But is Basit Usman really dead?

Almost everybody is asking the wrong question. Who really killed Basit Usman?, they ask. Basit Usman is a terrorist and bomb-maker wanted by local and foreign law enforcers. He was one of two main targets of a special operation by the police in January that resulted in the notorious Mamasapano incident. Wounded, he managed to escape and had been on the lam until news broke last Sunday morning that he had been killed.

There are at least three versions of his killing. One says Usman was killed by the MILF. Another says he was killed by his own men. Still another says he was killed by a military agent who managed to infiltrate his ranks. It might be interesting to note that the three versions of the same killing came from Malacañang, the military, and the MILF.

Even more interesting is the fact that these three parties from whom the three different versions of the killing came are the same three parties involved in the headlong rush to have the peace process with the MILF in place before President Aquino bows out of office. These are also the same three parties that many suspect are directly responsible for why 44 SAF commandos died in the Mamasapano incident.

So who really killed Usman? If the three parties who are now claiming that Usman has been killed cannot even agree on how he was killed, then perhaps the more intelligent question to ask is -- was Usman really killed? The question begs to be asked, and truly deserves to be answered, because none of the three parties who are claiming that Usman has been killed is able to present his body.

All that has come out so far is a grainy picture of the body of a man that we are being told is that of Usman. But was that really Usman? Neither Malacañang, nor the military nor the MILF has the body. If they cannot agree on who killed Usman and do not have the evidence to prove what they are claiming, then what compelling reason has this country of 100 million people to believe them.

And here is the clincher. Of all the times that Usman could have been killed (remember, he was on the run from the military, from the MILF, and even from some of his own men), he had to be killed on the morning of the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. What a coincidence. Usman had to be killed at a time when nobody was paying any attention to anything else but the fight.

But the coincidence could have been deliberate. It could have been deliberately timed. If the supposed killing of Usman is nothing but a manufactured yarn, then the perfect time to explode the lie would be during the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight when nobody would be paying it any attention. Everybody would be watching the fight and thereafter dissect the outcome to its last debatable shred. But why lie about Usman? Go ask the three parties.