While there is a clarion call for peace there is a louder voice that supports the government offensive against three breakaway MILF forces that have sown terror in the provinces of Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Sarangani. The marauders who are identified with the MILF forces under Kumanders Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Makapaar alias Kumander Bravo and Aleem Sulaiman Panglian alias Kumander Panglian overran several remote towns in the said provinces without provocation and killed at least 33 innocent civilians including children, robbed hundreds of abandoned houses which they later set on fire.

The atrocities came on the heels of the announcement that the draft of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain had been initialed by the government and the MILF peace panels. Kumander Umbra Kato let his men in pillaging remote barangays in North Cotabato. The hostilities later spread and escalated to as far as Lanao del Norte following the issuance of a temporary restraining order by the Supreme Court on appeal of North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manuel PIñol, ex-senator Franklin Drilon and Sen. Mar Roxas.

Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had demanded from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front hierarchy to put a stop to the atrocities for the peace initiatives to continue. The call to rein-in the forces of the separatist groups however were ignored. The chieftain of the MILF instead boisterously ordered that the government stop their offensive for peace negotiation to continue. Following this stoic stand, they also declared that those (Kato and Bravo) who were earlier dubbed as renegade elements were confirmed by them as their legitimate field commanders. This brazen talks and confession imperiled the MOA on AD and the entire peace process. The government issued a strong statement that the peace talks will only resume if the MILF will surrender the leaders of the terror group. In a show of intransigence moreover MILF Chairman Al Hadj Murad Ibrahim countered that neither the renegotiation nor review of the MOA on AD is unacceptable as this had been a done deal. Which is actually far from it. Press Sec. Jesus Dureza along with constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas unequivocally said that until the MOA passes through Congress and presented to the people for a plebiscite will the document only be enforceable or a done deal.

With the obstinate refusal of the MILF to turn over Kato, Bravo and Panglian, the government has continued their hunt for the terror group. Nevertheless, Malacañang made it absolutely clear that the pursuit operation is a surgical move to eliminate the criminal elements and it has not abandoned its objective to sign a stable and meaningful peace agreement with the MILF. The thunder from Malacañang is quite clear but no one can say whether the MILF hierarchy is listening. In the meantime, the marauding forces of the MILF are being decimated. But it will take the surrender or neutralization of Bravo, Kato and Panglian to bring the peace panels back to the negotiating table. As the hostilities take its toll however, we are doubt whether the much ballyhooed MOA on AD will be resurrected. With the itchy finger on the trigger the government forces have no other recourse but to try responding with a hail of gunfire to silence the guns that started it all. (MW)
 

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