Most MILF leaders using aliases

Guingona defends Iqbal

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, Marcos’ committee cochair, took up the cudgels for Iqbal and the government peace team.

The use of a nom de guerre is the “nature of a revolutionary government, therefore it is not proper to look at this issue of Mr. Iqbal having an alias as a legal problem because we cannot look at it using … a legal framework,” Guingona said.

Guingona reminded everyone at the hearing that it is “faulty to use any [law] or [legal concept] on somebody who is actually rebelling.”

Guingona said Iqbal had been using a nom de guerre since 2001 and Iqbal and the MILF had “never repudiated it.”

He stressed that his fellow senators should understand the culture in Mindanao, that while there is a peace agreement in place, “the security issues are very, very complex.”

“I do not see any problem with Mr. Iqbal using the present alias as long as we continue the peace process until its final end. And Mr. Iqbal has said that once the final end is achieved, they cease to be a revolutionary [group] and they will voluntarily submit to the laws of the Republic,” Guingona added.

He noted that Iqbal has promised to disclose his real name once the peace process is completed, with a Bangsamoro autonomous region established.

“I would like to disagree that this is an issue that should hamper the peace process until its final end,” Guingona said.

Risky

Moro leaders, former Ambassador Khayr Alonto, one of the leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and Bangsamoro Transition Committee (BTC) vice chair Akmad Sakkam also made impassioned explanations to the senators why it was risky for Iqbal to disclose his real name.

Alonto cited former rebels who were killed in front of their families soon after the public had learned their real names.

But the senators would have none of it.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III walked out of the hearing, saying he would speak to people about an important piece of legislation like the BBL when their true identities were already known.

Marcos dismissed Iqbal’s security concerns, saying that as MILF chief negotiator Iqbal was a public figure who at Senate hearings was seen on television by millions of people.

Escudero also belittled the security consideration raised by Iqbal, Deles, Ferrer, Alonto and Sakkam.

He said that “the war in Mindanao is over and there is a longstanding ceasefire.”

“We have been talking face to face. We are fixing, and we will put into law the agreements that we entered into and signed. This (use of an alias) should not be an obstacle in the peace process,” Escudero said.

In Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Iqbal’s use of a nom de guerre “should not affect the peace process.”

“We hope that at some point, the issue will be resolved,” he said.–With a report from Jerry E. Esplanada