IT’S happening again. Aquino administration officials, including those involved in the campaign to give the Moro Islamic Liberation Front a substate or autonomous region to be called the Bangsamoro (the Moro country or the Moro state or the Moro nation), and their brownnosing followers in the military, are blaming the at least 49 Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) commandos killed by warriors of the MILF last Sunday.
The slain commandos, said PNP Chief Leonardo Espina, were pursuing a well-known terrorist belonging to the Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. That man, a Malaysian, Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, is among the United States’ most wanted terrorist and has a $5 million bounty on his head. Marwan is said to have been with a Filipino bombmaker, Basit Usman. He is a commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), an army of former or current MILF members, who have been committing outrages against Christians and government units whenever they feel aggrieved over something.
The MILF leaders have been talking from both sides of their mouths about the BIFF.
That is why it is not clear to government police and military if these fighters are still MILF men or now enemy defectors.
Two years ago, in Al-Barka, Basilan province, 19 government soldiers were killed in pursuit of terrorists. MILF fighters ambushed and massacred the 19 soldiers. Investigators appointed by the Aquino administration concluded that the 19 slain soldiers were to blame because they had not given the MILF authorities information about what they were doing. But how could they have done that when they were in hot pursuit of enemies of the Republic? How could they inform the MILF, which is made up of the same warrior terrorists they were going after?
The House ad hoc panel on the Bangsamoro Basic Law suspended its hearings. The Senate also suspended its hearing on the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
“Certainly, the death of the policemen sets back everything. How can we proceed if these threats are happening? On whether we can rebound from this, it will depend on the report of the [government] agencies [on the incidents],” Chairman of the House committee Rufus Rodriguez said. He has asked the authorities of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the PNP and President Aquino’s Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process to submit results of their investigation on the massacre of the 49 (some say 52) PNP commandos by February 6.
Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, a retired police brigadier general, said the viciousness of the MILF is unforgivable. “How is killing of people who are performing an official duty justified? In all norms of conduct, that is not justified,” Acop told The Manila Times. He added that “the MILF should be made answerable. Otherwise, the government will lose its credibility.” But the Aquino government has long ago lost its credibility!
Congressman Acop’s words are diametrically opposed by Aquino officials eager to get on with Congress’ passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law to please the MILF, their Malaysian patrons and the Western Powers. These officials are agreeing with the MILF commanders’ claim that the PNP commandos deserve to die because they entered MILF “territory” without coordinating with the MILF command.
Even before the creation of the “symmetrical to the Philippine government” (meaning independent) Bangsamoro state, the MILF separatist rebels already have their “sovereign” territory that our Republic’s policemen cannot enter.
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