Can we have a peace process without peace?

Fifty-two members of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police (according to the latest report) are dead. They were massacred, many of them mutilated, in an armed encounter in barangay Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Sunday with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a breakaway faction of the MILF.

This happened while the Aquino government was trying to fast-track the passage in Congress of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (Babala), which seeks to create a new political entity for the MILF to replace the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which was created earlier by law for the Moro National Liberation Front. It is supposed to be a formula for peace.