MILF wants quick probe on SAF carnage, passage of Bangsamoro law

MANILA, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front on Monday sought a quick investigation of the Jan. 25 bloody encounter in Maguindanao so as not to delay the passage of a law carving a Bangsamoro region.

A senator believed that President Aquino could be held liable for the clash that killed 44 Special Action Force commandos and at least 16 rebels under the principle of command responsibility.

“I think there is a need for the truth to come out and I would suggest that if possible all these investigations should be conducted quickly so that it will not derail the passage of the BBL in Congress,’’ Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s then chief negotiator, told reporters in the Senate.

And the sooner authorities could come out with its findings, the better for the MILF, which has drawn flak for engaging the SAF troops, said Iqbal, now chair of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

“Just stick to the truth, find out the truth and eventually, as soon as the truth will come out, the MILF will be vindicated,’’ he said when asked how the rebel group could overcome public distrust.

Iqbal spoke at the Senate hearing on the constitutionality of the BBL, which Congress is eyeing to pass by March in keeping with the administration’s time-frame of having a Bangsamoro government in place by mid-2016.

The SAF troopers clashed with of members of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters after reportedly killing Jemaah Islamiyah bomber Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan in his hideout in Mamasapano town. Zulkifli’s cohort Basit Usman escaped.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chair of the committee on constitutional amendments, for her part, weighed in on the matter of whether the President could be held accountable under the principle of command responsibility.

“Presumably,’’ she said when asked about the matter, “because the International Criminal Court has tried many heads of states.’’

“Anyone who thinks that President Aquino should assume command responsibility as Commander in Chief of the military and the AFP may file a complaint in the ICC and it then it will have to go an ICC-equivalent of a preliminary investigation and that a prosecutor will first have to determine whether all the elements are necessary to sue him formally before the court,’’ she added.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, however, disagreed with his colleague.

“I do not agree that President Aquino has incurred any liability on the principle of command responsibility under international law. Under the Rome Statute, command responsibility will apply if the superior, knowing his subordinates will commit a crime, fails to stop the commission of the crime, or knowing that his subordinates committed a crime, but fails to punish them,’’ he told reporters.

After all, the SAF troops were on a mission to serve warrants of arrest on Marwan and Basit and not to commit any crime, Drilon said.

“So the principle of command responsibility does not apply. The command responsibility has no application with President Aquino under the Rome Statutes. It does not provide any basis for any charges in the International Criminal Court,’’ he added.

Santiago said that the President’s national address last week raised more questions about his role in the operation.

“For example, what was the direct line of command between the President and the operators? It is not clear whether he just approved of the operation at the very start and then let it have its own life or whether he approved of this particular operation and if so, whose advice was he taking? And what precautions were taken to protect the lives of each of these almost uniformly very young policemen,’’ she said.

Otherwise, the principle of command responsibility applied to both Philippine government and the MILF, Santiago said.

At the Senate hearing on the BBL, a leader of a Moro rebel group that signed a shaky peace deal with the government rejected calls for an all-out war against the rebels that killed the SAF troops.

Datu Abul Khayr Alonto of the Moro National Liberation Front expressed solidarity with the MILF in moving for the passage of a law carving a Bangsamoro region past the bloody encounter.

“Those who call for war and suspension of the peace process are people who even in their nightmares would never know the horrors and cruelties of war that the people of Mindanao, Muslims and Christians alike, have been subjected to in all these decades,’’ he said.

“Neither will they know the pain of losing loved ones to war,’’ he added, offering a voice of reason amid calls to scrap the draft BBL and wage an all-out war against the MILF.

And referring to Pope Francis’ visit, he continued: “Barely a few weeks ago a pious man came to this country bringing the message of mercy and compassion, yet so soon has that been forgotten.’’

The MNLF signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996. The MILF broke away from the MNLF. Left out of the talks with the MILF, followers of Nur Misuari laid siege to Zamboanga City in September 2013.

Instead of scuttling the process, Congress should pass a stronger BBL, and not an “emasculated’’ or “mutilated’’ one, said Alonto, who founded the MNLF with Misuari.

“It is now in the hands of the Philippine Congress to bring the agreement to its culmination. You have the historical opportunity to end the Mindanao war and correct the 497 years of historical injustice done to the Moro-Malay Muslims of this archipelago,’’ he said.