‘Survey won’t derail pursuit of peace’

MANILA, Philippines - There is no reason to abandon the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) despite weakened public support for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) after the Mamasapano incident, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said although 44 percent of Filipinos are opposed to the passage of BBL – the legal basis for the creation of an autonomous Bangsamoro entity in Mindanao and the fruit of the peace negotiations with the MILF – the government could continue its drive to win back support for it.

Public trust in the MILF was shattered by the Mamasapano incident. The SAF commandos were on a mission to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and his local cohort Basit Usman in Mamasapano last Jan. 25, but members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its breakaway faction Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups attacked the SAF, resulting in the deaths of 44 SAF men.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles said it would be best to seek justice for the 44 SAF troopers in a climate of peace.

Coloma also said the Aquino administration would double its efforts to explain and make the public understand the proposed BBL as a big component of the peace process.

Malacañang welcomes the plans of Congress to resume hearings on the bill next month, expressing confidence that these would be an opportunity to clarify all aspects regarding the proposal.

Coloma said so much time has been spent studying the issue, but the Mamasapano incident opened the opportunity to answer questions surrounding the peace negotiations with the MILF.

MILF won’t surrender its men

However, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim earlier said that the MILF members who figured in the clash with the SAF cannot be held criminally liable on the basis that MILF is a “revolutionary organization.”

Yesterday, Murad announced that the MILF would not surrender any of its men that figured in the Mamasapano encounter even if found to have transgressed the MILF’s ceasefire accord with government.

He said the MILF would prosecute in its Sharia court its members found to have violated the group’s revolutionary policies when they engaged the SAF commandos.

But Malacañang stressed yesterday that Philippine laws cover the MILF members who murdered 44 SAF troopers, so the Moro rebels are not immune from criminal liability.

“Law enforcement is the sole prerogative and power of the government, and it is within the jurisdiction of the department to define the legal regime for any cases that they will file, and against whom,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

On Thursday, Murad and Von Al-Haq, spokesman for the MILF’s military wing the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, announced that their Special Investigative Commission has completed its probe on the Mamasapano encounter.

 The MILF’s initial findings showed that only 17 and not 18 MILF rebels were killed in the clash. There were also indications that the cadavers of some of the SAF men were used as “shields” by their companions as they engaged MILF forces in combat.

“That explains why some of them had bullet wounds as if they were shot at close range,” Al-Haq told reporters.

MILF’s chief negotiator Muhaquer Iqbal said their Mamasapano report would be channeled through Malaysia, the facilitator of their peace talks with government.

It is Malaysia that would release the report to the government peace panel, a procedure that the government and MILF bilaterally agreed on more than a decade ago.

Malacañang was quite soft in compelling the MILF to provide the government peace panel a copy of the Mamasapano report.

“The government peace panel is waiting for the official report of the International Monitoring Team which will also contain relevant information reflected from the MILF report,” Valte said.

Coddling terrorists MILF’s ‘first sin’

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs and the Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation concluded in their joint report that the MILF is at fault for coddling terrorists while working for a peace agreement with the government.

“It bears emphasizing that the first sin in the Mamasapano incident is the fact that the MILF leadership and community allowed themselves to coddle criminals and terrorists,” reads the Senate report, which was presented by Sen. Grace Poe to the public last Tuesday. – With John Unson, Christina Mendez, Delon Porcalla