Phl peace panel should ask MILF the Pacquiao question

Last Sunday’s firefight in the town of Mamasapano in Maguindanao where 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were killed in action was nothing but a butchery. Though armed to the teeth and supposedly trained in military tactics, the SAF men ended up dead in their skirmish with jungle battle-experienced enemies in the open fields of Mamasapano.

The initial breaking news pointed to Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) as the ones that engaged the SAF men in the firefight. The SAF battalion was sent to serve the warrant of arrest against a “high-level target” when they launched their early morning operation at 5 a.m.

The SAF target: Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, a Malaysian bomb maker who has a $5-million bounty from the United States government. Marwan, identified with the Muslim extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), is among the international terrorists in the most wanted list of the US. He is the principal suspect in a number of deadly bombings that took place in Central Mindanao. So this should explain the American GIs seen assisting in airlift evacuation of the wounded SAF men.

After the dust of the firefight settled, it turned out the site of confrontation was an area claimed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Obviously, it was part of the peace and ceasefire agreements they forged in March 2013 with the Philippine government.

While admitting their men were involved, the MILF leaders blamed it on a “mis-encounter” with the SAF battalion of 392 policemen. When the gunfight was over, 44 dead bodies were left strewn in the battlefield, several were beheaded and undressed, robbed of their mobile phones and other personal belongings. And worst, these butchers also took away all the government-issued high-powered firearms of the slain SAF men. 

But the MILF leadership headed by Mohager Iqbal, as expected, insisted his followers merely responded in “self-defense” when the SAF battalion entered their territory “without prior coordination” through the joint ceasefire monitoring committee. By what laws of the land did the MILF get to claim territory in this part of Mindanao? The last time I checked our geography, Mindanao is still part of the Philippines.

This latest incident reminded of the Al Barka incident in Basilan, another stronghold of the MILF, the BIFF and Abu Sayyaf. At least 19 Special Forces (SF) of the Philippine Marines were killed, a number of whom were also beheaded and their government-issued high-powered firearms looted.

On that fateful day on October 18, 2011, these jungle warfare-trained SF men were ambushed while conducting law enforcement operations against Abu Sayyaf leaders and kidnapping heads Long Malat, Laksaw Asnawi and Nurhasan Asnawi. An MILF commander, Asnawi was an escapee from Basilan provincial jail.  

This compromised military operation resulted in the relief of senior military commanders and subsequently underwent court-martial. All were meted punishment but were not dismissed from the service.

In the name of the Mindanao peace process, none of the suspected attackers was brought to answer for the murderous attack on 19 SF Marines. On the same pretext, the attackers allegedly belong to “lost commands” beyond the MILF leaders’ control.

Two days before this latest SAF incident, a car bomb exploded in the middle of a busy road in Zamboanga City and killed two persons and injured 54 others. Probers have tagged local kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf group as behind the bombing. Intelligence reports earlier claimed Marwan was spotted in Basilan, also a known stronghold of the MILF, BIFF and Abu Sayyaf.

The MILF leadership has consistently denied any links with the BIFF as well as with the banditry activities of the Abu Sayyaf that earlier admitted their direct links with the international al-Qaeda terror network. But the MILF has common, or should we say familial tie that closely binds them with these BIFF, Abu terrorist groups: they are family and kin.

The Malaysian-brokered peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF are still continuing to finalize the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). A major part of this CAB is the passage into law of the Bangsamoro Basic Law which is undergoing public hearings at the 16th Congress.

Incidentally, the MILF split from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) after the latter forged a final peace pact with the government in 1996 during the administration of ex-President Fidel Ramos. The MILF continued its secessionist bid in Mindanao when former President Joseph Estrada succeeded Ramos into office.

Instead of accepting peace overtures, the MILF stepped up its attacks in Mindanao. Estrada decided to declare all out war against them until government forces captured their stronghold Camp Abubakar and regained 49 other encampments once under MILF control.

However, it was short lived after Estrada was ousted in January 2001 when former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the government. She resumed peace talks with the MILF. Her administration nearly signed with the MILF the infamous MOA-AD, or Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain. Then Sen. Mar Roxas II and others succeeded to stop it through Supreme Court injunction.
    The MILF broke off from the negotiations after SC junked MOA-AD as unconstitutional. When the new administration came into office, President Aquino flew all the way to Japan and convinced top MILF leaders to resume the peace talks. It was then the BIFF was born as another breakaway faction of the MILF.

The MILF subsequently signed CAB that is now going through its final phases, the penultimate of which is Congress approval of the BBL. Critics of the BBL decry this Marwan incident as something that would hopefully open the eyes of people pushing for its approval posthaste.

It would be prudent for our government negotiators to pose this question before resuming peace talks with their MILF counterparts. Actually, it is a takeoff from our very own world boxing champion, Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao who threw this question to the US bet who ended first runner-up in the Miss Universe: “If you were given 30 seconds to deliver a message to a global terrorist, what would you say?”