ANDRE VLTCHEK
Moro National Liberation Front Commander – Haji Ibrahim“Bambi”
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is a nationalist political organization which has been waging an armed struggle against the Philippine state since its establishment in 1969.
It struggles for the independence of the Bangsamoro Land. As defined by the MNLF, the territory of Bangsamoro Land covers Sulu, Mindanao and Palawan, otherwise known as MINSUPALA, they are some of the poorest areas of the Philippines.
Unlike its Islamic offshoot, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)), MNLF is not a religious organization, and it styles its ideology as Egalitarianism. MNLF is racially and religiously inclusive and it calls for independence and social justice for the exploited and most discriminated sector of the Philippines population – a country where some 20.5%, or about 4.1 million families go hungry while 51%, or some 10.4 million families, consider themselves poor, according to a 2011 survey by the pollster, Social Weather Stations (SWS, April, 2011).
A member of the Central Committee of MNLF, Commander Haji Ibrahim “Bambi”, 67 years old, met with the author for an interview in January 2013, at an undisclosed location in Sabah, Malaysia.
AV (Andre Vltchek): Peace process, peace agreements, broken peace agreements and more processes… It appears a never-ending saga. You are facing the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), one of the most brutal and corrupt armies in the world; the army, which is determinedly supported by the former colonizers of the Philippines, the United States, Spain, and indeed Europe. Do you have any chance of winning the war and consequently independence for your people?
CB (Commander “Bambi”): It would not be easy. We would all have to unite: MNLF, MILF, and the Marxist groups. MILF would have to agree to join the constitutional process and agree to negotiate; something they are refusing to do. We all have to sit down and talk.
The United States, Europe, the entire West would then have to join our efforts to implement, and then support, a real peace agreement.
The peace process is in danger, because most of the terms agreed on during the Tripoli Agreement of 1976, and later the Jeddah Accord in 1987, were never implemented. The government is now busy dealing with MILF. On top of it, the peace process would have to go through the constitutional procedure, within the Government of the Philippines. It would have to go through the Senate and through the Congress. And the fact that there are more Christians than Muslims in both institutions, even in the Mindanao local Senate, would further complicate things.
Once I attended a meeting sponsored by one of the EU countries. There were also representatives of Colombia there, of Indonesia, as well as 3 people from the US; probably CIA. I told them “American brothers, you are not our enemies, are you? You were preaching to us about freedom for so many years and decades. But when you are here, you are not seeking peace, instead you are siding with the Philippines government against the will of the people.”
In the Communist rebel area of Mindanao, Philippines.
AV: What exactly is the United States trying to achieve by supporting the Philippine regime?
CB: The US goal is to control the entire Pacific. It wants to prevent China from playing any significant role in this part of the world.
The US is playing a very dangerous game by training the Philippine military, justifying it by the ‘search’ for Abu Sayyaf fighters. All this is against the Philippine Constitution – the US military is not allowed to operate on the territory of the Philippines. But conducting joined exercises – Balikatan – is supposed to give ‘legitimacy’ to illegal military acts.
Counterpunch for more