EDITORIAL - Confidence building

What happens when a member of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front is “suspended” by its leadership? Does it include being temporarily disarmed? Will the suspended member follow the lead of MILF commander Ameril Umbra Kato and simply form a breakaway group? And who can verify if the suspension has truly been carried out?

The government, which continues to explore long-term peace with the MILF, will just have to take the word of the group for it. The other day, the MILF leadership announced that three of the group’s commanders based in Basilan had been suspended for three months for their direct participation in the ambush of Army Special Forces and Scout Rangers in the town of Al-Barka on Oct. 18 last year. Nineteen soldiers were killed. The MILF’s chief peace negotiator said the three would undergo an education seminar on the peace process.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines prefers to look on the bright side. Yesterday AFP officers pointed out that the MILF’s announcement of sanctions for its commanders was an acknowledgment that the group was at fault in the Al-Barka encounter.

It has been seven months since President Aquino held a controversial secret meeting with MILF chieftain Al Haj Murad in Tokyo, in an attempt to invigorate the peace process. The confidence-building gesture was set back by the ambush in Al-Barka, which MILF leaders initially justified as their defense of their “territory” in Basilan.

Unless a peace agreement is signed and the MILF get its so-called sub-state, with its area properly delineated, it cannot claim any territory in this country. Government forces are tasked to secure national territory, and assist law enforcement agencies in keeping the public safe. There is an ongoing manhunt for the kidnappers of an Australian as well as two bird watchers from the Netherlands and Switzerland. The MILF must not get in the way of the forces pursing the kidnappers. Suspending its members for the attack in Al-Barka is a welcome gesture from the MILF. More confidence-building gestures will improve the path to peace.