Group clarifies director's claim that gov't paid for SAF arms' return

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) on Saturday said the insinuation by its priest-director that the government paid for the return of the firearms of the policemen killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao was personal and not an organizational statement.

Fr. Eliseo Mercado, Jr., director of IAG, a peace advocacy organization supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, also said last Friday that two members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front helped the police locate the house of slain Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan last January 25.

The January 25 operation that led to the death of Marwan sparked encounters between policemen that raided his hideout, located at the border of Barangays Inog-og and Pidsandawan in Mamasapano, and local guerillas of the MILF and gunmen from third group, the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. 

Mercado said the two MILF members are to benefit from the bounty on Marwan’s head offered by the United States of America.

Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, the founding executive director of IAG, said Mercado’s assertions do not reflect the official position of the IAG on the now infamous January 25 “Mamasapano incident,” which left 44 members of the police’s elite Special Action Force, 18 MILF guerillas and five innocent villagers dead.

“Fr. Mercado made these disclosures out of his own accord and responsibility,” Bacani said in an official communique issued Saturday.

Mercado is known in Central Mindanao for his close ties with the now fugitive Nur Misuari, the founder of the Moro National Liberation Front, who is rabidly opposed to the on-going peace overture between the government and the MILF.

Misuari, who is hostile to the MILF, declared in August 2013 the “Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan independence” to dramatize his opposition to Malacañang’s peace overture with the group.

Misuari said the government and MILF’s 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro abrogated their September 2, 1996 final peace agreement with government.

Mercado, who belongs to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation, whose members include the Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, is also a bitter critic of President Benigno Aquino III.

Mercado had said the government paid an undetermined amount in exchange for the MILF’s return of the 16 firearms of the SAF members killed in the Mamasapano encounter.

The 16 firearms, comprised of M16 and M203 rifles, a caliber 5.56 K3 and M-60 caliber 7.62 machineguns, were returned by the MILF’s ceasefire committee to government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles, and Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Gregorio Catapang last week at the Army’s Camp Siongco in Maguindanao.

Mercado, citing information fed by confidential sources, said the government had paid the two MILF informants an initial P15 reward even before they could help the SAF locate Marwan’s whereabouts.

Bacani said Mercado does not speak for the IAG, which is involved in various peace-building projects in Southern Mindanao.