Negotiators from the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a pact on disarming Muslim rebels, just days after a clash killed 44 policemen in the nation’s south.
The parties signed the arms decommissioning protocol during a meeting on Thursday in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, where they reaffirmed their commitment to peace in the Muslim Mindanao region, according to a joint statement posted on a government web site. The peace panels will meet until today, January 31.
Negotiators “resolved to strengthen their cooperation and coordination in addressing security concerns in the most effective and appropriate manner, and also in rebuilding trust and public confidence in the peace process,” according to the statement.
President Aquino has blamed a lack of coordination between police and Muslim rebels for the deadly encounter, as he sought to hold together a peace accord that seeks to end a four-decade insurgency that has killed as many as 200,000 people.
An independent body, headed by an expert from Turkey, will manage the decommissioning process, which will be done in four phases, according to an e-mailed copy of the protocol. In the first phase, the MILF will make an inventory of its combatants’ weapons, while being given financial aid. Fifty-five high-powered firearms and 20 crew-served weapons will be decommissioned in a symbolic gesture.
‘Free movement’
The independent body will receive 30 percent of the weapons in the second phase of the plan, with another 35 percent surrendered in the third phase. The rest will be decommissioned in the last phase.
“The parties shall undertake measures to promote and guarantee free movement and create an environment free of fear and intimidation,” according to the protocol.
The commandos were killed in a predawn clash with Muslim rebels while searching for Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Abu Marwan, who is on the US list of most-wanted terrorists. The bodies of the policemen arrived on Thursday at an air base near Manila,
where Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II led ceremonies to honor them.
The peace accord provides a road map for a new political entity called the Bangsamoro, whose structure will be defined by ongress. It will replace the failed Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao set up in 1989.
Under the deal, MILF must abandon its pursuit of a separate state in return for more power, revenue and territory. A local referendum will determine which other provinces join the expanded autonomous region.
The Philippine government and the MILF expressed sympathy and grief for the loss of lives in the Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
In accordance with the statements made earlier by President Aquino and MILF Chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim, the government and the Muslim rebel group reaffirmed their commitment to the attainment of peace that has long eluded Mindanao.
The two parties resolved “to strengthen their cooperation and coordination in addressing security concerns in the most effective and appropriate manner, and also in rebuilding trust and public confidence in the peace process.”
They also backed the conduct of investigations by the Board of Inquiry and the MILF’s Special Investigative Commission.
The Parties also commended members of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities of the Government and the MILF for their determination that led to the reinstatement of the cease-fire in the affected areas.
“Their courageous efforts prevented further loss of lives and put to safety those who might have been put in harm’s way had the fighting escalated,” they said.
Meanwhile, the US expressed its strong support to the Philippine government’s counterterrorism efforts as it emphasized the need for a peaceful end to the conflict in Mindanao.
“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,” its embassy in Manila said in a statement.
Washington, a key supporter in the Philippines’s antiterror efforts by providing training and assistance to its forces, expressed its “heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the members of the PNP/SAF who lost their lives.”
“The SAF units fought with bravery and demonstrated their commitment to ensuring peace and order in their country,” the embassy said.
National Day of Mourning
Malacañang declared on Friday as National Day of Mourning to honor the 44 members of the PNP-SAF.
President Aquino assured that government trackers will soon arrest Abdul Basit Usman, the other high-value terrorist target who escaped from members of the PNP-SAF who were massacred by Moro rebels last Sunday.
Speaking at the necrological rites in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, the President also said the government will provide maximum benefits to the families of the 44 dead PNP-SAF members.
Mr. Aquino confirmed that he has ordered the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to arrest Usman and Malaysian bomber Zulkifli bin Hir alis Abu Marwan.
In his speech, the President acknowledged after-operation reports indicating that Marwan, the principal target of the SAF’s Mamasampano raid, had been neutralized.
He said the arrest of Usman is the government’s top priority and vowed that government security agencies will be able to apprehend him.
Appeal for sobriety
Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., a former chief of the PNP who once commanded SAF appealed for sobriety.
Weighing in on the issue at the sidelines of the Central Luzon Regional Development Council (RDC-3) meeting here on Friday, Ebdane said nothing would be solved by putting the blame on anybody at this time of the investigation. “Let the investigators do their job,” Ebdane stressed during an interview. “If we want to solve the problem, let us allow resolutions to come forth,” he added.
He said that as of now, what is important is to determine what really happened, and to correct whatever mistakes that were committed which resulted in the massacre.
“I feel sorry for the men who were killed. They died with their boots on,” said Ebdane ,who commanded the PNP-SAF from 1989 to early 1991.
“But that’s how it is with any operation: You start with intelligence, come up with a plan and execute it. But sometimes the operation doesn’t succeed 100 percent,” he added.
Ebdane also defended suspended PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, who was blamed for the Mamasapano massacre.
“If you read the plan for the operation [to get Marwan], you’d know that it was initiated by Purisima, that’s true. But he has been suspended [prior to the operation],” he said.
“An operation doesn’t get suspended because its main planner has been suspended. So it has to be carried out [by somebody else],” Ebdane added.
He said it was “very unfortunate” that
the SAF members ventured into a territory controlled by the MILF, which is also a known haven of its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
“In the service, it is always the command to get your target at all cost, but this is not something that we could have expected,”
said Ebdane.
Maguindanao’s economy
Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said he hopes that the tragedy in Mamasapano in Maguindanao, will not affect investment prospects in the country.
“I hope [this will] not [affect our investment prospects]. Investors now are more sophisticated, they know more about the Philippines,” Domingo said in an interview.
“They realize that the conflict is just in a particular area in the country,” he added noting that the tragedy happened in a non-industrial area. “The area where the killings happened is far from our main producing areas,” Domingo said. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan, for his part, said the underdevelopment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
where Maguindanao is a part of the region, is linked to its long history of armed conflict.
Balisacan said the per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) of Armm was only P14,565 in 2013, far from the national average per- capita GDP of P68,897. Poverty incidence in the region is also high at 55.8 percent of its total population. Bloomberg News, Butch Fernandez, PNA, Henry Empeño
Image credits: Malacañang Photo