Spare civilians, church group asks MNLF, gov’t forces

A total of 35 people including 10 women, 2 boys and 23 males were taken as hostages by the Basilan based MNLF led by a certain Ustadz Ismael Dasta, a NASCOM MNLF commander on Monday. PHOTO BY JULIE S. ALIPALA / INQUIRER MINDANAO

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (Inpeace) said the standoff between government forces and guerrillas of the Moro National Liberation Front “should be handled very carefully by the Philippine government.”

Inpeace chair Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Philippine Independent Church, however, called on both protagonists, the government through the AFP and PNP and the MNLF fighters, to adhere to international humanitarian law to protect the rights of civilians.

“Civilians, whether Christian or Moro, should be spared from the armed conflict; people in the streets and communities of Zamboanga are being traumatized by the conflict. They are protected by international humanitarian law,” Calang said in a statement.

“Negotiations should now prevail over further armed confrontation to prevent more bloodshed and casualties,” Calang added.

Calang said the Philippine government must review its compliance with the 1996 Peace Agreement with the MNLF.

“The government obviously brushed off the MNLF’s independence declaration this year in Sulu, little knowing that it posed a serious armed warning from a legitimate revolutionary movement that has obviously felt left out from the Framework Agreement of the Bangsamoro (FAB),” he said.

“The Moro question remains to be a complex problem and unless the roots of armed revolution are addressed and their right to self-determination is sincerely and genuinely upheld, it will pose as a gnawing wound in Philippine real politic,” he added.

Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate described Zamboanga as a slap on the Aquino administration’s peace policy in Mindanao.

Zarate said an all-out military approach was not a solution to the current impasse, warning that such an approach may only escalate and spread to other parts of Mindanao and inflict more violence on hapless civilians.

“This is an off-shot of a divisive peace policy that excludes other stakeholders in Mindanao, like the forces of MNLF Chair Nur Misuari,” Zarate said.

“The Aquino administration should seriously examine and put in order its peace policy in Mindanao since it appears now that it is failing as shown by this incident in Zamboanga City involving the MNLF members,” Zarate said.

“The peace policy of President Aquino should not be divisive and exclusive. It should not leave out a legitimate group just to appease another group. This is no way of talking peace in Mindanao,” Zarate said.