Leaked documents show how MILF belittled President
A FEW months before the 2010 elections, leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) told US Embassy officials that the front-running candidate for president, Benigno Aquino 3rd,
was too naive to understand the complexities of the problem besetting Mindanao, according to documents released by WikiLeaks.
The MILF was referring to the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain drawn up during the term of former President Gloria Arroyo. The Supreme Court declared the agreement unconstitutional.
The meeting between MILF leaders and Embassy officials took place on February 24, 2010. Michael Mastura, a member of the MILF peace panel, invited US Embassy officials to a dinner at his residence in Cotabato City.
Present at the meeting were MILF Chairman Mohagher Iqbal, Mastura and Mike Marasigan, also a member of the peace panel. The Americans visitors were Michael Pignatello, a political officer of US Embassy; Steven Rood of the Asia Foundation, country representative to the Philippines; and Thomas Parks, Asia Foundation regional director for conflict and governance, which is based in Bangkok, Thailand. Also in attendance was Abhoud Linga, director of Institute of Bangsamoro Studies.
In that dinner, the US officials asked MILF leaders how they assessed the 2010 candidates for president. Iqbal and his group said they “had not reached out to any candidate” but Mastura recounted an exchange he had with a member of Aquino’s camp whom he asked if the then-senator will have a policy on peace process.
Mastura said he was unimpressed. “It’s too complicated for Sen. Aquino to understand,” he told the officials.
The MILF leaders asked the US Embassy officials to intervene and made an “impassioned plea for greater overall US involvement.”
“Listen to how we feel,” Iqbal said. “The Filipinos are the rulers and we (Moros or Muslim Filipinos) are slaves. It is a lopsided relationship,” he told the American visitors.
The WikiLeaks documents said the MILF officials believed that because the US erred in including Mindanao in Philippine territory when it provided the Philippines with its independence, the US “owed” the Moros its “assistance.”
The MILF’s impression of a “weak” Aquino jibes with the assessment of former US Ambassador Kristie Kenney who said Mr. Aquino was “diffident” and “unassertive.”
President Aquino displayed assertiveness when he clandestinely met with MILF officials in Tokyo, Japan last month. Despite that unexpected act of good faith, negotiations between the government and the MILF again reached an impasse when the Muslim group rejected the government panel’s offer of autonomy. MILF leaders said there will be no peace agreement if the government will not agree to their demand for a sub-state.
On Thursday, Iqbal said the government’s proposal was “weak”.
He explained that the MILF peace panel is not against the peace and development component of the so-called “3 in 1” proposal of the government.
“What is important are the bigger developments, especially the gas and oil exploration that will happen after the signing of agreement.”
“We have no problems on the development that they were saying. We would have a problem on the bigger development because it affects the ancestral domain of the people,” he added.
US helping MILF
Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo also on Thursday urged government officials, non-government organizations and the MILF not to talk to US Embassy officials because “Americans are concerned only of their welfare and interest.”
Sen. Arroyo said officials should be wary of accepting invitations from US Embassy officials.
“They will ask you of the situation in a very innocent way. In fact, you don’t know who you are talking with at the embassy. Who knows you are not talking to embassy people but to members of the Federal Bureau or the Central Investigation Agency?”
Sen. Arroyo said Washington is practically helping the MILF establish an independent state for the simple reason that the “US wants to put up a military facility in Mindanao to crush terrorist cells operating in the region”.
With William B. Depasupil
