In Barangay Timar last July 29, we saw a destroyed school, a mosque without spiritual life and military checkpoints. The village is practically dead. At the school we met a group of women and children evacuees, all looking serious. They did not expect any help from us, and our inability to change their situation depressed us a lot.

By Evgenia Lipski and Tobias Schuldt
Posted by Bulatlat.com

An unfamiliar landscape is running behind the windows of the van that we are riding. Fields, villages and unknown locations are taking turns before our eyes. We are listening greedily to the conversations of our companions in the van, a strange mixture of Visayan and English words to us, trying to remember names and other new facts.

We are trying not to look helpless in the face of so much background information. We are not only visitors here. We are part of the Bantay Ceasefire (Ceasefire Watch), a civil society group that has monitored since 2003 the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao.

Bantay Ceasefire takes the standpoint of the civilians or non-combatants in a situation of conflict. The European Center for Conflict Prevention, in its “People Building Peace 2” book, lists the Bantay Ceasefire experience as one of the successful stories of civil societies in the world engaging their governments and other actors in order to prevent armed conflict.

Realities at Barangay Timar

Since July 1, the Philippine Army has tried to locate and attack members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who were reportedly in Maguindanao. Due to continuous Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operations, the ASG split into small groups.

In order not to compromise the peace process and the ceasefire, the MILF and the
government agreed to cooperate in the evacuation of more than 1,500 civilians in the affected barangays in Guindolongan (Barangays or villages Ahan, Upper Muti, Datal Pandan and Lambayo) and in Talayan (Barangays Pukol, Marader, Timar).

The MILF meanwhile agreed to temporarily move out from two of their camps in Maguindanao, Camp Badar and Camp Omar, to give government troops the leeway to operate in their areas. The MILF fighters moved out with the government’s security guarantee. A search operation, planned first for 72 hours, was extended several times when the army was unable to locate the ASG.

This cooperation between the government and the MILF cannot be ignored. But what about the civilian evacuees?

In Barangay Timar last July 29, we saw a destroyed school, a mosque without spiritual life and military checkpoints. The village is practically dead. At the school we met a group of women and children evacuees, all looking serious. They did not expect any help from us, and our inability to change their situation depressed us a lot.

What does one say to people who have fled their houses and their livestock and will be far from their fields when harvest season comes? Some of the evacuees were allowed to enter the area of search operations on the west side of the Ahan river. But they are only allowed in the area from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., an arrangement agreed upon by the MILF and AFP. Clearly, they were allowed for only eight hours, but it already takes the farmers some six hours just to reach their farms! To do harvest work, two hours is not enough. In an attempt to give some relief, each family of the evacuees was provided by the government five kilos of rice which, based on our limited experience, is not enough.

With what we witnessed, we realized that terrorism and criminal elements are common problems of the government and the MILF and that military operations are already nothing new. But what about the welfare of the evacuees? If it is a concern to the Bantay Ceasefire, it must all the more be a concern of the decision-makers!

Journey to Barangay Ahan

In the evening of Aug. 5, we were at the Notre Dame Peace Center in Cotabato City with about 40 Bantay Ceasefire members. We discussed the situation of the farmer evacuees of Barangay Timar. Some farmers returned to their farms and stayed there overnight, taking the risk of staying in an area that has not been declared “cleared.” We talk about the security question for the evacuees– how will their security be ensured? It is a difficult question: Have you ever chosen between your personal security and the necessity to be able to feed your family in the coming months?

The day after (Aug. 6), we went to Barangay Ahan, a beautiful landscape of fertile fields of rice, corn and sesame plants which have to be harvested before they rot or are eaten by wild animals like monkeys and wild pigs during the night.

The area is a 17-km walk to the fields and from the farms to the checkpoint. The day may be hot, but we got wet after crossing the Ahan river several times. The place looks so peaceful but a loud noise from overhead ruined our idyll.

“Look there, an airplane! What plane is it? An American one? It has been here since the start of operations against the Abu Sayyaf!” We later learned that the plane was likely a P-3 Orion that is used in surveillance operations by the U.S. armed forces.

According to the residents, the plane has been circling up to 13 hours since three months ago. We also saw empty plastic bags of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), or meal rations that are standard issue to U.S. soldiers.

At that point, we asked ourselves: What is going on in this area in Maguindanao? What are American soldiers really doing here?

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