Binay calls for review of ceasefire pact with MILF

MANILA, Philippines —Vice President Jejomar Binay on Saturday called for a review of the ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in light of recent clashes involving government troops and MILF rebels.

“I am deeply disturbed by the recent incidents in Mindanao. The lives of gallant soldiers and policemen have been lost and I offer my deepest condolences to their families,” said Binay on Saturday as he was attending the Asia Pacific Regional Scout committee meeting in Bangkok.

“I strongly urge that we revisit the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the MILF. We should be very clear about accountabilities. Those who violate it should be punished. There should be greater candor, acceptance of responsibilities and a display of good faith,” he added.

The ceasefire agreement is in accordance with the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and the MILF leadership.

President Benigno Aquino III and the military leadership said the government would not suspend the prevailing ceasefire agreement with the MILF despite the encounter between the Moro rebels and the military in Al Barka town in Basilan, which left 19 soldiers dead and scores of others wounded, last Tuesday.

Two days after, on Thursday, the MILF ambushed two army convoys and a joint-military-police patrol on the strife-torn southern island of Mindanao, killing six government men and wounding eight others, authorities said.

The MILF owned up to Thursday’s two ambush incidents in Zamboanga Sibugay but justified it as a retaliatory attack against the military. It claimed that the ambush incidents were prompted by artillery attacks on MILF camps in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Aquino likewise thumbed down calls for an all-out war with the MILF.

Asked whether there was a need to review or even suspend the ceasefire agreement with the MILF, the President said: “(Are) we advocating (an) all-out war… that redounds to an improvement to the situation?”

“(W)e have to learn. Nobody benefits from war,” Aquino said in dismissing suggestions that the government go all-out against the MILF following the attack in Basilan that many branded as treacherous.