By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY
A southern Philippines rebel group involved in a clash that left 44 police commandos dead has said that it would return the men's firearms and "personal belongings" seized during the "misencounter."
In a statement read during a Senate inquiry Tuesday, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF, Coordinating Committee chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said the decision was in deference to the peace process the movement is currently involved in with the government, along with recognition that the MILF never wanted the encounter to happen.
The government and the rebel group signed the peace deal last year with the aim of granting greater autonomy to the Muslim-majority provinces in the southern Philippines, ending a decades-long insurgency that has seen 120,000 people killed.
The suspected involvement of the group in the deaths has threatened to derail the process, however, along with allegations that forces executed some of the wounded commandos and stole their possessions.
The family of one slain commando is reported to have only heard of his death on calling his number -- the wife of his killer answering his mobile and saying “My husband killed the owner of this phone."
In Tuesday's statement, Iqbal said that the rebel grouıp is already in the process of accounting for the firearms and belongings taken from the Special Action Force troopers.
Around 400 commandos were in Mamasapano in Maguindanao to capture Malaysian bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, only to run into suspected fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters -- which has vowed to sabotage the peace process between its one time master and the government and to continue fighting for full independence for the region -- believed to have been harboring the fugitive.
Iqbal also expressed a commitment to fully cooperate with the Senate in the search for truth and justice regarding the bloody encounter.
"However, the decision has stressed that the appearance will take place after the MILF Special Investigation Commission (SIC) comes out with its findings," he added.
