Muslim separatist guerrillas yesterday publicly renounced terrorism -- a key government condition of resuming long-stalled peace talks -- and expressed confidence the government would agree to a ceasefire this week.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said he could not immediately confirm the move by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but said that if true, it would be a "good sign."
Government negotiator Norberto Gonzalez, who was in Malaysia meeting with rebel representatives yesterday, refused to comment.
Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters that MILF leader Salamat Hashim has issued a "policy statement rejecting terrorism" and that it has been received and is being reviewed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's office.
Kabalu said during talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the government expressed willingness to "recall or withdraw criminal charges, including bounties on MILF leaders," and to agree to a ceasefire with the rebels.
Malaysia has been brokering peace talks.
In his statement, Salamat said terrorism "is anathema to the teachings of Islam" and reiterated the MILF's "abhorrence" of terrorism, Kabalu said.
"We reject and deny any link with terrorist organizations or activities in this part of the ASEAN region, particularly in the southern Philippines and elsewhere in the world," Kabalu quoted Salamat as saying.
Despite a rebel ceasefire, which ended Saturday midnight, Arroyo has refused to resume talks with the MILF unless they publicly renounce terrorism, surrender guerrillas allegedly involved in a spate of deadly bombings and attacks in the southern Philippines.
The rebels have been accused by the government of links to the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and for the deaths of more than 200 people in bombings and raids this year.
They earlier ordered a unilateral cease-fire on the main southern island of Mindanao as a sign of goodwill toward restarting peace talks.
But the government refused to reciprocate, with Bunye saying on Saturday that it needs to see "more sincerity" from the Filipino rebels, citing military reports that the MILF violated its own ceasefire.
The rebels have repeatedly denied any ties to terrorist groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for last year's Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.
The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for almost three decades to establish an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
The government is offering more autonomy for Muslim areas, but says it will never allow full independence.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Nauru said it would hold a referendum to change its official name, described as a colonial relic from a time when “foreign tongues” mangled the native language. Nauru would change its name to Naoero to “more faithfully honor our nation’s heritage, our language and our identity,” Nauruan President David Adeang said in a statement on Tuesday. The Pacific island nation’s native language is Dorerin Naoero, which is spoken by the vast majority of its approximately 10,000 inhabitants. “Nauru emerged because Naoero could not be properly pronounced by foreign tongues, and was changed not by our choice, but for convenience,” the government said in
RSS