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Philippines' Estrada Says War Is The Best Solution Against MILF
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (IslamOnline) - Ousted former Philippine President Joseph Estrada on Saturday said military operations should be resumed against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), adding that peace talks have taken too long and not achieved results as positive as his "all-out war" campaign.
Estrada states that peace negotiations with the MILF constantly continue without results.
But, critics in Manila, charging him with duplicity, have taken him to task.
Eliseo Mercado Jr., president of Notre Dame University and a member of the independent mission that monitored the government-MILF ceasefire last year, said, "Erap [Estrada's nickname] is just contradicting himself. As a matter of fact, he asked [Indonesian President] Wahid for help in initiating the peace process with the MILF. Either he is hallucinating or he doesn't know what's going on.
"When he was President, he said military operations were over. His new policy was to promote peace, development and reconstruction in Mindanao. Between the peace process and the policy of war, peace is the right policy," Mercado said.
The priest added that Estrada was "totally ignorant of what was happening in Mindanao when he was President, how much more now that he is no longer the Chief Executive?"
The MILF, through its public relations officer, Eid Kabalu, told IslamOnline that Estrada's regime never wanted peace. "Estrada's all out war was a failure in Mindanao even though they captured the camps."
Kabalu said to the press in Mindanao that peace talks are necessary. "Let us give the government a chance to back what it is saying, that it will talk peace with the MILF," he said.
He also dismissed Estrada's proposal to end negotiations and re-implement the "all-out-war."
"He's finished. The MILF should not take Estrada seriously," Kabalu said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on February 20th, declared a suspension of offensive military operations against the MILF as part of efforts to get them back to the peace table.
In addition, Arroyo has named members of the civilian peace panel the government has put in place to negotiate peace with the MILF. Lawyer Jesus Dureza, a former adviser on Mindanao to another administration, leads the panel.
The MILF is yet to officially name its peace panel; it is still in the process of discussing who will be the main persons to discuss with the government and confirmed last week to IslamOnline that it had its own counter proposals to make to the Arroyo regime.
In a communiqué sent to IslamOnline Sunday, the MILF regretted that clashes between its troops and the armed forces of the Philippines (AFP) continued over the weekend in several places, confirming Kabalu's statements said in his recent interview with IslamOnline.
The MILF has lambasted the suspension of military operations ordered by Arroyo as a possible scam, and has criticized the Filipino military for its actions in the field, saying that efforts towards confidence building in relations between the two antagonists seem to be heading downward.
Peace talks between the MILF and the government have been indefinitely suspended since July of last year upon an MILF instance protesting the AFP's (Armed Forces of the Philippines) all-out offensive against the group and the Bangsamoro people.
Kabalu accuses Arroyo's government of insincerity in talking for an "all-out peace," while the AFP is doing the opposite, he charged. This confirms earlier allegations that Arroyo is not really in full control of the military organization, Kabalu said.
He added that the "all-out peace" is but part of the government's propaganda mileage aims to, among other things, stabilize the still unstable political situation in Manila along with the desire to attract foreign investors to the Philippines.
He said the regime in Manila wanted to show that there was already peace in the country, convincing foreign investors to come in, he added.
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