Senate President Franklin Drilon on Monday said the death of
long-wanted suspected terrorist Basit Usman will definitely bring back the
trust of the people to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
”Assuming it's true, if Usman is really dead, this will
certainly help in bringing back the trust,” Drilon said in a media interview.
Usman, an expert bomb maker, was reportedly shot dead by
MILF commander "Barok" of the 118th Base Command last Sunday in Maguindanao.
Usman was commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom
Fighters (BIFF) which is a breakaway group of the MILF. He has publicly
expressed his opposition to the peace talks between the Philippine government
and the MILF.
The BIFF commander was one of the two targets of the Oplan
Exodus carried out by the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National
Police (PNP) to neutralize Usman and Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir
alias "Marwan" last January 25 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
Marwan, an international terrorist with US$ 5 million bounty
on his head, was killed but Usman, who was wounded, was able to escape in the
bloody operation that left 44 SAF members dead after an almost 11-hour
firefight between the combined forces of the MILF and BIFF and the PNP-SAF
troopers.
The Mamasapano incident has delayed the Bangsamoro Basic Law
(BBL) hearings both in the Senate and the House of Representatives to give way
the series of investigations on the incident.
The bloody encounter prompted some lawmakers to withdraw
their support on the passage of the BBL, some of them accusing the MILF of
protecting Marwan.
Drilon said the BBL, a piece of legislation that will
provide for the creation of the Bangsamoro political entity in Mindanao, is
still the top priority agenda of the Senate in the six remaining weeks of the
second regular session of the 16th Congress.
”That (BBL) is on top of our priority agenda once it (BBL
committee report) is submitted at the plenary,” Drilon said.
The Senate president earlier said the target to pass the BBL
is before the sine die adjournment on June 11.
The BBL was the result of the Comprehensive Agreement on the
Bangsamoro (CAB) signed between the government and MILF in March last year.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=758507
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