MILF: ATS only incidental, there’s real issue

Mohagher Iqbal. AFP FILE PHOTO

For the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the real issue in the Oct. 18 encounter in Al-Barka, Basilan province, was “coordination,” or more to the point, “uncoordinated movement of troops”—and the so-called “area of temporary stay” (ATS) was only incidental.

“The ceasefire agreement provides that such a movement of troops, granting that the MILF was not the target, should be coordinated first through the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) or the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag),” said Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the rebel group’s peace negotiating panel.

The Ahjag was set up in 2002 as an avenue for joint efforts by the MILF and government in the “isolation and interdiction of all criminal syndicates, kidnap-for-ransom groups and other criminal groups, including the so-called ‘lost commands’ operating in Mindanao.”

Iqbal said the delineation of an ATS was not reflected in the agreements of the government and MILF peace panels. What were delineated or “acknowledged” were seven MILF camps although after the 2000 all-out war, the rebel group “abandoned fixed camping.”

‘Deliberate attack’

A report of the MILF’s armed wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, of the Oct. 18 incident said an ATS was designated for the rebel group in May-July 2008.

During this time, MILF forces and their families temporarily relocated to Barangay Ginanta to give way to a military operation against the Abu Sayyaf bandit group in Al-Barka, Tipo-Tipo and Ungkaya Pukan towns, the report said.

The MILF forces from outside Ginanta returned to their communities of origin after the military operations.

But even assuming that the ATS in Ginanta was still effective, Iqbal said, the deployment of the Army’s Special Forces troops was “5 kilometers away from the highway.”

According to Iqbal, the Ginanta ATS is nearer the highway and “Cambug is deeper inside.”

This is why the MILF considers the Oct. 18 encounter in Al-Barka as “the offshoot of a deliberate attack by government troops.”

“Are [MILF commander Dan] Asnawi and his forces/relatives traitors for shooting the Army’s Special Forces who attacked them?” Iqbal said.

Review of ceasefire pact

The government peace panel is revisiting provisos in the ceasefire agreement on the grant of ATS to the rebels, the military said.

In a briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Col. Dickson Hermoso, chief of the Armed Forces’ Peace Process Office, said the review was prompted by the Oct. 18 encounter with MILF renegades that left 19 Army soldiers dead. The renegades then retreated to an “ATS” some 4 kilometers from the site of the clash.

Since that encounter, other skirmishes followed in Zamboanga Sibugay province involving “lawless elements,” prompting the military and the police to launch air, sea and ground assaults on the renegades in Payao town.

“Yes, the panel chair and the other side are reviewing the guidelines in the previous agreement on this. If ever there is a need to amend it, the members of the peace panel will … discuss [it],” he said.

Hermoso said the situation on the ground had greatly changed from “5 or 10 years ago” because of other lawless elements whose presence complicated the peace process, including kidnap-for-ransom groups, bandits, extortionists, terrorists, etc.

“There is a need to review and amend the ceasefire agreement so we can go back to the question of sincerity” on the part of the MILF in pursuing peace, he said.

In particular, Hermoso cited certain provisions in the implementing guidelines to the General Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the MILF.

“There are stipulations on hostile acts and the coddling and harboring of criminal elements” that we need to review, he told reporters.

Basilan ATS dissolved

Asked if the military intended to make any proposals on how to grant ATS to the MILF, Hermoso said it was entirely up to the negotiators.

“We just follow policy,” he said, adding that there was no time frame for the completion of the review.

In an earlier phone interview, Hermoso said the military did not officially recognize any ATS at present, although it continued to honor the ceasefire agreement in places claimed by the MILF, including in Al-Barka.

He said the purported ATS in Basilan should have been considered dissolved following the termination of police operations in the area in 2007.

Hermoso said the only reason the military was steering clear of the Basilan ATS was to honor the mechanisms contained in the existing ceasefire agreement with the MILF.

“It’s very hard to distinguish lawless elements from legitimate MILF members. If we hit unintended targets, then we would have a problem on our hands,” he said.

Hermoso said the MILF was only taking advantage of technicalities in claiming that the ATS remained in effect.

To improve/strengthen

Teresita Deles, President Aquino’s adviser on the peace process, also said the government was reviewing its ceasefire agreement with the MILF.

But she said that the agreement was being revisited only “to see if we can improve/strengthen [it] and how.”

“It’s the appropriate disposition in the negotiations to always be ready to review and reflect how the situation can be improved toward a durable peace,” Deles said in a text message to the Inquirer.

Pressed on whether the review could lead to a suspension of the agreement, she said: “Not likely.”

On which provisions were under review, she said: “Sorry, we’re not there yet.”

She said the CCCH and Ahjag members were “still engaged on the ground, so we can’t call them to any meetings yet.”

“It’s not a literature review that we’re after but taking lessons from the ground,” she added.

Different from MOA-AD

In a statement, Deles sought to allay fears raised by Sen. Francis Escudero that the agreement between the government and the MILF for ATS could lead to a new version of the aborted Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

“…ATS is a military term. From the point of view of the ceasefire mechanism, it is an area to temporarily hold MILF forces so that government forces may be able to accomplish their mission,” Deles said.

“It is of a different concept from the areas mentioned in the MOA-AD, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The ATS therefore is an operational term, which qualifies that the areas held by the MILF, is only temporary,” she said.

Deles also said she was no longer the peace adviser when the MOA-AD was forged with the MILF during the Arroyo administration. With a report from Norman Bordadora