“I request fairness and justice for my men!” Thus did Acting Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Leonardo Espina emotionally underline the need for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to explain why its commandos mutilated and slaughtered helpless and wounded troopers of the PNP Special Action Forces (SAF) who could have gone home alive. The occasion was the probe by the House of Representatives yesterday on the massacre of 44 SAF officers and men at Mamasapano, who have now come to be known as the Fallen 44.
With that statement, General Espina vocalized the sentiments echoing the very halls of the PNP and even the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that we can no longer pretend that peace in Mindanao can be attained if the MILF cannot even show civility expected of humans.
It is now incumbent upon the MILF to show cause why they should be trusted with the huge powers that will be vested in them especially in matters of peace and order should the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) be passed.
It is very telling that the MILF does not seem to have any semblance of a military apparatus that respects human rights, the articles of war and other internationally-mandated instruments that ensure humane treatment of battle casualties.
It is now obvious that the peace process has been derailed– and rightfully so– because the Mamasapano encounter points to telling probabilities of how the MILF and its minions will behave once the BBL is at hand. (Already, in fact, there are rumors in my birthplace of Pagadian City, for example, that there are Moros telling Boholano and Ilocano rice farmers there and the adjacent town of Labangan to start packing up because once the BBL is passed, their lands would be confiscated by them.)
The clincher of this continuing but sad saga has to do with a video that congresswoman (and former Cebu governor) Gwendolyn Garcia formally proposed to be shown in the House probe. The clip allegedly shows an officer of the 55th SAF Battalion, still alive but wounded, being shot at close range by an unidentified MILF member. Although the video was suppressed, it is most fortunate that despite protestations coming mostly from Maguindanao and Cotabato congressmen and women, a SAF commander was able to verify and confirm the veracity of the video. It is laudable how Rep. Celso Lobregat and Rep. Garcia stood their ground on this telling video.
This video, now apparently gone viral on the Internet, will most certainly heighten emotions and ultimately contribute to halting for good the proceedings to pass the BBL, but it shows without doubt an unassailable facet of the MILF that it must correct if it wants to be relevant from hereon.
Any hopes to continue the peace process and pass the BBL will take no less than the MILF to answer General Espina’s call for fairness and justice for his men. The ball, as it were, is now in the MILF’s court to restore whatever trust the state and the Filipino people gave it in pursuit of the peace process.
In restoring that trust, it will take no less than an impartial and thorough investigation as to the demeanor of its men in the field during and after that fateful encounter at Mamasapano three weeks ago.
In restoring that trust, the MILF must go one step forward and surrender those of its men who violated internationally accepted rules of engagement and articles of war.
In restoring that trust, the MILF therefore must show that it did not coddle internationally-wanted terrorists like Marwan.
Otherwise, the Filipino people will see the MILF as nothing more than a local clone of the brutal and inhuman Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) just waiting for a legal mandate to create its own version in Mindanao.
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