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Young
Philippines Muslims Call For Estrada Resignation
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA (IslamOnline) - Impeached President
Joseph Estrada’s trouble with the Muslims of the Philippines seems a like
never-ending story. A group of young Muslims held pickets yesterday in front of
the Senate to protest his alleged use of Moro youth scholars in defending
himself recently.
Estrada has stated that illegal betting
money worth $4 million was given to a youth movement in Manila, that he had
nothing to do with it, and that it was one of his henchmen who donated the money
to the Muslims.
This has outraged Muslims who have called
on him to resign immediately, while activist Muslims from the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) said they preferred Estrada to be impeached.
"President Estrada will only use the Moro people, this time the youth, as a
scapegoat to cover his greediness in soliciting dirty money from jueteng lords
like Ilocos Sur Governor Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson," said Amirah Ali
Lidasan, spokesperson of the Moro Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA),
referring to the controversial Estrada Muslim Youth Foundation.
"President Estrada must step down. No amount of bribery from Estrada can
ever erase our memory of what he did to our Moro brethren in Mindanao. Nothing
can ever heal the scars he gave to us for all those he displaced, killed,
abducted and whose future he snatched in his all-out war in Mindanao,"
Lidasan said.
Lidasan also challenged Estrada and the incorporators of the Erap Muslim Youth
Foundation to produce a Muslim student beneficiary of the alleged scholarship
program.
She warned that any Muslim youth who lets himself be used by the President will
only face the repudiation of his Muslim brothers and sisters, as well as
"the wrath of Allah."
"The future of the Moro youth and their rights to education should not be
based on the whims of President Estrada, nor should it be based on his fancy for
jueteng money," Lidasan added.
She said that the Moro youth have long fought for their right to education and
have rallied for government to increase subsidies to their universities and for
their scholarships. However, Estrada never abided by the constitutional
provision of giving a priority budget for their education, Lidasan said.
She also noted that the President mobilized the military for his "all-out
war" against the Moro people adding that more Moro youth will join protest
rallies and mass actions against “malicious use of Muslims names in the
illegal betting scam and Estrada’s continued stay in Malacañang.”
A vociferous Lidasan called on the rest of the Moro youth and the Moro people
not to fall for the false promises of President Estrada during the National Day
of Prayer and Fasting last Saturday.
She also encouraged the Moro people to join the nationally coordinated
people’s strike on November 14th, and join school walkouts and work stoppages
to call for Estrada’s ouster.
Estrada’s opposition had called for a
national strike Tuesday. Reports indicated that the strike has been widely
followed by large sections of the population, with workers traders from the
stock exchange joining in the fray.
The Philippines Lower House impeached
Estrada on Monday and has set the month of December for the start of the Senate
trial of the embattled President. Estrada has, however, welcomed the impeachment
and said he will not have to resign because the Senate will not vote him out.
Political crisis despairs
Schilling
Meanwhile, the political crisis has made
unhappy a hostage on the island of Jolo, Sulu province. The Abu Sayyaf group,
still ducking and escaping the Filipino army in the thickness of the forest are
still holding two last hostages.
American hostage, Jeffrey Edward Craig
Schilling today said the political crisis that has gripped the country in recent
weeks has stalled his, and Filipino Rolando Ullah's, freedom.
"Since the Philippine government is having a problem, I hope the government
will still be able to conduct negotiations," Schilling said over local
radio station DXRZ. "I become less and less optimistic everyday."
It was the first time in several weeks that Schilling, 24, has contacted the
station. He was taken hostage in late August after he and his Filipina wife, Ivy
Osani, ventured into the rebels' lair.
Schilling and his captors, led by Abu Sayyaf spokesperson Abu Sabaya, have been
in constant contact with the radio station until the government assault on the
Abu Sayyaf hideout commenced last September 16th.
Jeffrey Schilling told the radio station that his Abu Sayyaf captors, amid a
military operation to destroy the gunmen, had taken him off the island of Jolo.
Schilling said he believed he was in the
neighboring island of Basilan or Tawi-Tawi, adding he was suffering from various
ailments and coughing blood.
"I am suffering from ulcers, fatigue,
[and it is] depressing. I am not very well. I have infection on a leg and it is
swollen," said the 24-year-old resident from Oakland, California.
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