Not worthy of trust

There is only one measure by which the credibility of either the Senate's or the MILF's probe into the Mamasapano incident can be judged legitimately, and that is through transparency. The probe of the Senate was conducted openly and even viewed live on television. Where and how the MILF conducted its version is anybody's guess.

As expected, the MILF version presented findings vastly different from that of the Senate. Such contrary findings would have been easier to defend had the MILF conducted its probe, if not with the same openness and transparency as the Senate, at least with a decent amount of it. But all it said was that it will be conducting a probe and, voila, a few weeks later emerged with a package.

Now what kind of foolishness is that? Any sane man shorn of any religious or ethnic bias will certainly reject such chicanery. What does the MILF think of the entire Filipino people, a bunch of suckers? Just because the Aquino administration allows itself to be mesmerized by its sweet-talking negotiators who seem to work for the MILF than the government doesn't mean we follow it like rats to the river.

The MILF cannot be trusted and it is not because of our unwillingness to do so. The MILF cannot be trusted because of its own untrustworthiness. It apparently regards us as a bunch of idiots who would swallow any lie hook, line and sinker. It has now qualms insulting our intelligence when it insists it was completely unaware of the presence of Marwan and other terrorists in its enclave.

When asked to return the firearms of the 44 fallen SAF commandos, it did return some of them. But not voluntarily. It had to pay its members several thousands of pesos to entice them to return the stolen guns. Where is the good faith in that? As to the other personal belongings taken from the bodies of the policemen, none was ever returned.

Some of the SAF commandos have been finished off while still alive, as evidenced by actual videos of at least one being shot at close range. Some were even defiled and desecrated. But the MILF would have none of that. Instead, it advances the argument that the bodies were used as shields by those still in the thick of the firefight, obviously to account for the inordinate number of gunshot wounds found on the bodies.

It accuses a surviving SAF member of having killed four sleeping MILF fighters. That is a lot of bull. There is no way the four MILF fighters, or anyone for that matter, could sleep out the sound of a firefight, especially one as intense as the Mamasapano incident that involved hundreds of combatants on either side and which went on for more than 12 hours.

The MILF has been pandering the idea that the BIFF is a splinter group. Again that is a lot of crap. How can members of two armed groups that have severed ties live together in the same community unless their split is only a ploy in order to fight a two-pronged war against the government -- the MILF to continue the charade of peace negotiations, the BIFF to engage in the violent struggle, and to generate funds by the same means.

Even without considering the Bangsamoro Basic Law that is lopsidedly in favor of the MILF, there is more than enough reason not to trust the MILF. One does not have to look far to find proof. The Mamasapano incident is proof enough. The MILF knew what the SAF was after because it knew it was harboring terrorists. But the SAF operation gave it the alibi to engage.

The quickness with which it threatens to go back to war betrays an underlying belligerence that cannot be camouflaged forever. When you have a belligerent streak, it simply boils over to the surface every chance it gets. In the course of the Mamasapano controversy, such belligerence has boiled to the surface many times and no amount of sugarcoating or diplomatese can gloss over what the real intentions of the MILF are.

And the real clincher is this. To whom did the MILF give the first copy of its supposed investigation report. Why to the Malaysians, of course. Not to the Philippines, which is supposed to be their own country, but to foreign interests. Even if that is what the protocol required, it would still have looked good as a sign of good faith to give it to the Philippines first. But the MILF did not. It had a much higher regard for Malaysia. And we still want to talk with it?

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