ZAMBOANGA CITY, 6 July 2003 - The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said yesterday it will not cut its ties with the communist New People's Army (NPA) just to please President Gloria Arroyo.
"The MILF and the NPA are allies and we will not break our ties with them. This is internal on our part and the Philippine government cannot dictate us what to do and what not to do," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said.
Kabalu was reacting to President Arroyo's demand that the MILF should shun the communist rebels because they were into terrorist and criminal activities.
Arroyo yesterday ordered government peace negotiators to impress upon their counterparts in the MILF the need to stop their dealings with the NPA and to push forward peace initiatives in the strife-torn region.
Military officials in Mindanao claimed that MILF and NPA rebels have been "exchanging trainings and in some occasions in the past mounted coordinated attacks on military targets in the southern Philippines."
Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, chief of the military's Civil Relations Group in Mindanao, said these were confirmed by documents that troops recovered last February from an MILF camp in Buliok, a mountain complex that stretches from North Cotabato to Maguindanao provinces.
"Not only the MILF and the NPA have been attacking military targets, they also harmed many innocent civilians," Covarrubias said.
President Arroyo also ordered the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COCIS) to look into the collusion to explore political and diplomatic measures that will expose the tie up between the NPA and the MILF forces.
The military said the NPA has been training separatist Muslim rebels in explosives and guerrilla warfare in exchange for weapons, mostly rocket-propelled grenades.
MILF rebels have also expanded their operations mainly from central Mindanao to the northern and southern parts of the main southern island, where NPA forces are known to operate, the military has said.
