Malacañang: Gov’t won’t allow Filipino Muslims to ‘self-destruct’

MANILA, Philippines—The Aquino administration won’t allow Filipino Muslims in conflict areas in southern Philippines “to self-destruct.”

This was Malacañang’s reaction to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s statement on the proposal for a substate and the Moro’s need for self-determination.

“Well, certainly we don’t want them to self-destruct. I mean that’s not the purpose of agreeing to peace. We want all the affected areas to progress as well,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a news briefing early Wednesday afternoon.

“That’s the purpose of peace – to better the situation in these areas. In the areas where there is conflict, there’s always poverty. There’s always suffering and that’s what we want to lift them up from. The burden of poverty and the burden of suffering,” Lacierda added.

In an editorial posted on its luwaran.com website, the MILF made a call for letting Moros run their own affairs and decide their own destiny. “Let them succeed or self-destruct. Gone were the days when the government in Manila designed everything for them,” it said.

The MILF has made it clear that it was not pushing for a separate Moro state but a substate under the Philippine government.

“That may be the position of the MILF and come August 22 the Philippine side will be presenting its proposal,” Lacierda said.

Malacañang has called the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao a failed experiment. It then pushed for the synchronization of the ARMM elections with the 2013 national elections supposedly to give time for officers-in-charge to implement reforms in the region.

The ARMM resulted from the peace agreement reached between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.