Philippine Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari was allowed out of detention yesterday to file his candidacy for governor of his southern island stronghold.
Escorted by heavily armed police, Misuari took a commercial flight to Jolo, part of the Sulu Province, where US troops are assisting Filipino forces against Muslim militants linked to al-Qaeda.
"I am just filing my candidacy for governor of Sulu," Misuari said before boarding a plane in Manila.
"Victory is already a foregone conclusion," he said.
Misuari is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim former separatist group that signed a peace pact with Manila in 1996.
Deal
Under the deal, Misuari won governorship of a Muslim autonomous area, but he later lost the government's support amid allegations of massive corruption in the regional government.
In 2001, he and his supporters attacked government targets on Jolo and Zamboanga city, killing more than 100 people.
MNLF gunmen then held hostage dozens of school children whom they used as human shields to stop a government assault.
The rebels later freed the hostages in exchange for safe passage back to Jolo, where they now remain as a major armed force.
Shortly after the rebellion, Misuari fled to Malaysia but was arrested and repatriated. He is under house arrest while being tried for rebellion.
Request
A Manila court granted his request to run for governor of Sulu in the May 14 polls on the basis that he has not yet been convicted.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo's adviser on the peace process, Jesus Dureza, welcomed Misuari's move to join mainstream politics.
"I positively view Nur's bid to serve through the democratic electoral process. I wish him well in his candidacy," Dureza told reporters.
Misuari and his escorts were to return to Manila later yesterday. It is not clear how he intends to campaign, but Misuari remains popular in Islamic circles in the south.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS