DAVAO CITY, Philippines?The Moro Islamic Liberation front (MILF) denied supporting a fatwa or edict issued by an Islamic cleric in Lanao Del Sur against at least three national candidates.

Eid Kabalu, MILF civil-military affairs chief, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone the rebel group would never endorse any fatwa related to the May elections because of its policy of non-participation.

?We were surprised to read in the reports written by Agence France Presse that we have endorsed the fatwa against former president Joseph Estrada, former senator Franklin Drilon, and Senator Mar Roxas,? Kabalu said.

Last week, Marawi City grand imam Ustadz Jamel Yahya issued the edict against the three national figures for allegedly being anti-Islam.

Estrada, he said, was the architect of the 2000 war against the Moros while Roxas and Drilon supported the move against the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.

The MoA-AD was a draft agreement that sought to expand the Moro territory. The government did not sign it in the end.

It was later voted down by the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional in August 2008.

During the Marawi City rally, where Yahya issued the edict, he said the Moro people would tear down the campaign ads of Estrada, a presidential candidate for the second time; Roxas, vice presidential bet of the Liberal Party; and Drilon, a senatorial candidate of the LP.

?We do not campaign against any candidate because we do not believe in the elections as a solution to the Bangsamoro problem,? Kabalu said.

In a statement published on www.luwaran.com, the MILF?s official website, Khaled Musa, deputy chair of the MILF?s committee on information, said it was Yahya, who issued the edict on March 9 and not the MILF.

?The religious group is not the MILF and it is unfair to say the MILF issues such fatwa,? Musa stressed.

Kabalu also said that not all articles posted on Luwaran reflected the MILF?s views.

He pointed to articles written by a Mindanao-based news agency.

He said the MILF has already issued a stand against the AFP story and it was urging the French news agency to make a correction of what it reported.