LETTER FROM MANILA:Two militant groups in the Philippines conflict have asked Angelina Jolie to intervene, writes Clifford Coonan
STROLLING THROUGH the pleasantly air-conditioned precincts of the Mall of Asia, a vast modern shopping complex built on reclaimed land near the capital Manila, it is easy to forget about the wars on several fronts waging in the Philippines.
Thirty-two people were killed in fresh fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the southern island of Mindanao over last week, in a conflict that has claimed 120,000 lives and made up to two million people homeless.
There are thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict now, victims of attacks by both MILF rebels and the army. Aid agencies say the refugee crisis is developing into a humanitarian crisis, with no end in sight.
As one commentator has pointed out, here is a conflict that is at least as bad as the one in Georgia, but still it gets little international attention.
The government is waging a separate bloody battle against Communist insurgents of the New People's Army (NPA) in Luzon. The NPA, which the military estimates to have 5,000 fighters, had been widely believed to be a spent force after nearly 40 years of insurgency, but the guerrilla group has become more active in recent months, attacking remote military and police barracks to seize weapons.
Because these wars have been going on for so long, and because they die down and flare up again with such regularity and do not seem to threaten the overall stability of the Philippines government, they are largely forgotten conflicts around the world. What is perhaps surprising, though, is to see how much they are forgotten conflicts within the Philippines itself.
The unrest in the south seems to have little apparent impact on the wealthy teenage Filipinos cruising through the outlets and the well-stocked department stores of what locals proudly flag as Asia's biggest shopping mall.
If you look closer, you see clues to the impact of three decades of struggle for self-rule and edgy relations between Catholics and Muslims in Mindanao.
At the Mall of Asia, there are armed guards at every entrance and you have to pass through rigorous security checks to gain access to the mall, men to one side, women to the other.
Foreign businesspeople hire bodyguards for the daily commute to their factories on the city's outskirts. They keep guns in the glove compartment and watch for kidnapping attempts or more traditional robberies.
Asia is a continent of contrasts, of widely divergent cultures existing side by side, but the Philippines is an especially contrary country. You constantly ask how a land that is home to such warm, friendly people, with a deep hunger for education and a wealth of natural resources, can be so poor and riven by corruption and conflict.
There are a million licensed gun-owners in the Philippines, but millions more firearms are owned illegally. The country is close to the top of the table when it comes to the numbers of extra-judicial killings and the murders of journalists.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, for her part, is standing firm on the various insurgents and says she and her colleagues would not resume talks "with a gun pointed at our head".
It looks increasingly like the final months of Ms Arroyo's tenure will be marked by insurgency, even though most of the headlines she is generating in Manila are about a controversial plan to increase her monthly salary from 60,000 pesos, or €882, to 120,000 pesos (€1,764).
Pay row aside, she has ordered the military to wipe out the New People's Army rebels by 2010, when her term ends, but the group is proving stubborn.
Peace talks to end the insurgency stalled in 2004 after the rebels accused the government of instigating their inclusion on US and EU terrorist lists.
Over the decades, the 12,000-member MILF has been fighting for an independent state or, in more recent times, a region with higher autonomy for Muslims in the south. MILF and the government signed a ceasefire in 2003, but fighting never really stopped, and efforts to find a lasting piece foundered.
Violence escalated in Mindanao in August after the supreme court stopped the government signing a territorial pact with the rebel group that would have given it a large degree of autonomy. MILF stepped up its activities, attacking towns and villages all over the region and hundreds died, including scores of civilians after the army intervened in aggressive fashion.
Now people are looking to see what the end of Ramadan will bring. There are fresh concerns that the end of the Islamic holy month this week could bring fresh violence in the south.
There are decidedly surreal elements to the whole conflict.
MILF leaders last week appealed to Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie to come to Mindanao, bear witness to the plight of the refugees and help broker a solution in her capacity as an ambassador of goodwill of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
"Everybody is welcome in helping resolve the problem, whether actor, actress, international body or prominent figure," said Eid Kabalu, MILF civil-military affairs chief.
This is the second appeal to the fragrant Jolie. In December last year, the militant group KMP asked for her help.
One of the country's most popular political figures, the opposition senator and former broadcast journalist Loren Legardo, said she would be happy to play the role of Jolie.
"I will agree to be Angelina Jolie as far as her humanitarian work is concerned except there is no Brad Pitt, unfortunately," Ms Legardo said, herself a glamorous figure who has been tipped as a possible future president.