A man, and a plan in war-torn
Philippines By David Gorman
SULU, Philippines - The newly elected
governor of the violence-ridden southern
Philippine province of Sulu has launched a brave
new initiative to clear the island domain of guns
and goons. Abdusukar Tan's plan to ban the
possession of guns in one of the most heavily
armed regions of the Philippines is a daring move
in a country where politics, though vibrantly
democratic, is mired in factional and clan
violence fueled by the unrestricted access to
heavy weaponry.
The small island province
of Sulu is mostly known as a front in the
United
States-led "war on terror", and is known to harbor
some of Southeast Asia's most wanted extremists,
including at least one of those responsible for
the 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia.
However, beyond the headlines, a larger
problem persists on the island that helps explain
why after several years of US military-backed
operations, terrorist suspects are able to elude
capture, and the province continues to serve as a
breeding ground for extremists and remains mired
in poverty and insecurity.
The
similarities with Iraq and Afghanistan are
telling. For an island with a population of only
750,000, as many as 100,000 illegal firearms are
in circulation on Sulu. Obtaining a heavy weapon,
grenade or mortar is as easy as going to the
market. In fact, that's precisely what one does.
There are more guns on Sulu than any other
province in the already heavily armed Philippines.
Not surprisingly, according to the provincial
government, the main cause of mortality on the
island is from gun shot wounds.
Most of
these weapons are carried by civilians and many of
them work in the service of local political clans.
Aside from the presence of the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF), with which the government
has a peace agreement, and the small number of
terrorists enlisted to the Abu Sayyaf Group,
so-called civilian voluntary organizations (CVOs)
comprise the largest number of armed civilians.
More numerous and often better-armed than
the police and the military, the CVOs were
established initially under the presidency of
Ferdinand Marcos to combat separatism and provide
local security for communities. However, they have
now gone well beyond their original mandate and
are implicitly undermining the legitimacy of the
state and fostering insecurity.
In such a
sea of weapons and armed groups, the military
often do not know who is friend, foe or innocent
civilian and is often drawn into clan conflicts
while searching for extremists. Fortunately, now
there is hope that Sulu could start to throw off
its bleak history of armed violence. Under
governor Tan's leadership, the local government
has become the first province in the Philippines
to pass resolutions aimed at both banning weapons
and disbanding private armed groups, including
CVOs.
Little law, less order
Clearly there is no better place to
initiate such a program - nor is there a more
difficult place in the Philippines to enforce and
implement a gun ban. Sulu has only one judge and
one prosecuting attorney for the whole island. The
judge only comes to the province two days a month.
The police are poorly resourced, heavily outgunned
and many fall under the patronage of the local
politicians who support the CVOs.
Meanwhile, the military is preoccupied
with pursuing the Abu Sayyaf Group as well as
keeping an eye on heavily armed MNLF fighters.
There's also a problem for the governor, who
currently controls the largest number of CVOs. He
will now need to take the politically and
potentially dangerous step of not only disbanding
his own civilian militia but also persuading the
mayors, congressman and other political leaders to
disband theirs.
Costly in political terms
as this move may be, there is a growing
realization that if Sulu fails soon to curb the
proliferation of weapons and private armed groups,
it will continue to breed extremism, insecurity
and remain at the bottom of almost every social
and economic indicator in the country. As Tan
recently put it: "We have no choice."
As a
businessman with significant investments on Sulu,
Tan knows first-hand that the province is not
going to attract economic growth promoting
investment without an improvement in the security
climate. Guns are a big part of the economic
problem. It is a sad fact that a family in Sulu
that today earns well below the US$1,060 average
yearly income for a Filipino family, regards a
$600 investment on a heavy assault weapon as far
more crucial for the survival of the family than
investing that money in their child's education,
the family farm or a new house.
So far
local political leaders on Sulu as well as the
ceasefire MNLF appear prepared to support the gun
ban initiative, as they also realize the violence
must be tackled if there is to be durable peace
and economic development. It's an initiative that
should be watched closely as it could establish a
blueprint for limiting the spread of weapons to
civilians, which in turn encourages the formation
of private armed groups.
Tan's initiative
is a bold one, for local militias are widely seen
as a surefire way to ensure stability and
political continuity; in fact, as the current
reality on Sulu demonstrates, they clearly instead
sow the seeds of long-term instability.
David Gorman is the mediation
advisor for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue,
Geneva, Switzerland. The center has had an office
in Sulu, Philippines since 2005.
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