9 slain drug suspects were MILF; probe ordered

The joint ceasefire panel will probe the anti-illegal drugs raid in North Cotabato that resulted in the death of nine members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Malacañang said yesterday.

The MILF has vowed to file a “strong protest” with the Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities against the joint police and military operation, held over the weekend in barangay Kilada Matalam town, that also led to the arrest of three.

“They (MILF) already filed a formal protest. There are mechanisms and there will be an investigation. Let us wait for the results of the investigation to determine if some members of the MILF are really implicated in the drug trade,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a press briefing.

Police reports said the raid came after the Regional Trial Court branch 16 issued a warrant of arrest against Dadting Kasan and Intan Aban.

It also said that armed men attacked the raiding team resulting in an hour-long gun battle, an allegation that was denied by the MILF which said that the nine members of its 105th base command were disarmed and shot at close range by government forces.

The incident is feared to stifle anew the bilateral peace initiatives meant to put a negotiated closure to the fivedecades old Moro problem.

Von Al-Haq, spokesman for the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, said the allegations that the nine guerillas provoked the encounter were unfounded, citing initial findings of Butch Malang, chairman of the MILF’s Committee on General Cessation of Hostilities, that found the victims to have all been disarmed before they were killed.

Malang also said yesterday that, “no illegal drugs were found on the spot where the alleged encounter happened.”

Bobby Benito, a directorate staff in the Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission-Autonomou Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the real circumstances on the deaths of the nine MILF members could easily be determined with the help of probers in the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team.

The foreign peacekeeping contingent – comprised of military and police officers from Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, and civilian conflict resolution experts from Norway, European Union and Japan – has been helping oversee since 2004 the enforcement of the 21-year ceasefire agreeThe ment between the government and the MILF.

Matalam town officials said slain MILF members Dadting Hassan, Muhamidin Hassan, Konne Hassan, Burrah Salping, Muhalidin Salping, Tiyo Mantik, Orom Mantis, Deng Malunok and Pakat Abu were already buried in keeping with the Islamic tradition of burying the dead within 24 hours from the time of death.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said he has directed the 602nd Brigade to help the joint governmentMILF ceasefire committee, which resolves misunderstandings between state and guerrilla forces based on established security protocols, investigate the incident.

“The 6th ID adheres to IHL (International Humanitarian Laws) and values the primacy of the peace process. We just have to give the joint ceasefire committee enough time to carry out its task of resolving that issue,” Sobejana said.

Congress to approve BBL

House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas yesterday said lawmakers agreed that President Duterte will have the final say on the specific amendments he wanted included in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, just days before the House of Representatives approves it this week.

Fariñas told reporters the consensus was reached after an all-party caucus of the 292-member chamber in relation to the meeting with the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), which is pushing for an Islamic autonomous state.

“We agreed that we will bring to the President the most contentious portions, or those areas or persons that will be directly affected. Once we meet with the President on these contentious issues, then… we will approve it on second and third reading (today),” the congressman from Ilocos Norte stressed, noting that Congress is not included in the negotiation level.

He added that they – Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, some BBL representatives and himself – wanted to hear the President’s final position on the proposed law.

The House started the period of amendments yesterday and earlier asked Duterte to certify the bill as urgent to ensure its approval on third and final reading before Congress takes a break on June 2.

In working out the draft, Fariñas said the BTC officials agreed to several of the proposed amendments and presented their counter-proposals. He doused fears on the creation of a defense, police and coast guard units separate and distinct from that of the national government or that these not be placed under control of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and Department of Transportation.

“The version of the BTC has exclusive powers granted to the Autonomous Region of the Bangsamoro – that will be their acronym ARB. They agreed that it will still be concurrent with the national government,” he said, adding that the defense, police and coast guard units “will be retained by the national government.”

Professor Esmael Abdula, Kalilintad Peace Building Institute president, said during a forum in Maguindanao province that enacting the BBL would address the Moro historical injustices.

House Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya Jr. earlier asked the three committees of the House that consolidated and approved the BBL bill to seriously look into the constitutional issues on some of the measure’s provisions.

“We should work together to make sure this bill is as airtight as possible, as President Duterte’s administration has put much work and effort into this measure. We all do not want to see it wasted just because of a fatal oversight,” he said.

Indigenous People’s leader Timuay Leticio Datuwata also urged government leaders to “include provisions on the IP identity and non-derogation of rights” in the BBL.

“As you try to meet the Malacañang deadline for the passage of BBL, you can still introduce amendments to it, and defend them in the bi-cam meeting,” Datuwata urged senators.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition also said that since the BBL might become a template for the regional federal states it should be “very explicit in the articulation of IP rights, with Republic Act 8371 or Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) as the minimum standard.”

“Otherwise, you may have federal states, like ARMM or Bangsamoro if BBL is passed, which do not recognize IP rights. That would be injustice,” said Datuwata who belongs to Loyukan, a group of several political structures and rights advocates in Central Mindanao.

Loyukan is proposing the recognition of distinct indigenous and ethnic identity of non-Moro indigenous peoples within the proposed Bangsamoro and the non-derogation of IP rights.