7000 Former Muslim Rebels in Mindanao Poised to become Philippine Police Officers

MANILA, LELEMUKU.COM - More than 7,000 former Muslim separatist rebels are a step closer to being recruited to the national police force that once hunted them in a volatile region of the southern Philippines, after they passed an entrance exam – the basic qualification for recruitment.

For Ryan Saavedra, a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) foot soldier who took the test, making the cut brings him closer to his dream of securing a future for his young daughter, who belongs to a new generation that he hopes will no longer live in fear of war.

“Allahu Akbar, our prayer was heard by Allah. I never expected that I would pass the test,” said Saavedra, a wiry 36-year-old.

Born and reared in Sultan Kudarat, a town in southern Maguindanao province, Saavedra is a father to a 1-year-old daughter. He wants her to grow up to see him as a police officer instead of an enemy of the state.

“I want my daughter to be proud of her father and finish her studies so she could get a job in the future,” Saavedra told BenarNews.

He and other ex-guerrillas who passed the exam must now overcome two more hurdles – passing a screening and undergoing physical training – before they can be inducted as police officers serving the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), as part of a peace deal struck between Manila and MILF, the main rebel group here, in 2014.

The agreement stated that former members of MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) be given the opportunity for employment as law enforcers, said Mohd Asnin Pendatun, cabinet secretary for the autonomous region’s government.

“We are very grateful that we have a high passing rate for the qualifying exam and we are very happy because the sacrifice of our applicants has paid off,” he said in a statement. “We understand that the validation process of the application is meticulous because we have to ensure that applicants are legitimate MILF and MNLF members.”

As many as 7,145 ex-members of MILF and MNLF, out of the more than 11,000 people associated with those groups who sat for the National Police Commission’s “special qualifying eligibility examinations” in May, have passed, the Professional Regulation Commission said.

The results were vetted and released only this week, nearly two months after the first batch of former guerrillas sat for the exam.

Rashid Karon, another former MILF guerrilla in his 30s, said he enjoyed a special dinner with his family on Tuesday night after learning that he had passed.

“I am one step away from becoming a policeman,” he told BenarNews.

Like Saavedra and Karon, Abdul Hakim Gandarosa, 26, a resident of a village in Marawi City, thanked his family after he posted the highest score in the special examination with a grade of about 92.

In 2017, when he was 21 years old, Islamic State-linked militants ransacked Marawi in a failed attempt to turn the lakeshore city into its caliphate in Southeast Asia.

As with other young Muslims, Gandarosa said he was being recruited to be part of the IS faction, but refused.

The fighting in and around Marawi lasted five months before government forces broke the militant siege, leaving more than 1,000 IS fighters, police, soldiers and civilians dead.

Gandarosa said he wants to help prevent similar attacks in the future, if he eventually becomes a police officer.

“It would be hard, but I have to enforce the law,” he said. “And I will not hesitate to pull the trigger if my life is at risk.”

Pendatun, the BARMM cabinet secretary, said the government of the autonomous region would continue to help applicants in their efforts to be inducted into the national police force.

“This is just a testament that symbolized the partnership between the national and Bangsamoro governments for the peace process,” he said.

The MILF signed a peace agreement with the central government in 2014, ending its long-running separatist insurgency in the Mindanao region. The group split from the MNLF in 1978, while the latter signed a separate peace deal with Manila in 1996.

One of the conditions of the MILF-government peace deal was the integration of select fighters into the country’s police and military forces, subject to a rigorous selection process.

Apart from recruiting former militants into the Philippine National Police (PNP), the autonomous government is overseeing the disarming and decommissioning of weapons in the possession of 40,000 ex-fighters.

Under the process, each former combatant who turns in weapons is expected to receive a cash payment, including money for education.

But bringing former enemies into the fold isn’t sitting well with all members of the national police force.

Seven years ago, 44 police commandos were killed in a fierce firefight with the MILF in the southern town of Mamasapano. The dead officers were on a secret mission to capture or kill Zulkifli bin Hir (also known as Marwan), one of Southeast Asia’s most wanted militants at the time.

The commandos hunted down and killed Marwan, but they became trapped in a firefight with the MILF guerrillas who believed they were being attacked by enemy forces. The debacle was described as the biggest single-day combat loss for the government in recent memory.

The fighting set back the peace process, and it was only after Rodrigo Duterte succeeded Benigno Aquino III as president that Congress passed a law giving autonomy to the areas in the south controlled by MILF. (Mark Navales\ Jeoffrey Maitem| BenarNews)

The Fuyan, China’s Deep Space Radar in Chongqing may have Military Uses

BEIJING, LELEMUKU.COM - China has started building what it calls “the world’s most far-reaching radar” in the country’s southwest – a facility that could also have a military purpose, an analyst warned.

