EDITORIAL - Eternal wait for justice

It looks like the 44 commandos of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force, particularly nine members believed to have been executed, will have to wait an eternity for justice.

Nearly nine months after the SAF commandos were butchered in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, the government still has not identified anyone responsible for the deaths of nine members of the 84th SAF Company. And even if 90 commanders and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and members of a private armed group are facing charges for the deaths of the SAF 44, no one has been arrested.

It’s understandable that the BIFF, which is supposed to be a splinter group of the separatist MILF, will laugh off demands from the government to turn over its fighters who were involved in the gunfight, or to return the guns and personal belongings looted from the dead. But confidence-building gestures are expected from the MILF, which is negotiating peace with the government.

Like the BIFF, however, the MILF has refused to turn over any of its fighters, who subjected the SAF to withering fire when the commandos went after top Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and his Filipino cohort Basit Usman.

For a while there were even efforts to rewrite the story, to erase the image of the MILF as a coddler of terrorists. First, stories were floated that the dead man was not Marwan. More recently, there were stories that he was killed not by the SAF but by his own men working as government moles.

With both stories debunked, the government must lean harder on its partners in the peace initiative to help bring justice to the SAF 44. The deaths of the commandos seriously derailed the peace process, and the continuing failure to get justice for the fallen SAF can only make it worse.