DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/14 Oct) — Frustrated over the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) declaring the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) unconstitutional, a field commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they would “hold the SC responsible for the bloodbath happening and are yet to happen.”

Commander Yang, one of the leaders securing the MILF’s Camp Darapanan in Maguindanao, said that since July, government forces have been fighting against only three base commands of the front. But with the recent SC decision, “the whole organization of the MILF will react on that decision,” he warned.

“Commanders Kato and Bravo have been vindicated. Tama sila nung kanilang sinabi na pinaglalaruan lang kani ng gobyerno sa peace talks na ito (They were right when they said that the government is just playing tricks on us in the peace talks),” Yang said in a telephone interview. 

Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, said: “The decision implies that the Supreme Court does not want a peaceful solution to the Mindanao conflict.”

He noted, though, that the SC’s recent decision also meant the High Court has “recognized the MOA-AD as an official and signed agreement.”

He added that the MOA-AD could now be “used by the opposition in filing a case against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for violating the Philippine Constitution. The MOA-AD could now serve as an evidence against the President.”

The militant Suara Bangsamoro party-list group, on the other hand, said that the SC decision “only proves that this government is really not concerned of the plight of the Bangsamoro people and that this government has explicitly denied the Moro people its legitimate right to govern themselves.”

Suara spokesperson Amirah Lidasan said the SC decision would only “worsen the sufferings of civilian victims of the war” going on in several villages in at least five of 27 provinces in Mindanao. 

“It (the SC decision) all the more exposes this blood-hungry government. It does not actually consider any other option but war,” she added.

She said that the decision has also all given other revolutionary groups no reason to talk with the government.

“Since 2002, there had been no formal peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Since then, a number of activists have already been abducted and killed. The NDFP and the MILF showed their willingness to talk. I think the recent development shows that it is actually the government that is not willing to talk peace,” Lidasan said.

Ustadz Rahib Kudto, president of the United Youth for Peace and Development, said: “At no point in time has this government been ever so united against the Bangsamoro people. The SC, Malacañang, Senate, local government units and other branches of government are one against the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro people.”

The more radical Bangsamoro Youth Leaders Forum, which earlier called on the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front to “unite and revert to the original demand for independence,” said: “We thank the Supreme Court because its decision on the MOA-AD has justified our call for unity and reversal to our original call for independence.”

The SC decision came three days after the European Commission, which met in Cotabato City, predicted an escalation of the armed conflict in Mindanao, a prediction shared by no less than MILF Chair Al-haj Murad Ebrahim. (Romy Elusfa / MindaNews contributor)