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Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Dangerous liaisons

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THERE was no surprise in the declaration by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that it would not surrender its fighters who took part in the Mamasapano massacre of 44 police commandos in Maguindanao on Jan. 25.

From the day the news first broke, the rebel group has been consistent in its stance.

The rebels insisted that the fighters who took part in the massacre were merely defending themselves, and that it was the police commandos who violated the ceasefire agreement and triggered the “unfortunate mis-encounter” by trying to serve arrest warrants on terrorists in the

MILF’s bailiwick.

This view was reinforced by the MILF’s own investigation that, to nobody’s surprise, cleared its members of any wrongdoing and again blamed the police for not “coordinating” with the rebels before seeking to enforce the law.

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Reacting last week to a Justice Department recommendation that the MILF commanders and fighters involved be criminally charged for the deaths of the police commandos, MILF vice chairman Ghadzali Jaafar insisted the rebels committed no crime, and that they would not turn over any of them to face trial.

The refusal sets the stage for a potentially dangerous confrontation between government forces who will seek to enforce the Justice Department recommendation and the MILF, which may choose once again use the self defense card to resist a law enforcement operation.

The refusal also calls into question the wisdom of dealing with the MILF as a partner for peace and throws a wrench in the Aquino administration’s hopes to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), draft legislation that it hammered out with the MILF to create a new autonomous entity in the south led in large part by the MILF.

“Vice Chairman Jaafar’s statement clearly shows no respect for the rule of law and a blatant disregard to the feeling of the people crying out for justice for the SAF killed by the MILF fighters in Mamasapano. This will not help in regaining the people’s trust in them,” said Senator

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who leads a Senate committee studying the BBL.

This trust had already been eroded by the confirmation that MILF officials, including chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, had used pseudonyms to sign several peace agreements with the government and even used them to open bank accounts in violation of the law.

The administration’s clumsy attempts to defend the MILF in this regard only made matters worse.

The mantra that the government’s peace negotiators and the MILF have been chanting these days is that the BBL is much more than the Mamasapano incident, and that the killing of the 44 police commandos, while tragic, pales in comparison to the thousands who have already died and the thousands more that may perish in the conflict in Mindanao.

It is a facile argument that assumes that the MILF is a trustworthy partner, and that the BBL, with all its constitutional infirmities, is the only way forward. Both assumptions, we now know, are fraught with danger—and we would be foolhardy to pretend otherwise.

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