MILF chief snubs Senate probe anew

MANILA, Philippines — Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panel, did not show up for the second Senate hearing on Tuesday on the tragedy in Maguindanao, which involved his own men.

Iqbal again tasked Rasid Ladiasan, chair of the MILF Coordinating Council on the Cessation of Hostilities, to represent the rebel group, which has entered a peace agreement with the government.

In a letter to Sen. Grace Poe who chairs the Senate panel probing the Moro rebels' killing of the 44 elite Special Action Force commandos, Iqbal said he will only participate in the hearing once the group's own fact-finding body completes its report on the January 25 incident in Mamasapano town.

"[The] findings ... will be the basis of my statements to the relevant committees of the Senate," Iqbal said, citing the decision on the MILF leadership.

MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities chair Rashid Ladiasan (right) reads the letter from Bangsamoro Transition Commission Chair Mohagher Iqbal explaining his non-appearance at Tuesday's Senate hearing. Senate PRIB/Cesar Tomambo

The group also wants Iqbal's statements to be made within a closed-door Senate executive session and not in a televised public hearing.

Iqbal's letter, however, also stressed that the MILF remains a "revolutionary organization" despite its comprehensive agreement with Manila to create the new Bangsamoro region in war-torn Mindanao.

"While we may have signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government after 18 years of intermittent war and negotiations, that peace agreement is yet to be implemented," Iqbal said.

Peace panel chair Miriam Coronel Ferrer, who was also present in the hearing, said that Iqbal's absence should be seen "in the light of how the MILF operates."

"No single individual is able to undertake action without the full consent of the central committee of the MILF," Ferrer said.

She added that she agrees that Iqbal should soon attend the Senate probe, as his answers on why the MILF broke its cease fire agreement with government on January 25 are warranted.

MILF militants fired at SAF troopers as they were retreating from a completed mission targeting international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.

The group claimed that the police units involved in the operation entered its enclave and provoked the insurgents to fire at the troopers.

Authorities, however, received reports that the MILF was coddling Marwan and his Filipino cohort, Basit Usman, in their "territory" in Mamasapano.