We beg to differ.
A picture has emerged of Moro Islamic Liberation Front spokesman Mohagher Iqbal (a fake name he uses for his public appearances and representation with the Philippine government) and Bangsamoro peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer in a forum with Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadets in Baguio City. In a photo published on Minda News the man…
The trouble with all notions of an autonomous Muslim state is that it implies that Muslims are “special” Filipinos deserving of special treatment. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and, now, the proposed Bangsamoro “state” by their very nature are both tainted by that ill-conceived specialness. Worse, both entities were created under threat of…
Read More “A Bangsamoro state is only possible in a fully-federalised Philippine republic” »
The Philippine media still refers to him as “Mohagher Iqbal” despite indisputable evidence that this is a fake name. Worse, he is cited as the source of information that his boss, Murad Ibrahim, head of the terrorist Moro Islamic Liberation Front will be representing the “Bangsamoro nation” in a gathering of foreign ministers of various…
They say the best way to understand something complicated is to approach it the way a child would: ask simple questions. To understand the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, Filipinos should do the same – ask simple questions. Once people finally get down to the basics, they will soon realize how unrealistic, unnecessary and wasteful the…
Read More “The Bangsamoro Basic Law is not the solution to the conflict in Mindanao” »
The Malaysian government has finally come out from under the rock it’s been hiding amidst the brouhaha over the huge SNAFU that is the Bangsamoro Basic Law “peace” deal negotiations it brokered between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a known Islamic terrorist group. Responding to increasing suspicion from various quarters in…
There used to be an old 1970s-1980s term often used to describe the “politically passionate”. Cause-oriented groups or COGs as they were once called was the collective term used for activists and rabble-rousers alike. They had real “causes” at the time — many of which were focused on achieving “freedom”, because Filipinos were supposedly not…
Read More “The Philippine ‘Opposition’: A movement in search of a credible cause” »
Apologists are increasingly painting themselves into a corner. They plead “good intentions” on behalf of the people they are apologising for rather than focus on good old-fashioned accountability. 44 officers of the Philippine police’s Special Action Force (SAF) are dead, the victims of a massacre they suffered under the hands of Islamic terrorists in Mindanao…
Inquirer columnist Rina Jimenez-David called it a mere “wrinkle” in the “peace process”. “Disheartening” news that is a “cause for concern” is how she describes the massacre of 50 members of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP’s) elite Special Action Force (SAF) allegedly by elements of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic…