Peace panel badgered: You are representing whose side?

MANILA, Philippines–Peace negotiators from the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) found themselves on the firing line of questioning as the Senate resumed its fifth and last session inquiring into a botched police operation to arrest a Malaysian bomb expert in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province.

“What side are you representing in the peace panel?” Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano threw the sarcastic question at Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Deles and Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, head of the government team in talks with the MILF, as he expressed exasperation over their seeming partiality to the rebel group in connection with the investigation.

Full revamp

An administration ally has called for a full revamp of the government’s peace negotiating team, claiming that Congress has lost its trust in its leaders.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon asked President Aquino to fire Ferrer and Deles, for their purported failure to pursue the best interest of the government in the peace agreement with the MILF.

“People on the streets, well-known people, everybody is saying it: Ferrer and Deles are acting as lawyers for the MILF. They have lost their objectivity,” said Biazon, a retired Armed Forces chief of staff, said in an interview with dzBB radio.

The House of Representatives has shelved public hearings on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law until after the Philippine National Police board of inquiry submits its findings on what happened in the Jan. 25 fighting in Mamasapano.

Cayetano ended up quizzing not only Deles and Ferrer but also MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, this time over the MILF’s commitment to bring justice to the 44 police commandos killed in Mamasapano, as well as the commitment of the new Bangsamoro political entity to ensure the peace in Mindanao following the incident.

Members of the Special Action Force (SAF) on a mission to get Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino associate, Basit Usman, had figured in a clash with the MILF and its splinter group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and other gunmen.

Aside from the SAF fatalities, 18 MILF members and five civilians were killed in the fighting, jeopardizing the government’s peace efforts with the Moro rebels.

Sulu photographs

Cayetano and Deles ended up raising voices after the senator questioned her why the government panel had to inform the MILF about pictures of armed men in Sulu province, purportedly showing that the MILF was still building up its arms and forces.

Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public order which is leading the investigation, asked the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) to look into the allegations that the MILF had been recruiting and training operatives in a newly opened camp in Sulu province.

Poe said she received a letter from Sulu Vice Gov. Abdusakur Tan, as well as several photographs, alleging the MILF recruitment and the use of high-powered firearms during the training. The photographs showed labels identifying individuals as MILF members and other persons as “ASG” (Abu Sayyaf Group) members.

In his letter, Tan said the pictures came from “concerned citizens” and were taken on Jan. 1 at Punay Poblacion, Panglima Estino municipality. He said the training was allegedly facilitated by former Mayor Hadji Munib Estino and his son, Mayor Benshar Estino.

Tan said the incident should not be taken in isolation because other local government units had also reported MILF recruitment activities in other provinces in the guise of organizing a political party.

“From the pictures, we can see that they are strengthening their forces, and if this is not stopped, in the following years, this would be a heavy problem that would trouble our future,” Poe said.

“These activities are provocative actions which are inimical to the security of our people,” Poe said. “It also violates the Implementing Operational Guidelines on the Cessation of Hostilities between the Philippine government and the MILF.”

Authentication

Deles said she informed the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) first about the photos and told the MILF later. She said that Ferrer had already received a report from Westmincom about the presence of the armed men.

This prompted Cayetano to ask Deles whether she had first asked the AFP to authenticate the pictures. Eventually, he asked her, “What side are you representing in the peace panel? Are you representing the Republic of the Philippines or are you representing the MILF?”

Deles said she “of course” represented the republic “in every occasion.” She also said the pictures were authenticated by the military.

Ferrer told Cayetano she represented the government of the Philippines, being chair of the government peace panel.

For his part, Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., chair of the government panel to the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), said he was “definitely (representing) the government office.”

Peace doubts

Cayetano said he doubted whether the MILF was really for peace and were trustworthy, and whether its leaders would use the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to put up an Islamic state.

He said he did not understand why Galvez had said at the hearing that the government panel had to coordinate with the MILF in the Mamasapano operations when the group had not fully complied with a joint communique it signed during the Arroyo administration for them to interdict, block terrorists and criminal elements in MILF communities.

Galvez later told the hearing that the MILF had helped in government operations against terrorists and criminal elements.

