Stay Out of Polls, MILF Warns Members

ZAMBOANGA CITY, 18 July 2005 — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday warned its members to keep off the Aug. 8 elections in the five-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindananao (ARMM) and to remain non-partisan.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the Philippines’ largest Muslim separatist rebel group issued the warning in case any of their members were engaging in partisan politics. Kabalu strongly denied reports that the MILF was supporting Mahid Mutilan (Ompia) and Ibrahim Paglas (Liberal), who are both running for the gubernatorial post in the ARMM elections.

“The MILF is apolitical and our forces are non-partisan. The reports are part of a propaganda and the MILF is not supporting any candidates, not Mutilan and certainly not Paglas,” Kabalu told Arab News.

Reports said Mutilan, the incumbent ARMM vice governor, and Paglas, a former mayor of the small town of Datu Paglas in Maguindanao province, have reportedly sought support from the separatist group.

The MILF, which is fighting for a separate Islamic state in the mineral and timber-rich island of Mindanao, has in the past stayed away from the polls.

Aside from Mutilan and Paglas, re-electionist ARMM Governor Parouk Hussin (Independent) and Shariff Aguak town Mayor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan (Lakas-CMD) are also seeking the gubernatorial post.

Hussin bolted from the ruling Lakas party after he was not chosen as the official gubernatorial candidate. Mutilan, a former member of the government peace panel negotiating with Muslim rebels, was Hussin’s former education secretary. Paglas had ran in previous ARMM elections, but failed.

Eight other prominent politicians and former rebel leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who filed their candidacies for the gubernatorial posts, had withdrawn from the race, and many of them are now supporting Ampatuan and his vice gubernatorial candidate, Lanao del Sur Assemblyman Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong.

More than 1.2 million Muslim voters in the autonomous region are to choose their new set of governor and vice governor and members to the Regional Legislative Assembly.

The ARMM is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the chartered cities of Cotabato and Marawi.