Many may not realize it. But our kids' future, and that of our grandchildren, are hocked in the snarled Malaysian-brokered talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and government.

The talks involve more than just expanding the Muslim Autonomous Region of Mindanao. The snarl also stems from mindsets.

MILF chair Al Haj Murad demands they acquire additional territory by the stroke of a pen. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita replies: The Constitution requires that residents, in affected areas, have their say in a plebiscite

Is an immovable object running smack into an immovable force? How can constitutional norms, backed by voters, be reconciled with sultan-like diktats, backed by guns?

Mindanao, however, may become "the Philippines' sanctuaries of terror," warns Kit Collier of Australian National University and Malcolm Cook of Lowry Institute for International Policy.

A weak state, the Philippines is at peace with it's neighbors, notes their new study. "But since 1994, its lawless southern islands replaced Afghanistan as main training ground and refuge for Southeast Asian jihadists. Most are Indonesians belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Mujahidin Kompak, and other Darul Islam factions.

"Graduates of Mindanao's terror camps rival, in number, the older generation of Southeast Asian Afghan alumni that forged ties with al-Qaeda. Veterans of Mindanao camps took part in almost every JI-linked bombing since 2000." This include the 2002 Bali attack that killed hundreds. "New cohorts will pose a danger for years to come..."

"Mindanao is not Lebanon. But the dilemma is the same: how does one separate the terrorist parasite from its unwilling host," without killing the patient?

"In the Philippines.terrorists are embedded in a volatile Muslim insurgency with which the West has no quarrel. The MILF.enjoys popular support, expresses legitimate grievances. And peace talks are underway.

But "like the Palesentians, MILF is riven by factions. And its leaders cannot, or will not, exclude terrorists from areas they control". This is MILF hedging ( as ) Manila, beset by political instability, can not "make meaningful concessions. "A politicized military and paralysis in the capital reinforce each other in a downward spiral".

Indonesia is forcing jihadists out "and across Mindanao's porous frontiers.State failure, chronic insurgency, and proliferating ties between local and foreign terrorists ( here ) come together in a lethal cocktail.

"Combined with a restive military and an impotent administration, the country has become Southeast Asia's weakest link in the war on terror. (It ) places the entire region at risk."

So what is to be done?

In Sulu, Filipino marines, backed with US technology, raze once inviolate hideouts for Abu Sayyaf bandits. They shelter Indonesian terrorist. The sustained assault is complemented by expanded intelligence efforts, like pilotless drones, and community development programs.

The MILF distances itself from the Abu Sayyaf's robbery-extortion record.

An "embryonic Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, with the government and MILF negotiators" is to ferret "lawless elements" in MILF territory. Many remain skeptical.

Japan, Australia the US, meanwhile focus development aid for ARRM. Poverty incidence in Tawi-Tawi, for instance, is comparable to Yemen and Maguindanao with Congo, Philippine Human Development Report notes. Malnutrition, dirty water and shoddy schools slice life expectancy in Sulu to 52 years - far short of Cebu's 72 years.

Collier and Malcolm pitch for "security reforms." Only a better equipped Armed Forces can "close down any remaining terrorist sanctuaries - and keep them closed."

A coup-tainted AFP needs to be professionalized and reoriented to: calls defense, border security, and special operations. "Only then will they lose their vested interest in an insurgency that has no end".

But what about the mindsets in people?

The 2000 census pegged Muslims at 3.84 million. And nine out of 10 reside in Mindanao. The Office of Muslim Affairs, however, claims there are 8.34 million Muslims.

Muslims and Chinese constitute our significant minorities, Chinese, the late historian Horacio dela Costa, SJ said in his 1975 paper: "The Filipino: An Identikit". This was long before people could be killed for a newspaper cartoon and suicide bombers who savaged the innocent were revered. Excerpts from this far-sighted talk:

"The ultimate answer..is integration into the national community. Whatever shape that process takes requires consensus on two points:

"First, the national community must.welcome pluralism and make it perfectly clear to all: that in this national community, historically Christian, there is today, if there was not yesterday, an honored place for Islam..

"We must make it perfectly clear that indigenous culture has been modified.by cultures other and older than our own, specifically from the Chinese.And this is an enrichment, not a negation or distortion of our national values.

"Second: On the part of minorities, there must be a willingness.to seek integration.They must realize that the only way to win full acceptance in a national community it to swear allegiance to it.and to make good this oath by deeds.

"By this oblation, they do not diminish, but on the contrary, enhance their particular cultural personality, since they make it contributory to a culture still in the making..."
We have work cut out so our kids' futures are not hocked.

(E-mail: juan_mercado@boholchronicle.com)