Santiago accuses MILF of ‘truth distortion’

MANILA, Philippines – The claim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that its members were not aware of the presence of suspected terrorists, Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman in their community “casts a shadow on the whole report” that the group submitted to the Senate, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Wednesday.

“It is ironic, I must say — and maybe indicative of truth distortion — that they claim they had no knowledge of these two high-value targets the government was pursuing and yet those people were apparently just a couple of kilometers away from the hideout of the MILF,” Santiago said in a press briefing in Quezon City.

“Do they mean to say that they had no knowledge of who were in the perimeters of their homeland? That’s an incredible claim. They cannot pass the test of credibility and that casts a shadow on the whole report,” she said.

Santiago said it was expected that the MILF would justify the actions of their men in the Mamasapano encounter that killed 44 police commandos, 17 MILF members and five civilians.

She said she could not accept that high-value targets were living in the MILF heartland and they disclaimed any knowledge.

“What does that say of their military organization? That means that if they cannot even conduct simple intelligence-gathering activities, they do not deserve to be treated as partners to a peace process,” Santiago said.

The Mamasapano fiasco had derailed the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law as several lawmakers withdrew support for the charter that would fulfill the terms of the peace agreement between the government and the MILF, which included setting up of a new Bangsamoro autonomy with expanded powers.

Santiago said she had finished her report on the BBL as chair of the constitutional amendments, one of the three Senate committees assigned to tackle the measure.

But the committee on local government chaired by Sen. Bongbong Marcos is still in the middle of its proceedings, according to Santiago. The other panel is the committee on reunification under Sen. Teofisto Guingona III.

“We all have to wait for all three committees so that we can produce a coordinated report, or we can at least produce three reports. I don’t expect a report by those three committees any time soon. Don’t hold your breath,” she said. SFM/AC