EDITORIAL - Duplicity

The abduction of Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi should have been the last straw. But apparently Muslim separatists didn’t think they had done enough to set back on-and-off negotiations for peace. The other day a band of Marines on patrol in Basilan followed up a tip that Bossi was being held in a village in Tipo-Tipo town. The soldiers were on the trail of several men believed to be Abu Sayyaf members when they walked into an ambush. Fourteen Marines were killed, with four beheaded and mutilated.

The Abu Sayyaf was initially tagged as the culprits. But late yesterday afternoon, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front announced that it had ambushed the Marines for entering MILF territory. The ambush was staged amid reports circulating in Mindanao that MILF militants behind Bossi’s abduction were preparing to turn him over to the Abu Sayyaf to avoid jeopardizing the peace talks.

Basilan was supposed to have been cleared of the Abu Sayyaf scourge in 2002, when the group’s jungle base on the island was dismantled in the first Balikatan military exercises between Philippine and US troops. The Abu Sayyaf leadership has been decimated, with chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and spokesman Abu Sulayman being killed late last year. If what’s left of the group has returned to Basilan, it can only be with the protection of the MILF, which invokes the peace process at its convenience to provide sanctuary not only to the Abu Sayyaf but also to Jemaah Islamiyah. JI Bali bomber Dulmatin sneaked into the country with his family and, according to intelligence officers, was given sanctuary by the MILF. Janjalani also enjoyed MILF protection after fleeing Basilan in 2002.

Peace can have a stiff price tag. But the cost can be tolerated if it is clear that rebels have a sincere desire for peace. That sincerity has long been in doubt since the government explored peace with the MILF. The ambush in Basilan, which has never been claimed by the MILF as its territory, contrary to what its peace panel head is saying, validates those doubts. The government should stop turning a blind eye to this rebel duplicity.