MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, and OPAPP Secretary Teresita Deles, attend one of the Senate hearings on the Mamasapano debacle, where the death of 44 police commandos in the hands of the MILF and the BIFF sparked accusations that the Moro rebel group is talking peace while providing sanctuary to international terrorists.
While noting that global terrorism waged by groups like the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant and Al Qaeda require intensive study, the Government Panel for talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it not right to lump all Moro organizations as terrorist organizations.
“By forging the peace agreement with the government, the MILF has committed to renounce violence and terrorism as an ideology and way of life,"” said GPH Peace panel chair Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer at a forum organized by the Rotary Club of Manila Bay.
“The full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) will ensure that the leaders and followers of the MILF will desist from going the way of the ISIS,” she said.
On statements made by certain senators on alleged terrorist links of the MILF, the GPH panel chief asked: “If the MILF were considered a terrorist organization, why does the international community, including the United Nations and the ASEAN, support the peace process on the Bangsamoro?”
Cayetano's challenge
One of the senators who have denounced the MILF's alleged double-dealing - forging a peace agreement with the government while harboring international terrorists - is Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano. At the weekend, he challenged Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles to prove he had the wrong "intel" on the MILF.
He said the tack of the government peace panel questioning his involvement in the peace process "is but a squid tactic." The senator was referring to the publicized rebuke by the peace panel of his sincerity by noting they never saw him in the peace briefings they were holding at the Senate.
Cayetano said the panel’s latest response to his most recent expose - he said police and military intel confirmed the MILF was coddling Marwan, and the peace panel was aware of this report - is merely an attempt to distract the public.
“The most important question is, was I telling the truth? If I was lying and all the materials I presented were not true, the peace panel should have said it outright.”
He noted the earlier statement of panel members Yasmin Busran-Lao and Senen Bacani, that his statements were subject to verification by the intelligence community.
“If I were lying, the peace panel could simply say, 'that's not true.' But look, in the Inquirer article, they said, 'if what Senator Alan is saying is true, it's up to intel to verify that.'"
Lao and Bacani asked if the basis for the alleged terrorist tag on the MILF have been validated or cross-checked with credible domestic and international sources who have been following up the rise of groups like the Jemaah Islamiyah, ISIS and Al Qaeda.
“All throughout the negotiations and now the implementation of the CAB, we have always worked hand in hand with the security cluster of the Philippine government that is charged with collecting and processing all intelligence information relating to national security,” said the panel members.
Deles admitted they have 'updated intel'
Cayetano for his part noted that Deles "admitted during the Senate hearings that they have an updated intel.”
Cayetano said that sources of his statements on the MILF were from the police and military, the same sources of Deles’ information. “Why did they not pay serious heed to the intel?”
He said the emails he presented during his speech at the Senate were from the accounts of Marwan and his brother, which were used by US prosecutors in California in building up a case against Marwan's brother for aiding and abetting terrorists.
“All of that is factual. Why can't they open their eyes and look at that?" Cayetano said, referring to peace panel members.
He also addressed the panel's rebuke about why he is speaking against the BBL and the MILF only now.
“Now and then they hold briefings at the Senate, but because of the numerous activities in the Senate, we have to send staff members to the said briefings.”
Cayetano maintained that he initially believed in the MILF and the peace promised by the BBL and this was why he signed as a co-author.
“But my signing as co-author of the BBL was subject to the formulation of a Mindanao development plan, because we cannot have peace in the area if we limit it to ARMM. And my condition is that the MILF should be committed to peace and democracy.”
He reiterated his challenge to the peace panel to verify or dispute his claims in his privilege speech last Wednesday.
Cayetano said Marwan was not only being coddled by the MILF, but the group had arms build-up and links to terror groups Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah.
Ferrer cites statements of support
In her speech before young Rotarians last Saturday, the government chief negotiator Coronel-Ferrer, meanwhile, recounted the official statements of support from several countries and multilateral bodies when the CAB was signed on March 27 last year.
“The UN Country Team commends the GPH for providing a global model for best practice on supporting a peace process,” Coronel-Ferrer recalled the UN’s Philippine offices’ statement on the signing of the CAB. “The UN stands ready to support the implementation of the peace agreement through robust engagement.”
After the Mamasapano incident, several countries - Canada, the US - reiterated their support, she noted.
The US Embassy said “the United States reiterates its support for the Philippine government’s efforts to combat international terrorism while promoting a just and lasting peaceful resolution to the conflict in Mindanao.”
The US has a price tag on the heads of several persons with links to global radical networks like JI, Al Qaeda and ISIS, Marwan among them.
On March 5, according to Coronel-Ferrer, the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines highlighted the importance of the peace process at a high-level forum attended by members of the diplomatic community.
National and business organizations have pushed for the continuity of the peace process on the Bangsamoro, and among these, said Coronel-Ferrer, are: the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, the Professors for Peace, Makati Business Club, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Mindanao Business Council.
“You would not get this kind of national and international support for the peace process if we were dealing with a terrorist organization,” said Coronel-Ferrer.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/106994/gph-panel-refutes-terrorist-tag-on-milf-cayetano-dares-it-to-confront-intel
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