MNLF urges priest to reveal info on alleged payoff in getting back SAF arms

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on Monday urged Oblate priest Eliseo Mercado, Jr. to identify the MNLF official who he said knew about the government’s alleged "payoff" for the return of the guns of policemen killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Mercado had said the government paid the Moro Islamic Liberation Front a hefty amount of money in exchange for the 16 firearms the group returned on February 18, more than three weeks after the deadly police-rebel encounter in Mamasapano.

At least 44 members of the police’s elite Special Action Force, 18 MILF guerillas and five innocent civilians were killed in the firefights, which also caused the dislocation of more than 2,000 Maguindanaon peasant families.

Former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, chair of the largest and most politically active faction in the MNLF, said Mercado’s insinuations can cause friction between them and members of the MILF in Central Mindanao.

"That is why we want that MNLF official identified," Sema said.

Mercado is director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, which is based in Cotabato City. He belongs to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, whose pontifical base is in Rome and whose missionaries include Mindanao's top Catholic church leader, Orlando Cardinal Quevedo.

“That 'MNLF leader' Fr. Mercado had quoted as having told him about the alleged payoff must be identified so we can really ferret out the truth. We don’t want to be construed as instigating intrigues that can cause animosity between the MILF and the MNLF,” Sema said.

Sema said their group is not at war with both the government and the MILF.

“We have a final peace agreement with the government, the Sept. 2, 1996 GPH-MNLF peace agreement, so we cannot misbehave just like that,” Sema said.

The firebrand Mercado on Monday wrote on his Facebook timeline that “a respected MNLF leader” had told him that the government paid P190,000 for each of the 16 firearms the MILF returned through the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities.

The firearms, comprised of M-16 and M-203 rifles and two light machineguns, belong to the SAF operatives killed in the January 25 encounter with MILF guerillas in Mamasapano.

“We don’t want the MNLF to be dragged into the issue. MNLF leaders have reached a consensus to support the separate investigations on the Mamasapano incident by the Board of Inquiry of the national government and the MILF,” Sema said.

Sema said their central leadership had, in fact, directed on January 28 all MNLF leaders in Maguindanao to just cooperate confidentially on the investigations if requested by either the government or the MILF.

Sema said they have members in Mamasapano and in other nearby Maguindanao towns.

“And our people all adheres to our final peace agreement with government,” he said.

Sema said the MNLF wants the government and the MILF to peacefully resolve the now renowned “Mamasapano incident.”