Estrada: Aquino gov’t too soft on MILF
MANILA, Philippines—An incensed former president Joseph Estrada criticized the Aquino administration, on Thursday, for being “soft” on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose troops killed 19 soldiers and wounded 13 others in Basilan on Tuesday.
Estrada condemned the attack on members of the Philippine Army’s Special Forces, saying it smacked of “treachery as always” by the secessionist movement.
“Malambot, malambot,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone, referring to the government’s handling of the MILF.
Senator Francis Pangilinan said the government peace panel should “review its current track to the path of peace and rethink its handling of the MILF given this latest unfortunate incident.”
“It appears that the approach needs a serious review,” he said in a statement. “We cannot allow the MILF to dictate the terms and conditions of the peace process. This latest incident is a major setback in the efforts to secure a just and honorable peace.”
Around 40 soldiers went to Al-Barka town to verify reports that armed groups were holding kidnap victims. Among the targets was Dan Laksaw Asnawi, who was involved in the beheading of 14 Marine soldiers in 2007.
“Poor soldiers,” said Estrada, who launched an all-out war against the MILF in 2000. “So many of them have died in this conflict.”
The former president noted that the attack came despite Aquino’s fresh efforts to negotiate peace with the Moro rebels.
He cited unusual, one-on-one meeting with MILF chair Murad Ebrahim in Tokyo last August, a move apparently intended to provide a major impetus to the peace talks.
“And still, the MILF keeps attacking our troops,” he said. “They cannot be trusted. There’s treachery as always. It’s a vicious cycle. It has to end.”
Pangilinan sent his condolences to the families of the slain soldiers, saying “every single life lost in this conflict is a pin pricked in the heart of our nation.”
“We grieve for our soldiers, their families and loved ones. They paid the ultimate price for our nation…We must work for genuine peace and usher in progress so that their deaths will not be in vain,” he said.
Pangilinan added: “Government must firm up its resolve to end the root causes of social unrest and armed conflict in Mindanao so as to put meaning in the deaths of our men in uniform.”
Estrada reiterated his call for a timetable of “three to six months” in the peace negotiations with the MILF. In that period, he said the government should make it clear which of the MILF’s demands would be tenable and which ones would be non-negotiable.
“Once and for all, let’s end this conflict. We cannot wait for another 30 years,” he said.
But in case the talks failed, he said the government should be prepared for an all-out conflict. “Sometimes you have to wage a war to achieve peace,” he said.
