Sensitive matters exposed -- Goldberg
Saying that it can’t happen in the United States, US Ambassador Philip Goldberg criticized the manner by which the Senate probe, under Sen. Grace Poe’s committee on public order, was conducted that resulted in “sensitive matters” which exposed the government to “people who should like to know that information.”
In the reopening of the Senate probe on the Mamasapano debacle, information volunteered included the apparent lack of coordination between the police and the military and the deep involvement of not only
The revelations made as a result of the arguments between the former SAF commander Getulio Napeñas and top Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) generals elicited a warning from Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan that sensitive information about military operations was being exposed in the hearing.
Goldberg said “sensitive matters should be discussed in closed session.
“We have a process of doing that in the
“We discuss these in secure areas of the
“Mamasapano was a tragedy, the objective of removing an international terrorist was accomplished and then the tragedy occurred when brave men were killed while they were withdrawing,” Goldberg said.
Operation Plan Exodus launched in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, in January 25 last year succeeded in killing Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan but resulted in the death of 44 SAF commandos.
The incident had a direct bearing on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that sought to create a Bangsamoro substate which was contained in a peace agreement under the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Goldberg refused to comment on the failure of the bill to pass saying that “the BBL is a domestic issue and not one for me to comment on.”
He, nonetheless, said it is important to continue pushing the peace process and even praised the MILF for its pledge to pursue the peace process.
Blame game continues
The fingerpointing which started in the Mamasapano debacle had also spread to the demise of the BBL as the chief government negotiator and Senate President Franklin Drilon has pinpointed Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, and who is in charge of the bill’s deliberation, as culprits for the failure of the bill to pass in the Senate although he earlier conceded that the bill should have emanated from the House, which failed to pass a similar proposal.
Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer also blamed “sheer indifference and chronic absenteeism of majority of the legislators” for the death of the BBL.
Coronel said the indifference of legislators manifested in the lack of quorum almost on a daily basis in the House of Representatives, and the prolonged and repetitive interpellation of oppositors ate up the remaining sessions.
“In the Senate, the intermittent absence of the bill sponsor (Marcos) and the remaining interpellator (Enrile) stalled the deliberation. Moreover, a belated change in procedure was entertained. Only last December 2015, the Senate practically conceded that the Bangsamoro bill is of local application and therefore the upper chamber should have just waited for the House version to be remanded to it,” she said.
Coronel said in all, 40 public hearings and 14 plenary deliberations conducted by the House ad hoc committee chaired by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, and 15 public hearings and 14 sessions of plenary interpellations led by local governments committee chairman Marcos “amounted to nothing, along with the millions of pesos of taxpayers’ money used up to finance these drawn-out proceedings.”
“The reality is that Senator Enrile had a thick file of questions to ask Senator Marcos, the (elections) campaign caught up with him, Senator Marcos became busy and could not attend all the sessions and Senator Enrile – because he was not there during the committee hearings – had so many questions,” Drilon said in a television interview.
He also blamed the focus of legislators on the elections in May which he said changed the political environment.
“And then the political environment, given that we are nearing elections, did not add to an environment conducive for the passage of the law. But the fact that the Bangsamoro Basic Law was not passed does not mean the end for the peace process. I would urge whoever is elected President – and I think it makes a lot of sense for him or her – to pursue this peace process and bring it to its conclusion,” he said.
He said that the bill can be refiled in the next Congress which will have an easier task on deliberations since “all the experts opinion, all the testimonies of the resource persons, need not be taken again, it can incorporated in the present law.”
Drilon said appropriations for the Bangsamoro autonomous region under the 2016 budget will revert to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which it sought to replace.
“The ARMM budget is there, and the contingency was that if we pass the BBL, the budget of the ARMM will be moved to the new structure. In fact it is not just the budget. Do not forget, there is an election in May, and the local officials will be elected on the basis of the old law, so you would still have the governor for the ARMM, etc. Life will continue, and the peace process will continue,” Drilon said.
Aquino, whose six-year term ends in June, had lobbied hard for the passage of the bill, which would have granted the nation’s Muslim minority an autonomous homeland.
However he was unable to muster enough support in the lower house of Congress to even secure a vote by yesterday, the final day of Congress before it adjourns ahead of national elections in May.
Failure to pass the bill means it can not be passed under Aquino, who is limited by the Constitution to a single term, with no certainty over whether his successor will even pursue a peace deal.
Asked if the failure to pass the bill could spark violence, chief government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer told Agence France Presse: “That’s the danger, that’s why we are taking steps, calling for sobriety.”
The nation’s largest Muslim rebel group, the 10,000-strong MILF, signed a peace accord with Aquino’s government in 2014 to end its struggle for independence, which began in the 1970s.
Under the accord, the rebels would have only given up their arms after the law was passed creating the autonomous homeland and a regional government was elected. The vote was meant to take place alongside the May general election.
After the collapse in 2008 of the last attempt to seal a peace deal with the MILF, hardline rebels raided Christian farming villages, triggering fighting that left more than 400 people dead and 600,000 displaced.
Chief MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said Wednesday the rebel leadership was working hard to avoid a repeat, and vowed to continue working for peace with Aquino’s successor.
He told ABS-CBN television there could be a feeling of “repression” within the MILF ranks, but the leadership was countering with “massive engagement.”
“We just explain to them that here lies the problem in the peace process. We will never cease engaging in the peace process,” he told ABS-CBN television.
Most political analysts say Aquino lost lawmakers’ support for the autonomy bill after a police raid in MILF territory last year killed a Malaysian bomb maker on the
However the raid led to a day of intense fighting with the MILF and other rebels that left 44 police commandos dead.
MILF trains eye on Congress
The MILF is blaming Congress but absolved Aquino for the “death” of its proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
The MILF particularly questioned the leadership in the House of Representatives for the non-passage of the BBL, agreed upon by the government and MILF peace panels.
“Why did the leadership in the House allow the enemies of the BBL to filibuster its passage?” asked the MILF.
The BBL was considered “dead” as the current Congress failed to pass the bill into law.
“The Bangsamoro Basic Law has fallen on the wayside. Congress has snuffed its life, citing various, if not shallow, reasons. Lack of time is merely an alibi,” the MILF stated in an editorial.
On the other hand, the MILF remains trusting Aquino.
“If the BBL did not pass Congress, we don’t see any role of President Benigno Aquino in it,” the MILF said.
“It is not to his interest that the legacy of peace through the BBL will not be realized. In fact, he pushed for it vigorously through to the end,” it added.
The MILF, however, noted that BBL was not the first agreement between Moro groups and the government that was not implemented. It cited the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement –both between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) in 2008 between the MILF and the Arroyo government.
“Is this coincidental or part of the pattern, say, a conspiracy? We will never know the true answer but just the same, the BBL was not enacted into law,” the MILF said.
The MILF acknowledged that the January 25, 2015 launching of Operation Plan (Oplan) “Exodus” by the police’s elite Special Action Force (SAF) contributed to the “hatred, biases and prejudices” against the Moros that somewhat affected the fate of BBL.
“Nobody wanted the incident to happen, especially the MILF, but it happened. This is the reason the MILF, without distinction, expressed deep sympathy and condolence to all those who have fallen in Mamasapano,” the MILF said.
http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/us-envoy-blasts-poe-handling-of-saf-probe
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