Small Wars Journal

Philippines Treaty in Question

Fri, 09/19/2008 - 7:03pm
Philippines Treaty in Question - United States Institute of Peace interview with Eugene Martin.

In the Philippines, the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently reached an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to end decades of conflict by granting self-determination and self-governance to the Moro minority in Moro dominated parts of the southern island of Mindanao. Non-Moro opponents of the concessions challenged the agreement in the Supreme Court. Violence erupted, as some MILF units rampaged and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) struck back. Negotiations to settle the ethnic conflict have ceased.

From 2003 to 2007, Eugene Martin was executive director of USIP's Philippine Facilitation Project, which aimed to further the peace process between the government and the MILF. A retired senior Foreign Service officer, Martin served twice in the Philippines, as deputy chief of mission in 1996--99 and as a political military officer in 1987--90. He now is the director of the Washington Office of Johns Hopkins University's Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies.

Martin's work on the Philippine reconciliation project was summarized in a USIP Special Report (February 2008) and highlighted in a recent National Journal article about USIP.

USIP interview with Eugene Martin on developments in the Philippines.