MILF warns breakaway group vs attacks

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Monday, October 8, warned it would run after a breakaway group if it insists on attacking MILF and government troops.

Von Al Haq, MILF spokesman, said in a phone interview that once the MILF signs a peace deal with the Aquino government on October 15, members of the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) will be declared outlaws.
 
“We cannot act on the ground if the agreement is not yet signed,” Al Haq said. “Once we reach a final agreement, the BIFM automatically [becomes] a lawless element,” he added.

On Sunday, October 7, the BIFM shrugged off the agreement. In a phone interview with Rappler, BIFM spokesman Abu Misry Mama said the group is standing firm in its position on the creation of a separate Bangsamoro state.

“We do not care if the government and the MILF would reach an agreement. We do not want the Bangsamoro entity or whatever they may call it,” Mama said.

But Mama clarified that the group will be closely monitoring the promises made by President Benigno Aquino III on the delivery of basic services in the region.

The BIFM, led by former 105th Base Command chief Ustadz Ameril Umra Kato, broke away from the MILF after serious disagreements on the latter’s peace talks with the government.

Kato was tagged as the leader of the attacks on civilian communities in North Cotabato in 2008 following the botched signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the government and MILF peace panels.

In August this year, Kato’s men staged simultaneous attacks against government military detachments in the region, occupied a national highway for almost a week and harassed civilian communities. Later, they heeded a request by the MILF for a temporary ceasefire as the peace talks progressed.

The MILF said that if the attacks continue after the signing of the peace deal, it has no choice but to run after the BIFM. “Our efforts will be coordinated with the military and police,” Al Haq said.

The BIFM dismissed the warning though.

Reached for comment on Monday, Mama said that they prefer to be hunted down by government forces than to compromise their principles and demands.

 “It will be better to be called outlaws than to become surrenderees,” Mama said.

The group however clarified that they would remain in defensive mode and would not attack any military units and installations unless provoked.

Reacting to the MILF’s statement that MILF forces would go after them, Mama said: “We see no problem with it considering that they are now working with the government. So that means they are now with the enemy,” Mama said.

On Sunday, October 7, President Aquino announced a framework agreement between the government and the MILF aimed at setting up a new Bangsamoro autonomous region in Mindanao.

A transition commission composed of Bangsamoro representatives chosen by the government and the MILF will work on keeping a period of “normalization,” which includes a “graduated program” to decommission the MILF’s armed guerrilla units, as well as “the transfer of law enforcement from the military in that area to a reform police force,” according to Marvic Leonen, head of the government peace panel.

The parameters will still be negotiated in the coming months, but Leonen told Rappler that “ceasefire on the ground is maintained.”

The MILF claims it has an army of about 12,000 troops. – with reports from Lala Rimando and Karlos Manlupig/Rappler.com

Read the full text of President Noynoy Aquino’s speech: Agreement paves way for enduring peace in Mindanao

Read the full text of the Framework Agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the establishment of the new autonomous political entity, Bangsamoro, that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

For related stories, read:

• Govt, MILF reach deal
• PH govt, MILF hope to finish agreement
• MILF accuses military of ceasefire violation
• MILF ‘happy’ with framework agreement on peace
• BIFM insists on separate Bangsamoro state