COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 25 January) – The chairperson of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) Peace Implementing Panel (PIP) said tragic events like the Mamasapano clash that led to the deaths of 44 Special Action Force personnel of the Philippine National Police, 18 MILF fighters and five civilians must not be allowed to happen again.
Speaking to journalists mostly from Luzon in a forum here Friday, a day before the 10th anniversary of the encounter, Mohagher Iqbal said, “Dapat hindi na maulit (It must not happen again).”
Iqbal, also Education Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), attributed the tragedy to the absence of coordination as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement between the MILF and the Philippine government.
He added the encounter in Basilan on Wednesday between MILF fighters and an Army unit that left two soldiers killed and 12 others wounded was also the result of the absence of coordination.
“Hanapin natin ang kapayapaan (Let’s pursue peace) with justice,” he said.
“Just respect the ceasefire protocols. We need a third party to determine the truth of an incident,” Butch Malang, co-chair for the MILF of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, said, referring to the Basilan clash.
Iqbal called the Basilan clash an “unfortunate incident” where “both the government and the MILF are victims.”
“I’m not preempting the investigation [but] I heard the UNDP had an activity and they entered [the area] without coordination,” Iqbal, speaking mainly in Filipino, said.
UNDP stands for United Nations Development Program.
“We are partners with the government, but we cannot understand why the International Monitoring Team has not been allowed to return since 2022,” he said, adding incidents like the Basilan clash needs an impartial third party.
Malang said the MILF “received no document” regarding the entry of a UNDP mission in Sumisip town. He said the communication need not be official, and it would be enough to inform their commanders in the area.
Iqbal said the MILF has been asking for the return of the IMT since 2022 until late last year. He said they learned that the objection came from the Department of Foreign Affairs, although the reasons were not clear to the front.
He said that while people with a military background are the most capable in terms of monitoring the ceasefire, the MILF agreed to put civilians in the IMT in case it was allowed to return.
The IMT was composed of military contingents from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya and development experts from Japan, Norway and European Union.
It was tasked to observe and monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and the humanitarian, rehabilitation and development aspects of the agreements signed between the GPH and the MILF.
It left the country on June 30, 2022 after its mandate was not renewed by the then-outgoing administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The forum with Iqbal and other officials of BARMM was attended by 19 journalists from Luzon and Metro Manila who came for an immersion in the region, particularly in the two Maguindanao provinces.
The activity was organized by the Mindanao Institute of Journalism, the publisher of MindaNews, and supported by International Media Support. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)
