be undone but that there is a need for national reconciliation.

“All that we could do to our Muslim brothers and sisters now is to give them what is due them which includes respecting their unique identity and respecting their claim to what is rightfully theirs,’ he said. (A longer version of this article will appear in the book “The Mind of Rody Duterte” which will be off the press in March this year.)

(Photo credit: Rody Duterte photo downloaded from newsdesk asia.com)