I don't know what to call what happened in Maguindanao last Sunday where 51 Special Action Force members were killed in an ambush in Tikanalipao in Mamasapano in Maguindanao in an area where it is controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Just when we thought that this "legacy" of Pres. Benigno Aquino III to broker a peace deal with the MILF was going to end in peace, it has only ended in the second massacre in Maguindanao. But you can't say that I didn't warn you.
We've written articles warning that the peace deal of PNoy and Al Haj Murad would not end in peace in Mindanao because they did not include the Moro National Liberation Front in the peace negotiations. Apparently I was mistaken, I did not expect that this peace deal would be broken by the MILF themselves! What traitors! But what is worse than dealing with traitors? The president supports the MILF.
Worse of all, Pres. PNoy accepted Malaysia as a peace broker when in truth and in fact, Malaysia has a hidden agenda because there has never been a closure to the issue of the Philippine claim to Sabah. Indonesia would have been a better and a more neutral peace broker in this effort for getting peace in troubled Mindanao. But then peace has always been as elusive as ever simply because the Philippine government did not insist on disarming the MILF. No peace deal can be hatched if the other side doesn't lay down their arms. So now this peace deal is in tatters! So didn't we warn you?
This dastardly attack against our Filipino soldiers has only triggered a feeble response from the Philippine government, asking the MILF to explain why they killed our soldiers. How stupid have we become against these Moro separatists. If there was anyone who understood the language of the Moro terrorist, it was former Pres. Joseph "Erap" Estrada who bombed and captured Camp Abubakkar! If we don't come up with a quick response soon to capture the MILF involved in this massacre, then I pray for Mindanao!
I dare say that the Bangsamoro Basic Law is already finished! It can never be part of the law of the land and if Pres. Aquino wants to finish his term, he better exact a tit-for-tit response to the MILF.
We learned from news reports that the chairman of the Peace Negotiating Panel of the MILF, Mohagher Iqbal said that those SAF soldiers were killed in "self-defense!" Other pundits say that it was a "misencounter." In my book, a misencounter would not last for nearly 12 hours of fighting. What is extremely painful in this scenario is that, only five MILF members were killed. This was no self-defense! Mr. Iqbal had to look for excuses for their treasonous act! Worse of all, it was the brutality, where wounded soldiers were finished off by machine gun fire on the ground.
Call it ironic that Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government and the Ad Hoc Committee at the House of Representatives, announced the suspension on the hearings of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Sen. Marcos pointed out, "We cannot, in conscience, proceed with these hearings while a cloud of serious doubt hangs over the security situation in the south. A peace agreement cannot be legislated under the threat of such extreme violence. Violence has no room in a civilized society."
This is what I've always been harping at the peace negotiators, why did they sign a peace accord without any surrender of firearms of the MILF? Surely, those people at the peace-negotiating table should have learned how peace was brokered in Ireland against the Irish Republican Army. To show sincerity, the IRA put all their weapons in underground areas, where the British negotiators were blindfolded and brought to those sites to ensure compliance. With that done, they began their peace talks, which really ended in a genuine peace for Ireland.
I gathered that Pres. Aquino has called upon his rubber stamp allies in Congress to fast track the approval of the BBL so that by the end of his term, Pres. PNoy can claim that he brokered peace in Mindanao, where no President has done before. Of course, we know too well about those rumors where his sycophants in Malacañang were talking about PNoy getting a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. There you can see that their motive was very selfish… simply to gain credit for their president in yellow!
Let me tell you here that the next few days would be crucial for PNoy.