In war and peace reporting, people matter
Conflicts breaking out in Mindanao, which are often bloody, are usually staple for national headlines.
So, too, are the long-awaited peace settlements that are premised on ending acrimonious disputes and setting the once war-torn communities on the path of development.
Throughout its 40 years as the country’s leading news organization, the Inquirer has had the privilege of chronicling two overlapping strands of the Moro conflict.
First, the conclusion and eventual implementation of the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that was forged on Sept. 2, 1996. Second, the ceasefire agreement, the breakout of war, the protracted peace negotiations and the eventual implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which was signed on March 27, 2014, between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a breakaway faction of the MNLF.
MILF’s military might
The forging of a ceasefire deal in 1997 in Cagayan de Oro City between the government and the MILF may have been uneventful, as the national euphoria with the FPA still lingered. This was capped by a perfect image of transition from war to peace: Nur Misuari, the prime figure of the MNLF, taking leadership of the then Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
But for the then lesser-known MILF, it made a significant kickstart to its peace process with the government, in a bid to secure more governance powers than what was conceded to the FPA to advance the Moro people’s longing for self-determination.
The country would come to know the military might of the MILF in 2000 when the scandal-rocked administration of then President Joseph Estrada began “provocative” movements in Lanao del Norte’s hinterlands where the MILF’s armed fighters were based. These eventually escalated into a four-month all-out military campaign.
From keeping tabs on FPA implementation, which drew massive support from international development partners such as the United Nations, journalists in Central Mindanao were immediately thrust into following the massive war effort premised on asserting the country’s sovereignty.
With correspondents based in the cities of Iligan, Cagayan de Oro, Kidapawan, and Cotabato, the Inquirer’s Mindanao Bureau, then headquartered in Davao City, was at the forefront of chronicling the fateful war, first from the battlefields of Lanao del Norte, then on to Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and the Cotabato provinces, and concluding with the takeover of the MILF’s Camp Abubakar by government forces, where Estrada triumphantly feasted with soldiers over beer and roasted pig.
Day in and day out, the newsroom was abuzz with battlefield stories — the intensity of armed encounters, the number of body bags at a given time, the strength of forces massed against enemy positions, the war materiel employed, the ground maneuvers. These were the standard stories coming out of Central Mindanao at that time, whether for television, radio, or the newspapers.
Standing out
What made the Inquirer stand out, according to former Mindanao chief of correspondents Nico Alconaba, was its hunt for human interest angles in the conflict.
Stories like how the war impacted ordinary civilians who had to flee from their heavily devastated communities and live in cramped evacuation centers, dependent on aid and dole-outs for daily survival. Or how the hopes of Bangsamoro communities to rise from the ashes of rebellion through the FPA were dashed by a new war policy.
Alconaba, who would later lead the Mindanao Bureau, credited then Inquirer editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc for this dogged focus on human interest angles.
“LJM would remind us to always seek to humanize events — meaning, tell the story from the perspective of affected people [and communities]. This is a principle that applies to any story, but much more so in reporting about war,” Alconaba said.
This approach elevated the people into a key stakeholder in war and conflict, instead of just collateral damage at the receiving end of the actions of the state and rebel forces. The narratives and public discourse developed through this reporting approach, which also caught up with other news organizations, would help shape the landscape of Mindanao peace advocacy, as two more wars would break out in 2003 and 2008.
Different environment
With so many stories that needed to be told from the front lines, some bureau staff had to reinforce correspondents on the field.
Fax machines and still bulky mobile phones were a big help in facilitating the submission of stories. However, film rolls had to be rushed to airports in Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro, or Davao so these could reach the Inquirer’s main newsroom in Makati City to beat the day’s deadline.
Alconaba said that this early experience primed the Mindanao Bureau for a virtual newsroom setup.
“We were used to taking stories via phone in, or retyping stories sent by paragraphs through text messages,” Alconaba said.
The wars in 2003 and 2008 unfolded under a vastly different environment than in 2000.
First, there was a faster way to bring to the newsroom any development on the ground. Photos by then were scanned and emailed, achieving near real-time reporting of events as these unfolded. Second, there were more civil society groups who were outspoken about the need for the government to veer away from a policy of war and into a policy of peace, to finally resolve the Moro conflict.
Providing context
The Mindanao Bureau also designated some correspondents to focus on the conflict so the Inquirer could produce reports explaining the deep historical context of the Moro people’s struggle for self-determination, which was the bedrock of the rebellion first started by the MNLF in 1972.
This effort prepared the Mindanao Bureau to chronicle the Malaysian-facilitated peace negotiations, especially the critical details and nuances of the parties’ consensus on key issues that eventually led to the CAB during the time of President Benigno Aquino III.
Armed with this contextual, grounded understanding, the Mindanao Bureau continues to be in the front row of chronicling the Bangsamoro transition, reporting about every twist and turn in building the institutions of autonomy, and in fulfilling the promise of peace and prosperity for the region.
