Zamboanga spark

According to the MILF, the fire created by their brother MNLF fighters in Zamboanga was not a dedicated and well-planned move. It is even suspect to have been funded from outside influences. But the affair was just a spark to ignite a bigger fire.

It is feared as in August and September, 2013, that there might be spill overs of the planned attacks vs. government to Metro Manila. If the people causing already two fake bomb scares – one in Roxas Boulevard and another at the LRT terminal in Manila, will continue to issue these fake alarms, my group and our networks would like to get our hands on these stupid idiots and send them home to their mothers. If the armed and other uniformed Services will get tired of all these fake alarms, they might no longer respond when the actual bombing is about to occur and was monitored, presently happening or had already transpired.

Any witnesses to the perpetration of the crime of propagating hoax bomb alarms, please point us to the culprit(s) and send an email to:

rebus21group@gmail.com

We thank all of you for your very kind cooperation. In the interest of our peace, we remain,

Rebus 21

No Contest

Zamboanga City Siege: As in many other conflicts, it is glaringly apparent that there is no quarrel between the soldiers on the government side and the fighters on the side of the Moro National Liberation Front – MNLF. As for the volunteer workers who are in the vicinity where the hostilities are, they do not have any ax to grind vs. either the government or MNLF.

Civilian government officials, particularly from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process – OPAPP, in particular Hon. Secretary Teresita “Qing” Deles, confessed over the national media that they invited Misuari Nur to the talks but he won’t participate.

Hon. Secretary Deles however also said they regret having neglected the MNLF and not giving them enough importance. She and her subordinates at OPAPP did not know the full weight of not wholly involving Misuari, she said.

On the other hand, such oversight if committed without malice does not really matter. The Honorable Secretary already made it clear that Misuari did not show interest in participation.

Nevertheless, during the early stages of the effort to usher towards the emergence of a more enduring peace in the Islamic community in Mindanao, millions of dollars were spent in contracting out the task of studying the role of stakeholders in the issue of giving Islamic leaders the autonomy to govern themselves. A large number of scholarly and practical contracting institutions were given the job and all the required results were delivered to the United States Government through an informal working committee that was formed by the POTUS (US President) himself.

The United States Congress participated in deciding about the allocation and release of those funds. Fortunately, the Congress and the US Executive Branch may never have the same problem with the likes of Napoles and Mr. Zaldy Co nor their ilk.

Whatever transpired between the time around 2002-2003 to the present for all those studies funded by well-spent foreign currency to become null, moot and academic, no one will ever know.

Certainly, not all of the contractors must have recommended that the Government of the Philippines will drastically erase the country’s collective memory of Misuari.

Select quarters opt for the resolution of the conflict in Western Mindanao using the military option. They defend the current policy of the incumbent administration to wage war and use force, albeit “greater force” against the MNLF.

However, the question remains whether the MNLF should effectively be considered the real enemy. After the 1996 Tripoli Agreement, a number of the conditions set forth in that peace pact, to the exclusion of only a number of provisions were implemented.  Among these, is the integration of MNLF regulars into the fold of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Upon the enactment of the Philippine National Police law by Congress in 1992, some of the MNLF absorbed into the armed forces opted to transfer to the Police service.

During the past, on a large number of occasions, the demobilized MNLF members living peacefully as civilians still participated in operations for the benefit of the public peace at the behest of the Government of the Philippines. Much of these operations were directed against the Abu Sayyaf, a group that was born in 1994-1995 and initially operated in the Zamboanga Peninsula. Most of the Abu Sayyaf original members were Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ex-Communist Party of the Philippines cadres, with a smattering of rogue MNLF elements. More MNLF members would be drawn into the folds of Abu Sayyaf later, during the period in late 1998-1999 up to around 2000 and beyond.

When the MILF received, the support and backing of the United States Government to enter into peace negotiations with the Government of the Philippines, the new Islamic negotiating panel became the officials of the MILF.

Despite this development, the Organization for Islamic Cooperation – OIC, did not change its stand over who will be the permanent Philippine Muslim Representative to OIC. It will remain to be the MNLF, with Misuari personifying the organization.

The Honorable Secretary Deles confirmed that this is so and regrets having ignored Misuari over the past several years.

With the record of accomplishment of the MNLF in cooperating with government, it can hardly be said that they are the real enemies in the present state of affairs in Zamboanga.

If the MNLF were sincere in going to war vs. government, no less than several hundreds of government forces would have been dead by now. When the organization helped the AFP and PNP in Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo during the rescue operations vs. Abu Sayyaf kidnappers of the staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross – ICRC, more or less two to three hundred Abu Sayyaf terrorists were killed because of the fierceness of the MNLF volunteers and the sincerity of the Philippine National Police in engaging the terrorist band in non-conventional battle.

In sum, whatever is now happening in Zamboanga City, only the native population will be the losers. Between the government forces and the MNLF, there is really no contest unless there are unseen hands moving pawns and officer pieces here and there in a cruel game of death and devastation.

Related articles:

Zamboanga City paralyzed by siege

500 Marines deployed to Zamboanga

Government’s enemy body count: 100 MNLF killed or captured

Confusion in Mindanao

Despite the danger of escalating tensions towards full-scale war, certain shady individuals are goading both parties enmeshed in the hostilities and appear to be the ones who organized the hostage-taking as well as the burning of entire villages in Zamboanga.

Captured persons alleged to be members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) confessed to interrogators that they were not ordered to participate in a war.

Before jumping off from Basilan into Zamboanga-bound bancas (small sea vessels commonly used by fishermen), they were told to support the prayer rally – educational assembly or teach-in against the pork barrel at the EDSA Shrine in Ortigas by holding a similar rally in Zamboanga City.

For the task, they were given an inordinate amount of cash and upon boarding the bancas, they were issued firearms one for each rallyist.

While en route to Zamboanga, over sea waters they were hailed and shot at by Philippine Navy elements and were forced to surrender. The story above they told their captors does not tally with the current tale that Commander Habier Malik mobilized them for all-out war or jihad against the infidel Philippine Government and their so-called sworn enemies – brother Muslims in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

A number of names of people heretofore unheard of recently in the media to be parties to the conflict came up during the interrogations. Leaders of the MNLF who received the same information from the supposed rallyists vs. pork barrel are now confused as to how the situation in Zamboanga came to be. And why they are at the receiving end of the blame, when it appears that the active involvement of certain persons without any relevant connection to MNLF and the Islamic cause, effectively plunged the forty year old Moro liberation movement into the quagmire.

The question now is that while there is battle raging in Zamboanga, two opposing parties are shooting each other to death, in the end who is going to benefit?

Furthermore, while the consensus among many quarters and the lament of the MNLF is to reach a peaceful accord with government, why did the occupant of the house by the Pasig River come over to Zamboanga and warned of the use of more force if the MNLF does not surrender and suffer the consequences of their supposed crimes?  What if the MNLF was simply trapped into filling a role that was painstakingly defined and tailored-fit for them for the aggrandizement of certain ambitious, devious persons?

The conclusion is much awaited.