With peace process, why did massacre happen?

The rout of two units of police commandos, the Special Action Force (SAF), in the municipality of Mamasapano, Maguindanao (where 64 policemen were killed according to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but only 43 according to the government), is reminiscent of the massacre by Indians of the famous 7th Cavalry commanded by the flamboyant Gen. George Armstrong Custer during America’s “Wild West” days.

The 7th Cavalry achieved renown during the US Civil War and later during the campaign to tame the Indians in the West. It was organized and commanded by the boy general, George Custer, a graduate of the American Military Academy at West Point. Custer made himself conspicuous with his long blond hair and by usually wearing, not the ordinary uniform of the cavalryman, but the hunting clothes with tassels favored by frontiersmen.

The massacre started when the 7th Cavalry chased a group of Indians to Little Big Horn River where they were surrounded by more Indians under Chief Crazy Horse. All of them were killed. Several movies have been made of Custer and the 7th Cavalry, the best of which was “They Died with Their Boots On” starring Errol Flynn as Custer.

The SAF units massacred in Maguindanao were chasing the commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and a bomb expert linked to the Indonesian-based terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah in the hinterlands of Mamasapano. The latter, Malaysian Zulkifki bin Hir alias Marwan, has a $5-million bounty on his head, and the BIFF commander, Basit Usman, $2 million.

The SAF troops penetrated the BIFF camp at 3 a.m. last Sunday to serve warrants of arrest on the two men, hoping to surprise them. They were not surprised, however, and a fire fight ensued. Nearby MILF troops came to the rescue of their fellow Muslims and the policemen were trapped near a river where they were annihilated. According to reports, only one survived by jumping into the river. Eight fighters of the BIFF and MILF were killed and more than a dozen were wounded, according to the MILF. The clash lasted eight hours.

Details are still hazy, as government authorities are still investigating what happened.

The number of fatalities on the government side in that clash is second only to the 119 Philippine Army soldiers killed in a clash on Pata island off Jolo in February 1981.

The 64 (or 43) policemen killed in the clash should be buried with honors and their families given sufficient assistance by the government.

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If the government and the MILF have signed a peace agreement, why do such things happen? The MILF said the SAF troops out to arrest Usman and Marwan did not coordinate with it.

The SAF, on the other hand, obviously wanted to surprise the two targets. Had it informed the MILF of the plan, the two would have been alerted and would then escape.

The peace process continues in spite of the massacre, said the chief government negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer. Congress is at present hammering out the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), over which legal experts have expressed misgivings.

Two former Supreme Court justices (Vicente Mendoza and Florentino Feliciano) and a former senator (Aquilino Pimentel) appeared at the Senate hearing the other day and enumerated a number of constitutional issues facing the BBL that seeks to carve a new Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

They warned that the draft BBL gives the proposed Bangsamoro region more powers that would undermine Philippine sovereignty. They said the region would become a substate and would have a parliamentary system of government under the present presidential system. That would need constitutional amendments, they said.

Justice Mendoza said “a parliamentary form of local government in an otherwise presidential system is an oddity, an anomaly.”

Coronel-Ferrer, however, allayed fears of secession. The word “substate” used meant being part of a state, she said. “Independence was never on the negotiating agenda of the government,” she added. “The whole idea of negotiation was precisely to keep the country intact.”

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago agreed that the draft BBL would not stand legal scrutiny. It would surely be questioned in the Supreme Court, she said.

Santiago said later: “There is a big threat of secession staring us in the face. There have been comments during the hearing this morning that what appears to be structured or organized by the BBL is not a mere region of local autonomy as provided by our Constitution.

“The trouble with this BBL is that it appears to be going beyond what is listed in the Constitution.”

Many also fear that the administration may be too eager to pass the BBL and establish the Bangsamoro “substate” before the Aquino administration bows out in 2016, that the bill may be hurriedly passed without a close look at its repercussions, and that the Muslim negotiators may be outwitting the government panel.