Southern Philippines Situation

The situation in the southern regions of the Philippines, where 100+ year old on-again-off-again Moro insurgency has festered, is growing more active.

The Arroyo administration correctly saw no good coming from a negotiated expansion and continuance of the Autonomous Region last August, and fortunately the Supreme Court tossed out the Memorandum of Understanding on constitutional grounds in October.

This all should not come as a great surprise, considering the whole area is considered a "haven for terrorism".

The current plan of action is "DDR"; disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration.

Just one little problem with that concept, and then one fly-in-the-ointment issue to go with it:

. One can't re-integrate a societal element that has *never* been willing to integrate or compromise more than superficially with the nation, and that pretty much sums up the Moro view of relations with the GRP (Government, Republic of the Philippines).

.. The semi-recognized Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has its own radical elements that have returned to terrorism and, worse, the group provides cover and protection for the Abu Sayyaf. Those would be the al-Qaeda want-to-be's that engaged in spates of piracy and kidnapping of foreigners a few years back.

So with that knowledge in hand, here is the current situation:

The international observers have been mostly ineffective, and now Malaysia has pulled out of the observer effort entirely.

The GRP is still trying to find someone and some way to talk with the MILF.

Meanwhile, the forces on the ground in the region are being pressed into counterattacking. Basilan Island is once again the center of the conflagration. Brave work to be done there, and the Philippine Marines are just the fellows to be doing it.