THE revelation that top officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front used pseudonyms when they signed various peace agreements with the government is just the latest example of how the Aquino administration has been piling lie upon lie to build an unstable foundation for peace in Mindanao.
Administration officials have been tripping over themselves to explain that they knew this all along, and that there was nothing wrong with revolutionaries using their noms de guerre to sign legally binding documents, but it seems like some officials did not get the memo.
The presidential adviser on the peace process, Teresita Deles, for example, said she did not know that Mohagher Iqbal, the name used by the MILF chief negotiator, was a pseudonym until he admitted this last week.
This leaves two possibilities: the government’s top peace official was left our of the loop or she was lying. Neither possibility is particularly attractive or reassuring, but given this administration’s aversion for the truth and transparency, the latter seems more likely.
After all, President Benigno Aquino III has led by example, piling lie upon lie on the covert law enforcement operation that he authorized, and that led to the deaths of 44 police commandos at the hands of Muslim rebels, including those from the MILF, which defended the massacre as an act of self defense.
In the aftermath of the debacle, Mr. Aquino tried to play down the fact that he had entrusted the operation to his good friend, then suspended police chief Alan Purisima, who kept the mission so secret that the military was unprepared to provide timely support to the beleaguered police commandos.
The President has since refused to answer 20 questions posed to him by opposition lawmakers, including one particularly disturbing suggestion that the President ordered the military to stand down when the police commandos in Mamasapano called for help, simply because he did not want to jeopardize peace talks with the MILF.
The lack of honesty also pervades the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that the President wants Congress to pass, regardless of provisions that clearly violate the Constitution.
Faced with mounting criticism of the flawed document and serious questions about the trustworthiness of his peace partners, the MILF, the President created his own forum on the draft law, calling it the National Peace Summit, and stocked it with personalities and groups that are friendly to his administration and uncritical of his policies.
Mr. Aquino seeks to separate the BBL discussion from the Mamasapano incident because of the public outrage over the killing of 44 police officers. Saying the two are unrelated, however, is yet another fiction that Mr. Aquino would have us swallow.
We cannot build a just and lasting peace on a foundation of lies, but that is exactly what Mr. Aquino, his negotiating team and his minions in Congress would have us do.
It is time we spoke truth to power and said no.