Iqbal neither confirms nor denies he’s Datucan Abas, questions Cayetano’s motive

Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal on Friday questioned the motive of Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano in revealing the rebel leader's supposed real name.

“What is the motive of Cayetano?” Iqbal said in a text message to GMA News Online, a day after the senator bared documents showing Iqbal's real name as Datucan Abas.

Iqbal, who had admitted to using an alias for security reasons, neither confirmed nor denied this. “I don't deny, I don't confirm,” he said.

Cayetano, in baring Iqbal's supposed real name, said the issue is not Iqbal's real identity but trust and transparency.

“Ang gusto kasi  nila ipakita sa publiko [na] he is the peaceful face, sa academe siya, ito yung naniniwala sa Bangsamoro…wala kasing transparency, hindi tuloy natin alam ang kausap natin. Why not open all of this to everyone para makilatis natin kung sino ba ang nandyan (sa MILF peace panel), saan tayo pupunta once they become governor or chief minister. Would they go for cessation or not?” he said.

Iqbal earlier said that his name is known to the government as it is stated in his passport. He also said that as a revolutionary, it is necessary for him to have an alias.

Presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles and Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. earlier admitted that they do not know the real name of Iqbal.

It was only chief government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer who knows Iqbal's real name based on her research in the 1990s.

“I know the name, it is on the documents, but to my personal knowledge, I do not know. I never looked at the papers,” Deles said during the resumption of the Senate hearing on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law on Monday.
 
For his part, Catapang replied: “No, we do not know the real name.”

Cayetano has secured a memorandum circular issued in July 18, 2003 and signed by then Interior Secretary Jose Lina Jr. for the suspension of monetary rewards for the arrest of most wanted persons including Datucan Abas Mohagher Iqbal.

He also has a document granting safe conduct and free passage for MILF officials, including Datucan Abas Mohagher Iqbal, which was signed by then presidential adviser on the peace process and government peace panel chairman Eduardo Ermita.

The senator also got documents from Manuel L. Quezon University showing that Datucan M. Abas graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1969 and Master of Arts major in political science in 1972. —Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News