Ferrer said she would submit to the Senate a copy of the report of the CCCH, which analyzed similar photographs presented earlier in the House of Representatives.

But Ferrer asked that this be treated with confidentiality, citing “sensitive” intelligence information it contained, including those related to local politics and emerging alliances for the 2016 elections.

When Senate President Franklin Drilon asked if the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of the Interior and Local Government were given copies of the report, especially as it dealt with the issue of lack of coordination, Ferrer said the panel did not bring the matter up to their level.

But Ferrer pointed out that the Westmincom was one of the government peace panel’s sources of information when it conducted its inquiry.

Why sensitive?

Drilon said he wondered why the information was so sensitive. “Politics is never sensitive,” he said.

Poe said she was allowing confidentiality of the report not because of the political considerations for 2016 but for security reasons as it might affect ongoing operations.

Deles said the report’s content was political with the possibility of violence breaking out because of conflicting political parties.

She told the Senate that she had asked people on the ground to validate the photographs and even her staff to inform the MILF secretariat about it and coordinate with it.

Drilon questioned why Deles had to inform the MILF, adding that the latter was expected to deny the matter anyway. Deles said she first informed the government panel about the photographs and only advised the MILF about the matter later.

Iqbal said he had seen the photograph sent to Poe but could not confirm its contents. He said he had asked for a copy of that presented earlier in the House but was not given one.

When Sen. Sonny Angara asked Ferrer if the peace panel’s contacts had found any gun factory of the MILF, as alleged earlier, the chief negotiator said they did not, but that there was an improvised explosive device facility owned by the BIFF in Maguindanao.

Sign of good faith

Amid calls for the MILF to step up its actions to rebuild trust in the fragmented peace process, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. castigated the reported tampering of the firearms of the SAF members that the group returned to the government.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the MILF could commit to surrendering its men involved in a clash with elite police commandos in Mamasapano even before a formal demand of the Department of Justice. She described the initiative as “a palpable sign of good faith.”

“That would be a major confidence-building measure for them to declare now that they would surrender [their men], even if they would just say that the surrender would be done at the proper time. That would be appreciated,” De Lima told reporters at the Senate.

She explained that it would be legally premature to demand that the MILF turn over its fighters because no case had yet been filed.

Marcos said the MILF’s gestures of goodwill had to be more forthright and clear, and it should not send mixed responses, as he noted the reported cannibalization of the firearms.

“What is supposed to be a confidence-building measure and an act of good faith has turned into the precise opposite. And this is a classic case of adding insult to injury. In this case, adding insult to death,” he said at the Senate hearing.

Complex issue

Marcos pointed to the MILF declaration that it would not to be handing over its fighters to the government but deal with the case internally.

Iqbal said the issue was multidimensional, multilayered and complex. It has a political dimension because the MILF is engaged in a peace process with the government, and there are agreements and documents signed by the two groups that would address violations committed by both sides, he said.

Even as Iqbal promised that the MILF would help in the search for Usman, Marwan’s Filipino associate, Marcos said he had yet to see any concrete measure leading to this.

The MILF’s relationship with the BIFF also has to be cleared up and not addressed by mere denials, he said.

“Take it as a piece of advice,” Marcos told Iqbal. “I implore you, for the sake of the peace process, for the peace process to once again regain the trust of the people, that we have to do better in terms of those confidence-building measures.”

Iqbal replied that when the MILF returned the firearms, its leaders did not have time to examine these. If the tampering is true, that is “regrettable,” he said.

He called for an independent investigation to look into the incident of cannibalizing of the firearms.

The MILF leader said he understood the feelings of the PNP about the matter. But he added that what’s important for his group was what the return of the firearms signified.

“It’s not the material consideration that is really very important on our part but the symbolism, the gesture of goodwill. We want to show to everybody, to our friends in the PNP, that the MILF did not like what happened in Mamasapano,” Iqbal said.

He said the MILF was willing to do what was possible for the peace process and that its leaders had already spent a lot of political capital to convince the fighters to return the firearms.

The MILF also lost lives, Iqbal noted. He said that as soon as the MILF recovered more firearms and personal effects, it would turn these over to the PNP.–With a report from Christine O. Avendaño