Solon says MILF made $1-M downpayment for foreign arms

The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) planned to purchase $2-million (about P108 million) worth of weapons from foreign blackmarket sources, a member of the House committee on defense said yesterday.

Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico said among the documents recovered by government troops at Buliok complex — the MILF stronghold in Pikit, North Cotabato — was a receipt stating a downpayment of $1 million.

"What we want to know is where did they get the money. How will they source the arms?" Suplico asked.

He, however, did not disclose where the MILF made the initial purchase or the date on the receipt.

But he said the receipt, among other documents, is now being analyzed by military intelligence.

Senior intelligence officials confirmed Suplico’s disclosure and said they are now tracing the flow of money and arms to the MILF. "The matter is still under investigation," a senior official told The STAR.

Among the weapons and ammunition being eyed for purchase by the MILF are 21,600,000 of 5.56mm rounds for M-16 rifles; 3,600 M-16s; 2,400 rifles with M-203 grenade launchers and approximately 20,000 rounds of Russian-made shoulder-fired rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).

Suplico said the MILF appeared to have taken advantage of the lull in the interim peace agreement to build up its military force.

He said there are also indications that the government "unwittingly" helped and funded the MILF because of the interim ceasefire agreement.

Suplico noted how the P5 million the government gave as initial funding assistance to the MILF appeared to have been used by rebels to fortify their defenses in Buliok.

Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, chairman of the House committee on defense, said the MILF should be more sincere with the government, as he warned that MILF leaders had used the respite gained from several interim accords to build up their military capability.

Suplico was among the members of the House committee who visited Pikit last week to investigate the conflicting claims of government and the MILF that the other violated the interim peace agreement.

The military succeeded in capturing Buliok complex in Pikit last month, leaving almost 200 MILF guerrillas dead.

Government troops seized boxes of documents in the house of MILF leader Hashim Salamat, detailing alleged links by the Muslim rebels to the al-Qaeda network of international fugitive Osama bin Laden.

Among those seized were manuals for assassination, ambush, and bombing techniques, mostly in Arabic script.

Military intelligence officers who inspected Salamat’s fortified residence said they recovered notebooks containing names of suspected benefactors of the group in the Middle East, parts of Africa and Pakistan.

Military sources said most of the notebooks contained coded entries written in Arabic which also indicated dates when Salamat, an Egyptian-trained missionary and fluent in Arabic, had telephone conversations with his foreign contacts.

The military documents found in Salamat’s residence also detailed the MILF buildup of forces in the last 24 months after signing the temporary truce with the government.

Not again

Suplico and Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat urged Malacañang yesterday to pull out Presidential Assistant for Special Concerns Norberto Gonzalez from brokering the peace talks with the MILF.

The two lawmakers claimed Gonzalez conducted back- channel talks with the MILF leading to the interim peace agreement with the rebels in 2001, but which they said was in violation of the Constitution.

Suplico and Lobregat also claimed there were several "onerous" provisions in the final draft peace accord being pushed by Gonzalez with the MILF.

Gonzales earlier announced he was sent over by Malacañang to Kuala Lumpur for a meeting with Malaysian officials on the prospects of holding the GRP -MILF talks.

Malaysia, an influential member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is helping broker a peace agreement between the Philippine government and MILF.

Gonzales explained that his role in Kuala Lumpur is to coordinate with Malaysian officials to discuss security constraints besetting areas covered by the earlier GRP-MILF ceasefire agreement and the possible resumption of peace talks.

But the two lawmakers insisted Gonzalez was instrumental in the crafting of what they claimed were "onerous provisions" of the interim peace agreement with the Muslim rebels.

Among these were provisions allowing the MILF to exercise police power and to fly their flag in their territories, in violation of the Constitution, they said.

Suplico pointed out that the MILF, in the exercise of "police powers," prevented government troops pursuing Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang members from entering its territory.

Continue the fight

Salamat, for his part, declared over the Internet that they might as well continue to fight the government to attain an independent Islamic state in Mindanao.

The MILF chief claimed the government assault on their stronghold in Pikit, North Cotabato last month has pushed the insurgent leadership to "serve notice to the whole world that the Bangsamoro people and its homeland cannot long endure living in its present colonial status under the Philippine Republic."

But despite fighting for an independents Islamic country in Mindanao, Salamat nonetheless said the MILF leadership and its fighters "remain committed to seek a negotiated political settlement of the Mindanao conflict and of the Bangsamoro problem."

Samalat, however, condemned ongoing military offensives on rebel positions, saying these are in violation of the ceasefire and ongoing peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF.

He said the negotiations under the Arroyo administration were supposed "to reverse the ‘all-out’ war policy of the previous Estrada administration" against the Filipino-Muslim rebels.

"(The peace talks’) objective was to find a negotiated political settlement of the Mindanao conflict and the problems of the Bangsamoro people," said Salamat.

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the government

wasted its momentum gained by the massive attacks then President Joseph Estrada launched against the MILF in the year 2000 which resulted in the seizure of 46 camps of the rebels, including Camp Abubakar in Parang, Maguindanao.

He said the government should not have opened the doors anew for the resumption of peace negotiations since it already had the upperhand and neutralized the capability of the MILF.

Lacson said the government, in launching the offensive against the MILF in Pikit, apparently was not prepared for the retaliation by the rebels such as the toppling of the power transmission towers in Baloi, Lanao del Norte last Wednesday which put the entire Mindanao in darkness for several hours.

"The (Armed Forces) is apparently not prepared for what the MILF could do in return," he said. – With Benjie Villa, Edith Regalado, Roel Pareño, John Unson