Chinese broadcaster CGTN said the new high-definition deep-space active observation facility code-named “China Fuyan,” or “Facetted Eye” for its resemblance to an insect’s eye, is being built in Chongqing Municipality.

The radar system would help “better safeguard Earth” by boosting “the country’s defense capabilities against near-earth asteroids as well as its sensing capability for the Earth-Moon system,” the state-run broadcaster said.

The Fuyan will have distributed radars with over 20 large antennas, capable of carrying out high-definition observation of asteroids within 150 million km of Earth, according to CGTN.

“If the radar is designed to observe asteroids, it would generally possess the basic capabilities for space surveillance, meaning, the ability to distinguish objects detected in space, and hence track them,” said Collin Koh, Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“Where it comes to space, the lines between civilian and military applications can be blurred,” Koh said, adding that, given China’s predilection these days to go with civil-military fusion, “it’ll be of no surprise that the radar possesses both intended civilian and military applications.”

Civil-military fusion

The project is led by a team from the Beijing Institute of Technology (BTI), in cooperation with China’s National Astronomical Observatories under the China Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

A China’s Defense Universities Tracker released by the International Cyber Policy Center at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2019 listed the BTI as “one of the ‘Seven Sons of National Defense,’” and “a leading center of military research and one of only 14 institutions accredited to award doctorates in weapons science.”

It is categorized as “very high risk” and “top secret,” with 34 designated defense research areas including missile technology, radar and weapon systems.

Both Tsinghua University and Peking University are also listed in the Tracker as “very high risk” and “high risk,” respectively.

Long Teng, president of the Beijing Institute of Technology, was quoted by Chinese media as saying the Fuyan program will have three phases of construction and by the end of Phase 3 China will have “the world’s first deep-space radar with the capability to carry out 3D imaging and dynamic monitoring as well as active observation of celestial bodies throughout the inner solar system.”

The first two radars are expected to become operational by September in Chongqing.

Asian defense analyst Collin Koh said the project will add new weight to China-U.S. rivalry in space.

“When we consider the current context, while there’s no overt clarion call for China to embark on a space militarization race with the West, especially the U.S., since it has a publicly-professed line of not engaging in one, it is nonetheless very much into the game,” he said.

“And all the more so, given the broader military rivalry with the U.S., which has extended into cyber and space domains.”

The U.S. established a Space Force in 2019, creating the first new branch of the armed services in 73 years. It resulted from what the force said was “a widespread recognition that space was a national security imperative.”

China has been actively engaged in radar development projects. The commercial satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies released a satellite photo in February, believed to be of a new long-range, early warning radar that can be used to detect ballistic missiles from thousands of miles away.

The Large Phased Array Radar (LPAR) in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province, can cover Taiwan and all of Japan, according to U.S.-based Defense News.

The paper said China has other radar facilities enabling early warning coverage of the Korean Peninsula and India. (RadioFreeAsia/ BenarNews).

World Peace Forum Invites Djauhari Oratmangun to Speak on ASEAN-China Cooperation

BEIJING, LELEMUKU.COM - Indonesia’s Ambassador Djauhari Oratmangun, accompanied by officials from the Political Section, attended the Opening Day of the 10th World Peace Forum. The World Peace Forum is an annual forum organized by Tsinghua University at 7 July 2022.

The global forum discusses international security by inviting influential politicians from major countries, heads of international organizations, experts from international think tanks, and high-ranking executives of multinationals to discuss global situations and international security. 

This is the fourth time that Ambassador Djauhari has participated at this prestigious forum. Several other Ambassadors also attended the Forum, which adopted the theme "Preserving International Stability: Commonality, Comprehensiveness and Cooperation.” This year's forum covers topics such as the preservation of world peace, European security order, and the United Nations and world order. Speakers included former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, and former Prime Minister of France Dominique de Villepin. 

Ambassador Djauhari participated as a speaker at the Panel Session themed “China-ASEAN Cooperation: New Impetus and New Trends.” He sat at the Panel table together with Professor Zhai Kun, Research Fellow at the Institute of International and Strategic Studies of Peking University. Ambassador Djauhari shared developments related to Indonesia’s bilateral relations with China, Indonesia’s G20 Presidency, and future prospects of ASEAN-China cooperation. 

Several media colleagues and scholars who were present actively asked questions regarding the Indonesia – China relations, ASEAN, as well as Indonesia’s Presidency at the G20 in 2022. During the dialogue with Professor Zhai and several participants at the Panel Session, Ambassador Djauhari also expressed optimism that the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) can serve as a catalyst in creating a stable and peaceful regional architecture. (Embassy of Indonesia, Beijing)