Abella: No backchannel talks with Maute, ‘no deal’ remains

Malacañang denied Thursday a news report saying President Rodrigo Duterte was about to make a deal with the terrorists from the Maute group but later aborted the plan.

“Up to this point, we have no verified reports that there were efforts to initiate such actions as Agakhan Sharief claims,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a Palace briefing.

A Reuters report had quoted Sharief, a prominent Muslim leader who has been helping in the rescue efforts of civilians in Marawi, as saying a Duterte aide approached him for a back-channel talk with the Maute terrorists.

But Abella denied the claim as he reiterated the government’s hard stance not to negotiate with terrorists.

Palace Spokesperson Ernesto Abella speaks before mediamen during a media briefing regarding update on Marawi City. NESTOR CORRALES / INQUIRER.net

“Let me be clear that the position of the Palace and the President is not to negotiate with terrorists including these local terrorist groups—which had intended to establish a state within the Philippine state, and to remove allegiance to the government of the Philippines and the Chief Executive of the City of Marawi and its residents—because this constitutes rebellion, because they submit to a foreign leader and hold to a dangerous ideology that is inimical to the well-being of all Filipinos including Muslim Filipinos, and because most Muslim Filipinos disagree with the extreme interpretation and application of the Muslim belief system,” he said.

The Palace official said Duterte was “serious about redressing the social injustice committed against Muslim Mindanao.”

“He is committed to having the Bangsamoro basic law passed. The President intends this to be a vision of a federal form of government in the Philippines,” he said. JPV/rga

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