Lifting of arrest warrant vs MILF leaders lauded

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Local officials were elated with the court's lifting of a controversial warrant for the arrest of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders who were charged with criminal offenses by Andal Ampatuan Sr. for being hostile to his administration while he was governor of the province.

Among those that benefited from the court’s action was Ustadz Wahid Tundok, chief of the MILF’s 118th Base Command, who was arrested last week in Cotabato City, and detained by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for three days at the Army’s Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in the province.

The lifting of the warrant for Tundok’s arrest, along with many other MILF members, was authorized by Judge George Jabido of the Regional Trial Court Branch 13 in Cotabato City.

Tundok told reporters he was grateful to the Army’s 6th Infantry Division for treating him “humanely” at Camp Siongco following his arrest, while the government and MILF’s ceasefire committee sought to lift the warrant of arrest.

Tundok was among several MILF commanders hostile to the Ampatuan clan, which ruled the province with an iron fist, from 2001 until shortly after the infamous November 23, 2009 “Maguindanao Massacre” that left 58 people dead, more than half of them journalists.

The league of mayors in the province had asked the judiciary to initiate an immediate review of standing criminal cases involving MILF members to preserve the cordiality of the group’s peace talks with government.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chairman of the provincial peace and order council, said many MILF commanders were charged based on allegations that have yet to be investigated  by the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities.

The joint ceasefire committee, composed of representatives from the MILF, the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces, oversee the interdiction of criminals and terrorists in flashpoint areas covered by the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

Tundok said his release from CIDG’s custody shows the improvement of the security coordination between the government and the MILF.

Tundok was among several MILF commanders that had repeatedly fought, along with their followers, with the private militia of the Ampatuan family, whose leaders had used to perpetuate power within their political principality that spanned over at least seven towns in the second district of the province.

Among the bitter adversaries then of the now detained former governor, who is being prosecuted for allegedly masterminding the “Maguindanao Massacre,” was Saudi-trained cleric Ameril Ombra Kato.

Kato became founder and figurehead of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which he launched in 2011, after he was booted out of the MILF in late 2010 over violations of MILF rules.

Mangudadatu warned that  standing criminal cases against certain MILF leaders could derail the implementation of the normalization component of a final peace accord between the rebel group and the government.

“We want maximum reconciliation and normalization to set in, according to the CAB (Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro). So all of these criminal cases must now be looked into by the government and MILF to avoid misunderstandings in the future,” Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu said he is keen on expanding his agricultural projects in MILF-controlled territories, and in accommodating more children of guerrillas into the provincial government’s college scholarship program, in support of the normalization and socio-economic components of both the August 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro, and the upcoming CAB.

The government’s chief negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, and her counterpart in the MILF, Muhaquer Iqbal, are both optimistic the CAB will be signed before April 2014.

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had also called on the judiciary to review as soon as possible all standing criminal cases involving MILF members to hasten their assimilation into the political mainstream, which is one of the paramount objectives of the GPH-MILF overture.

Hataman had criticized the CIDG-ARMM for arresting Tundok and  using an old warrant, without any coordination with the joint ceasefire committee.

Hataman said standing criminal cases against MILF members could cause problems that could affect the security and normalization goals of the FAB and the CAB.

“All of these cases must be addressed and resolved now,” Hataman said. - John Unson