Iqbal tells PMA cadets BBL casualty of war on terror

MORO rebel chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal met with cadets of the Philippine Military Academy, alongside government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer (not in photo), during a dialogue on the derailed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). The cadets quizzed Iqbal about whether BBL would bring lasting peace, to which he replied: “No one can assure lasting peace.” VINCENT CABREZA/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—The country’s commitment to the global war on terror should not have superseded its peace arrangements with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the MILF’s chief peace negotiator said here on Wednesday.

Mohagher Iqbal said it was the only possible explanation for the January 2015 clash that had been described in a Senate report as a massacre in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province.

The operation, conducted by the Special Action Force (SAF) to get an international terrorist, resulted in the deaths of 44 SAF commandos, 17 MILF fighters and five civilians caught in the crossfire.

Iqbal and government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer were in Baguio City  on Wednesday to join a dialogue arranged by news service MindaNews with cadets of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) about the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro  and the derailed Bangasamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Both Iqbal and Ferrer said that many of the policemen killed in the police operation to capture Malaysian bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan,  were from the Cordillera region.

Ferrer said the delay in passing BBL was due to the backlash over the Mamasapano debacle. But she said the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman have undertaken steps to pinpoint those accountable for the encounter.

Malacañang chose the “primacy of the war on terror” over the “primacy of the peace talks,” Iqbal said in a news conference, “and many people died.”

He said the SAF did not coordinate with the MILF, or the Armed Forces of the Philippines, despite a ceasefire agreement and procedures governing it, and the formation of ad hoc organizations that respond to banditry and kidnap-for-ransom gangs. Vincent Cabreza, with a report from EV Espiritu, Inquirer Northern Luzon