Madame Gloria is now in Davao, presiding over the merger of her party Kampi with that of Lakas. They are preparing for the ARMM elections, a crucial one given that Mindanao’s vote more often than not determine the next president. Remember 2004? It was in Mindanao that Gloria orchestrated that Hello Garci caper. Surely, this present dispensation have a more creative way of cheating their way again to power.
However, Gloria forgot to ask the MILF, which warned the government not to proceed with the elections. The forewarning has some basis. The MILF can disrupt the elections simply because they still don’t have the peace pact with the government. The MILF leadership can always order their army to stage skirmishes with the military or bomb areas in Mindanao.
Despite this warning, Gloria intends to proceed with this, sure that her candidates will get the people’s nod. As what Patricio Mangubat noted in his entry over at newphilrevolution.blogspot.com, the situation in Mindanao is indeed, extremely volatile and this elections could be used by extremist elements there to create chaos—permanent chaos.
Many Muslims consider ARMM as a failure. And it is. Muslim-dominated areas in Mindanao are considered the poorest provinces in the Philippines. ARMM is just a cosmetic apology to the decades of neglect by imperial Manila. That’s why many Muslims don’t vote because their ballots amount to nothing.
The ARMM elections will only heighten the tensions there and could even spill over to Manila, if left unmanaged.
June 18th, 2008 @ Ricky Rivera
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