Presidential aspirant boxing icon and Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s claim that conflict in Mindanao continues because of lack of infrastructure development due to government neglect is not true and missing in context.
Pacquiao made the claim during the first presidential debate sponsored by the Commission on Elections last month. The candidates were asked the question “Tagumpay ba ang Build, Build, Build?” (Is Build, Build, Build a success?)
He replied: “Sa totoo lang, kaya po hindi maistop-stop yung kaguluhan sa Mindanao dahil napapabayaan. Wala pong development na nangyayari kaya kailangan po talaga natin na madevelop ang Mindanao para po matigil ang kaguluhan sa Mindanao.”
(Translation: The truth is, the reason why the conflict in Mindanao can’t be stopped is because of neglect. There’s no development happening in Mindanao that’s why we need to develop Mindanao so that the conflict in Mindanao will be stopped.)
“That’s the only way. Ako po tumira sa bundok, tumira at nakasama ang mga Muslim brothers natin. Naintindihan ko yung mga hinaing nila. Para bang na left behind na sila,” he added.
Translation: (That’s the only way. I experienced life in the mountains, living and mingling with our Muslim brothers. I understand their grievance. It seems they’re left behind.)
Pacquiao vowed to continue the Build, Build, Build program, the centerpiece infrastructure program of the Duterte administration.
In making the claim that conflict still rages in Mindanao and that there is no development on the island because of it, Pacquiao did not mention any Moro group nor recognized the peace agreements signed by the Philippine government with the two Moro liberation fronts.
The Philippine government signed the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). In 2014, the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an MNLF breakaway group, signed their final peace accord called the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2014/03/27/document-cab/
Since the term of the late President Benigno Aquino III in 2010, there were no major and prolonged armed conflicts recorded between state security forces and the two Moro liberation fronts.
However, in January 2015, a “misencounter” erupted in Mamasapano, Maguindanao between the elite Special Action Forces (SAF) of the Philippine National Police and MILF members, after the former apparently failed to coordinate their operation with the latter. The SAF was out to arrest Malaysian national Marwan, a wanted bomb expert and a leading figure in the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Marwan, who had a bounty of $5 million from the US government, was killed but the SAF also suffered a heavy death toll. At least 44 SAF members were killed in the clash that also involved, besides the MILF which also suffered 18 deaths, members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. The clash was immediately deescalated through the efforts of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, a mechanism in the GPH-MILF peace process.
In May 2017, a five-month urban warfare erupted between the military and the joint forces of the Islamic State-aligned Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, in the latter’s bid to establish Marawi as a wilayah or Islamic province in Southeast Asia. Some 1,100 individuals, mostly Islamic militants, were killed during the fighting that left the core of Marawi in rubble.
These two violent episodes – the Mamasapano clash and the Marawi siege – may have stained the peace in Mindanao in general and the Bangsamoro region in particular. However, a large part in the south remained relatively peaceful and developing for over a decade due to the holding of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the MILF, the largest Islamic armed group in the country whose fighters are now undergoing decommissioning as part of the peace deal. https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/philippines/322-southern-philippines-fostering-inclusive-bangsamoro
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1573983/from-bullets-to-ballots-in-bangsamoro
The CAB’s key component was the establishment of a Bangsamoro region, which was realized in 2019 with the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
As to Pacquiao’s claim that there has been no infrastructure development in the Bangsamoro region, the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Bangsamoro government have been constructing roads, buildings and markets, among others, across the region. https://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/news/26019
https://www.bworldonline.com/barmm-infrastructure-budget-at-p4-9-billion-this-year-dpwh/
In other parts of Mindanao, government infrastructure projects continue or have been completed over the past few decades. https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/11/22/dpwh-starts-mountain-tunnel-for-davao-city-bypass-project/
As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
(This fact-check piece was produced with the support of Internews’ Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator Project.)
