THE SCENE must have been one of mayhem and incomprehension last Tuesday in downtown Jolo when former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members, now policemen and Philippine Army soldiers, opened fire on a contingent of Marines who had been sent in to rescue two intelligence officers who had been beaten up by Nur Misuari supporters and MNLF military and police integrees.

A pro-Misuari rally had been taking place in Jolo at the time of the attack, to protest Misuari's detention by the federal government after launching a bloody rebellion last November in Jolo that left more than 100 dead. Misuari had fled to Malaysia, been captured by the Malaysians, detained, deported back to Manila, and now awaits trial on charges of rebellion that could land him in jail for 20 years. This time the death toll was lower, 36, but nevertheless left a bitter taste of the death that Misuari supporters can inflict if called upon to do so.

When a colleague reported the latest incident to me on Tuesday, he reported it as a sort of a joke, laughing when telling me that cops and soldiers had fired upon their supposed colleagues the Marines. When I later read the story myself I realized that only in the Philippines could you get two sets of law enforcement officers shooting at each other!

But this raises the troubling question that many have asked: How much can former MNLF fighters, now members of the police force, be trusted to uphold the law and not suddenly revert to being rebels if they get a signal from Misuari?

It's been six years since the MNLF laid down its arms and agreed to peace with Manila. Misuari became governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and squandered a golden opportunity to show Filipinos that Muslims could successfully govern themselves.

Thirty suspects, all policemen, have been detained and disarmed. In addition, the entire 300-member mobile police unit in Jolo is being moved to another location in Mindanao as a security precaution to avoid further such incidents happening. The military is now investigating the loyalties of these 300 policemen in addition to a further 1,000 army integrees.

It is sad that some Filipino Muslims still revert to character when called upon to do so. By that I mean that they are willing to fight for Misuari or a supposed Muslim cause against their own law enforcement colleagues! This is absurd and will once again put in doubt the loyalty of Filipino Muslims to the Philippine Constitution.

MNLF integrees in the army, Marines and police should be loyal to their direct commanders and should never fire upon their own colleagues. As local army chief Col. Romeo Tolentino said, "We need to defuse the tension here because we cannot fight each other. We are all from the government."

Misuari supporters should let the wheels of justice turn. Misuari should be tried in Manila, well away from Sulu and all of his supporters. The government should bend over backwards to give him a fair and open trial, to show the nation that they are not treating him badly. Former MNLF fighters should now be loyal to the Philippine military institutions and not to Misuari or their former cause. Signing a peace agreement means just that: No more fighting. The professionalism and loyalty of MNLF integrees is now seriously in doubt, if any of it is left, after the Jolo incident and other similar incidents.

The Philippine government for its part must show the MNLF integrees that the benefits it offers of stability, peace, and freedom from war outweigh any benefits that they can get from rebelling. But ultimately, it will be up to Filipino Muslims to decide whether they want to live peacefully under the Philippine Constitution or not. Divided loyalties will not be tolerated for much longer, that much is sure.

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Creative governance

THE CONCERN VOICED by some Filipino legislators over the impending deployment of up to 1,000 American troops in the Philippines, to take part in the joint military exercises "Balikatan", is not surprising.

Former Senate president Jovito Salonga alleged this week that the Philippine government had secretly signed a new military deal with the United States concerning logistics and cross-servicing. This has prompted Sen. Sergio Osmeña to demand that senators be given an intelligence briefing as soon as possible to bring them up-to-date about what the Executive branch of the government has been up to.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's interpretations of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1999 have been creative to say the least. She and her advisors have liberally interpreted both their wordings and meanings. Some would say that GMA is stretching that interpretation to its limit so as to avoid having to get congressional approval for every American military move in the country.

Indeed, Salonga said that the unprecedented length of the Balikatan exercises, from six to 12 months, was unusual, and the deployment of US troops to hostile areas such as Basilan, was not provided for in the VFA.

I think the GMA administration has taken the decision that the US military should be brought in to help fight the Abu Sayyaf extremists in Basilan, both because they still hold two American citizens captive, but also because they have been a huge destabilizing force that scares away foreign tourists and investors.

Most politicians I think understand this and have thus refrained from criticizing the government too much over this. Indeed, the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon has pushed most politicians firmly into the US camp in its war against terrorism. That the Abu Sayyaf has long been linked to Osama Bin Laden, only reinforces the US viewpoint that terror must be confronted all over the world, including in the Philippines.

As I predicted many months ago in this column, the US was going to find a way back into the Philippines after its bases were closed down in the 1990s. A Filipino colleague of mine disagreed with me on this point, but I think he is seeing now how right my prediction was. The international war on terrorism and on Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network has provided the perfect excuse to deploy US troops in the Philippines once again. I had predicted that a menacing and expansionist China would bring back the Americans to Clark and Subic, but Osama beat them to it! Nevertheless, I still believe that China in the future will cause many problems and headaches to the US and its allies in Asia. Just wait and see.