The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) deeply regrets that an unfortunate incident had to occur on December 5, 2013 in Marawi City involving officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and MILF-BIAF forces in Lanao del Sur.
In light of the inaccuracy of media reports on the incident, the MILF is constrained to set the record straight.
The incident was triggered by the arbitrary apprehension and subsequent detention of three MILF-BIAF members at a police station after an operation conducted by the PNP on December 1, 2013 in Banggolo, Marawi City.
The three MILF-BIAF members, Johani Cader, Misron Borodan and Tony Rapors, are also members of Task Force Ittihad, a special unit under the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) mandated by the GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of June 2001 to interdict criminal elements.
One of the three arrested MILF-BIAF members, Repors, was released but the other two, Cader and Borodan, were kept under police detention for possessing handguns despite presenting their credentials as bonafide members of the MILF and AHJAG and rationalizing the possession of such handguns, which were concealed, as necessary for the tasks that they are undertaking.
The attempts by the established ceasefire bodies, the Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), the Local Monitoring Team (LMT), the AHJAG, and the International Monitoring Team (IMT), including appeals made by the MILF Vice-Chairman Alim Pangalian Sulayman who is based in Ranao, to the Lanao del Sur Provincial PNP Director, Police Senior Superintendent Nixon Babul Mukhsan, to expedite the safe release of the detained MILF-BIAF members were ignored and even rebuffed.
Superintendent Mukhsan not only did not entertain the appeal for release of the two but reportedly issued a provocative statement unbecoming of a government police official saying to the effect that he is not covered by the ceasefire agreement and therefore does not recognize the ceasefire bodies.
It is against this backdrop that the assault was made on the PNP Marawi City Police Station by some MILF forces who decided on their own to free the detained MILF-BIAF members.
Unfortunately, there were some casualties on the part of the PNP and the Marawi City Police Chief, Police Superintendent Christopher Wilan Panapan, was taken into custody by the MILF forces when they withdrew after successfully rescuing the two detainees. A police, by the name of Malik, was also killed when he tried to fire upon the MILF forces. Malik is reported to be a brother-in-law of the chief of police.
Through the intercession of the ceasefire bodies and upon the express order of the BIAF High Command, Chief of Police Panapan was later released by the MILF unit that held him in custody at Nusa Island, Balindong, Lanao del Sur.
He was released unharmed to MILF Commissioner Madid Sheik of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) and who is also the former Chair of the MILF CCCH on December 6, 2013 , just a few hours after the police chief was held in custody.
This incident does not in any way adversely affect the on-going negotiations between the negotiating panels of the MILF and the GPH that are now focused on completing the last two Annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), which are Power Sharing and Decommissioning.
However, it behoves both Parties not to allow similar incidents to happen. It is the better part of discretion on the part of the GPH, however, to assign police and military personnel in the conflict-affected areas who are well familiar with the peace process, and not those whose personal judgment and agenda run counter to the aim of both the MILF and the GPH at resolving the Bangsamoro Question.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/708-milf-sets-the-record-straight-on-the-marawi-incident
The incident was triggered by the arbitrary apprehension and subsequent detention of three MILF-BIAF members at a police station after an operation conducted by the PNP on December 1, 2013 in Banggolo, Marawi City.
The three MILF-BIAF members, Johani Cader, Misron Borodan and Tony Rapors, are also members of Task Force Ittihad, a special unit under the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) mandated by the GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of June 2001 to interdict criminal elements.
One of the three arrested MILF-BIAF members, Repors, was released but the other two, Cader and Borodan, were kept under police detention for possessing handguns despite presenting their credentials as bonafide members of the MILF and AHJAG and rationalizing the possession of such handguns, which were concealed, as necessary for the tasks that they are undertaking.
The attempts by the established ceasefire bodies, the Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), the Local Monitoring Team (LMT), the AHJAG, and the International Monitoring Team (IMT), including appeals made by the MILF Vice-Chairman Alim Pangalian Sulayman who is based in Ranao, to the Lanao del Sur Provincial PNP Director, Police Senior Superintendent Nixon Babul Mukhsan, to expedite the safe release of the detained MILF-BIAF members were ignored and even rebuffed.
Superintendent Mukhsan not only did not entertain the appeal for release of the two but reportedly issued a provocative statement unbecoming of a government police official saying to the effect that he is not covered by the ceasefire agreement and therefore does not recognize the ceasefire bodies.
It is against this backdrop that the assault was made on the PNP Marawi City Police Station by some MILF forces who decided on their own to free the detained MILF-BIAF members.
Unfortunately, there were some casualties on the part of the PNP and the Marawi City Police Chief, Police Superintendent Christopher Wilan Panapan, was taken into custody by the MILF forces when they withdrew after successfully rescuing the two detainees. A police, by the name of Malik, was also killed when he tried to fire upon the MILF forces. Malik is reported to be a brother-in-law of the chief of police.
Through the intercession of the ceasefire bodies and upon the express order of the BIAF High Command, Chief of Police Panapan was later released by the MILF unit that held him in custody at Nusa Island, Balindong, Lanao del Sur.
He was released unharmed to MILF Commissioner Madid Sheik of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) and who is also the former Chair of the MILF CCCH on December 6, 2013 , just a few hours after the police chief was held in custody.
This incident does not in any way adversely affect the on-going negotiations between the negotiating panels of the MILF and the GPH that are now focused on completing the last two Annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), which are Power Sharing and Decommissioning.
However, it behoves both Parties not to allow similar incidents to happen. It is the better part of discretion on the part of the GPH, however, to assign police and military personnel in the conflict-affected areas who are well familiar with the peace process, and not those whose personal judgment and agenda run counter to the aim of both the MILF and the GPH at resolving the Bangsamoro Question.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/708-milf-sets-the-record-straight-on-the-marawi-incident
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