CBCP exec: Asking rebel groups to join fight in Marawi an insult to AFP

President Rodrigo Duterte and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairman Nur Misuari. (File photo by RENE LUMAWAG)

Allowing combatants from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the New People’s Army (NPA) to help in the ongoing battle against the Maute Group in Marawi City is an insult to the military, Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive director of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said on Wednesday.

In an interview over Radio Veritas, Secillano said: “To have MILF and MNLF combatants to fight alongside our soldiers against the Maute Group may prove to be demoralizing to government troops even from the tactical point of view. It would appear to be an implicit admission that left to their own, our soldiers don’t stand a chance to demolish these rebels.”

“To be complicit with MILF and MNLF would also render inutile the declaration of martial law in the region which according to the government is needed in restoring peace and order in the region,” he added.

In his speech in Sulu last week, President Rodrigo Duterte made an appeal to the three rebel groups to help fight against the extremist groups in Marawi.

But last weekend in Subic Bay, Duterte said he had accepted the offer of Nur Misuari, MNLF founding chairman, to let 2,000 of his fighters to join the military on the ongoing crisis.

The government has been accepting MNLF integrees as regular members of the AFP.

Duterte also offered a P20-million bounty for Isnilon Hapilon, Abu Sayyaf senior leader and purported leader of the Islmaic State in Southeast Asia, and the two Maute brothers, who were behind the Marawi siege.

Secillano said he had nothing against the offering of bounty.

“It may even be a necessity,” he said.

He scored Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao, however, saying that it would be useless if it could not bring peace to the region. –FM /atm

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