Peace commitment: Philippines' MILF group returns 16 guns of slain cops

COTABATO, Philippines: Muslim guerrillas returned to the Philippine government Wednesday at least 16 assault firearms of police anti-terror commandos who were killed in what the insurgents say was a “misencounter” that has stalled a new peace deal.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Rasid Ladiasan said the handover of the firearms to government officials in a military camp in the south was meant to show the group “want peace.” A cellphone was also given back and at least one more rifle from the slain policemen will be returned later, he said.
President Benigno Aquino III has asked the rebels to return the slain commandos’ weapons and help government forces hunt down terror suspects in the south.
“We want to show our sincerity and our commitment to the peace process,” Ladiasan said by phone. “The police and military are no longer our enemies. There has been no fighting for three years, but what happened was really unfortunate and beyond our control.”
“In war, we all lose,” MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said during a ceremony for the return of the firearms.
Presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles said the MILF's decision to return the firearms showed that the 11,000-strong group's leaders have control over their fighters, who traditionally don’t return weapons they seize in gunbattles.
“It’s a show of good faith,” Deles said.
The police commandos reportedly killed one of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspects, Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, in a Jan. 25 raid in the marshy outskirts of southern Mamasapano town. But as they withdrew, the policemen got entangled in two gunbattles with MILF fighters and other armed groups in the far-flung region, killing 44 of the commandos.
At least 18 Muslim rebels and three villagers were killed, police said.
The huge police casualty toll — the government’s biggest single-day combat loss in recent memory — angered many, including lawmakers, who have suspended committee hearings on a proposed law that will create a more powerful autonomous region for minority Muslims in the south under a peace deal signed by the government and the Moro rebels last year.
But a cease-fire under the peace deal actually worked to prevent more casualties when foreign and Filipino peacekeepers intervened and managed to ease the fierce Mamasapano clashes. They also arranged the safe retrieval of the slain commandos from the two scenes of the gunbattles after the clashes, officials said.
The United States, Russia, Australia and several other governments have renewed their support to the peace process in the south and have also condoled with the families of the slain commandos.
Police commanders who oversaw the anti-terror raid have acknowledged in congressional hearings that they did not effectively notify the Moro rebels about the raid as required under the cease-fire to prevent accidental clashes.
A police commander involved in the assault also has acknowledged in a congressional inquiry that he and other police officials did not notify the military and an acting national police chief before the assault was launched. That prevented the military from rapidly providing combat support to the commandos who were surrounded by an overwhelming number of insurgents.
Aquino has suggested that the anti-terror raid should have been aborted when the planned night assault unraveled not according to plan.