PRESS RELEASE
4
February 2015
Ref. Gie Relova
0915-2862555
Bukluran
ng Manggagawang Pilipino
Talking Peace but Waging War
Aquino
betrayed the peace process, killed BBL, militants say
The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) in a statement said that, “Aquino betrayed his own cause for the BBL, because he himself admitted to having full and prior knowledge of the Mamasapano attack in his nationwide address. By giving the green light to proceed with the arrest operation despite being well-informed that the suspects’ location was a base camp of the MILF, this equates to sabotaging all the painstaking peace-building efforts of all stakeholders, including his own Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process”.
“This is a classic case of doublespeak, while proclaiming to pursue peace in Mindanao, Aquino back-stabbed the peace process with an armed, ill-advised, and uncoordinated intrusion on a known MILF territory. Aquino recklessly by-passed all agreed mechanisms for coordination between the GRP and the MILF under the 1997 Ceasefire Agreement, they added.
“Now, that people are agitated with the Mamasapano tragedy, he naively maintains that he seeks the enactment of the BBL despite the overwhelming undercurrent for vengeance. Aquino has only himself to blame if the Mamasapano tragedy spills-over and the BBL junked by attention-seeking legislators who are merely riding on the sentiments of the public” Gie Relova of BMP pointed out.
The group believes that Aquino had all the means and powers within the Office of the President to employ less confrontational methods to avoid bloodshed and spoil the gains the peace process has achieved.
“For all we know, Aquino could have simply dialed the number of MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal for coordination but opted not to do so. The non-usage of less confrontational methods is indeed the five-million-dollar-question that must be unearthed by the Board of Inquiry,” Relova urged.
"The Mamapasano betrayal only proves that the President could not be counted upon to secure peace with justice for both Moros and Filipinos,” the labor leader asserted.
The BMP also distanced itself from right-wing groups who are criticizing the President for not going after the Moros or the MILF. "We criticize the President not because he's not as "tough" on the Moros as he should be, but because he sabotaged the peace process," he declared.
The militants likewise denounced Aquino and his favored generals within the military hierarchy whom they branded as, “cold-blooded mercenaries for doing the dirty chores of their American puppet masters”.
They also added that, “To sacrifice the lives of the forty-four police commandos and twenty-four Moro victims to please the Americans is a new all-time high in terms of their servility”.
Relova dared US Ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg to come forward and own up the reports that the US was involved in the Mamasapano tragedy.
“It is a known fact that Marwan has long been in the order of battle of the American intelligence community, a motive to neutralize Marwan and Usman is very well-established. If they truly treat us as allies and are supportive of the peace-building efforts in Mindanao, then Goldberg must disclose all he knows for the sake of a grieving nation and the future of the peace process,” he said.
The militants also said that according to their sources, the spin doctors of the Palace are working double-time to downplay the participation of US armed forces in the botched police operation in Mamasapano.#
