EDITORIAL - MILF, BIFF: Brothers in arms?

President Aquino himself confirmed it: Moro Islamic Liberation Front members joined forces of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and a “private armed group” to repel the police Special Action Force team that tried to arrest two high-value terrorists last Sunday in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Since the BIFF was created and began staging deadly raids, looting and other forms of banditry in Mindanao, the nation has been made to believe that the group is a breakaway faction of the MILF. After every attack by the BIFF, its members were dismissed as rogues by the MILF, which also opposed the original peace treaty and broke away from the Moro National Liberation Front.

As gleaned from reports, the belief that the MILF was not allied with the BIFF and would observe a ceasefire with the government might have emboldened the SAF to run after Jemaah Islamiyah bomb makers Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Abdul Basit Usman, upon receiving “actionable intelligence” on their whereabouts in Mamasapano. The SAF team, nearly 400 strong, obviously thought it could handle BIFF forces; the SAF did not expect the MILF to wade in and assist its “rogue” elements.

What is the BIFF to the MILF? The secessionists have to answer this truthfully if they want to restore public confidence in the peace process. It’s not the first time that a bandit group has been suspected of being part of the MILF. The Pentagon Gang, tagged in several kidnapping and extortion cases, was also widely suspected to be a fund-raising arm of the MILF in the 1990s. In public, the Pentagon was also repeatedly disowned by the MILF as a rogue faction. Pentagon activities continued for some time even after police killed its leader, Faisal Marohombsar, in 2002 following his escape from detention at Camp Crame.

Now it’s the BIFF, accused of harboring two of the most wanted terrorists in Southeast Asia. Why is the MILF assisting its supposed rogue faction in protecting JI bombers, to the extent of participating in the slaughter of policemen on a mission to arrest the terrorists?

This must be clarified by the MILF leadership if the peace process is to survive the fallout from the latest massacre in Maguindanao. Any peace based on duplicity isn’t going to endure.