By Marilou Guieb / Correspondent
CHAIRMAN Mohagher Iqbal of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) stepped on Cordillera soil for the first time on Wednesday.
The visit is considered historic, since it is his first visit, and the area is deemed a hostile territory for him, as it is the home to 14 of the Special Action Force (SAF) commandos who perished in the hands of his fighters and other gunmen in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, in January last year.
Iqbal said, despite the fact that he was strongly advised against coming to the area, he insisted on gong to express his sentiments on the Mamasapano tragedy.
In a news conference in Baguio City on Wednesday, Iqbal said, “I am a man of peace. I have come in the name of peace. What is important is that everyone is seeking the truth. This is an opportunity to say that we are all seeking peace.”
He reminded the media that it was not only the SAF that lost men in the Mamasapano incident but also the MILF.
“It was a tragic incident that nobody wanted to happen, and regret will not change anything. “What is important is that everybody now pursues,” peace,” he said.
A Cordillera contingent went to Mamasapano to perform a ritual on the first death anniversary of the SAF commandos who perished in the area to appease their souls. Iqbal said the highest MILF military command was in the vicinity to ensure that all goes without inacident. As for a peace ritual, Iqbal said both sides still need to talk and decide on the details on how to perform this.
Iqbal maintained his stand on the Senate report that he can never agree to call the tragedy a massacre.
He explained that the Philippine government holds both the primacy of the peace process and the primacy on war against terrorism. Peace processes have failed in the past but Iqbal said they saw that the Aquino administration really upheld the peace process, and so they agreed to stop fighting.
Iqbal said that the precise moment of the Mamasapano tragedy, the war the campaign against terrorism has become the focus of military and police operations.
“While it is true that they accomplished their objective—taking the terrorist Anwar—many died in the process. It can be legal, but was it moral?” Iqbal asked.
He questioned the timing of the operation, because there was an on-going cease-fire between the government and the MILF, and that the police action was not even coordinated with the Armed Forces.
He did not explain, however, how Zulkifli bit Hir, alias Marwan, a long-wanted international terrorist, was doing in a place that is claimed by the MILF as its “territory.”
He laid the blamed on the SAF commandos, who, he said, came in the “darkest time of the night.”
“So I can never accept the finding that it was a massacre. The SAF commandos were on the line of duty, they were fully armed. It was an encounter,” he said. He attributed the fact that the SAF troopers died because of “decisions that were not very good.”
The chairman of the government peace panel to the MILF, Miriam Coronel Ferrer, said there is a process in determining the liability of those involved in the incident. She added that the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman are investigating the operation for possible lapses, and to determine the accountable parties.
“Then justice can be meted out, but not at the expense of another justice issue which in the Bangsamoro issue,” he added.
Ferrer said there should be no contradiction, and that justice must be sought in both cases. “We don’t have to choose,” she said. “We have one foot inside the door now, help us pull the other one in. It would be more damaging to pull out and close the door to peace, as it would take again many generations to achieve peace,” she said.
Iqbal, meanwhile, reacted to the issue of unconstitionality of some provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro basic law, saying that all its provisions were “carefully and lengthily studied by many lawyers on both sides of the panel, including now Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, and found nothing contrary to the Constitution.”