Exec says MILF has no interest in governing Moro people
COTABATO CITY, Philippines—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has no desire to govern the expanded Muslim autonomous region, the creation of which is among the subjects of the on-going peace negotiations, a senior rebel official said Tuesday.
Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF political affairs chief, said in a radio interview that what the MILF was striving for at the negotiating table was an agreement that would benefit the Moro people and not governance for the rebel group.
“The MILF leadership has no plan to seek a political position. Our priority concern now is to come up with a signed agreement beneficial to the Bangsamoro people,” he said.
Jaafar said the question of who will govern the expanded Autonomous region will be left for the people to decide.
Muhammad Ameen, chair of the MILF secretariat, said in a statement addressed to rival Moro fronts that the common good of the Moro people should be the priority.
“Let us work together for the collective interests of our people and treat organizational and personal benefit as mere… second or third priority. Let us also separate ourselves from those whose motives are purely fired by vengeance and hatred, because ours have clear political agenda that do not only protect our rights but also of others,” he said.
Ameen said among the issues they should work to resolve is the resurgence of violence allegedly perpetrated by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, a breakway group led by renegade MILF leader Ameril Umra Kato.
“They are now starting to kill civilians and loot their properties,” he said, adding that “these are menu for terrorism.”
Sheikh Muhammad Muntassir, chair of the MILF’s Da’wah Committee, said Kato and his group should draw lessons from the experience of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Better for them to learn from the lessons of Afghanistan, and Iraq where the extremists did not last long. Where are the extremists in Iraq? They are long gone,” he said.
Citing the history of Islam, Muntassir said victory was the result of several factors, including diplomacy.
“There is no shortcut to achieving victory; it is always hard and long,” he said.
