City of San Fernando -- The New Peoples’ in Army Central Luzon declared support for the proposal of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) to create an international fact finding body to investigate the beheading and mutilation of the corpses of the Marines after an encounter with MILF forces in Basilan.

“The fact-finding body should be impartial, and should include experts on international humanitarian law and must have deep knowledge of the Muslim people’s history and struggles,” NPA-Central Luzon spokesperson Salud Rojas explained through an statement emailed to the media dated July 23.

Newspaper accounts had it that the MILF admitted it was behind the ambush of the Marines who were on their way back to their base in Isabela after conducting a search for the then kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi.

But their leaders denied that its forces were behind the beheading and mutilation of the Marines.

Bas Sattar Ali, MILF representative in an International Monitoring Team urged the government to find out who were really behind the deplorable act before accusing fingers are pointed to them.

The CPP Central Luzon insists the fact finding body should, among other concerns, look into information cited by a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the mutilation of the corpses was the handiwork, not of the MILF, but allegedly of the men of a certain former Basilan governor Wahab Akbar (the statement failed to provide the first name), an ex-Abu Sayyaff commander who surrendered to the government.

The columnist, quoting his sources, alleged further that Akbar received from the government 800 pieces of M-16 and M-14 rifles, grenade launchers and mortars before the May 14 elections. And given this lead, the fact finding mission could yet uncover the sinister plot behind the mutilation of the Marines’ dead bodies.

The statement also counter-claimed that the Arroyo government and her cohorts may be behind it as they continue to lay the basis of heightened repression and fascist terrorism on the people, and to whip up more turmoil to deflect opposition and to rally the people to support the implementation of Human Security Act.

The statement averred the government is continuously trying to justify the “terrorist” tag on the NPA and MILF, while the Armed Forces of the Philippines have repeatedly attempted to link the two revolutionary forces to drug trafficking, and the banditry of the Abbu Sayyaff and other criminal groups.

The Arroyo regime, the statement furthered, is waging an unjust and dirty war to save the oppressive system and preserve itself in Malacanang even beyond 2010.