ZAMBOANGA CITY, 19 October 2003 — “We don’t support terrorism. The MILF rejects terrorism.”

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) made this statement yesterday for all the world to hear, in response to the call of US President George W. Bush’s for the Philippines’ largest separatist rebel group to reject terror.

“There is no doubt about terrorism and we are for peace and peaceful solution to the problems of Mindanao,” separatist spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters in the southern Philippines shortly after Bush ended his address to the Philippine Congress in Manila.

In his speech, Bush urged the MILF to forge a peace agreement with the Philippine government so that economic development could start rolling in the southern region of Mindanao.

“I call on the MILF to reject terrorism. There can be no compromise with terrorism,” he said in his 20-minute speech that was interrupted several times by applauding lawmakers.

The US government has promised to help bankroll economic development in Muslim areas in the southern Philippines, on condition that the government and MILF forge a peace accord.

Malaysia is currently hosting peace negotiations between the two sides. It will also head a team from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which will monitor the cease-fire in Mindanao.

Bush also pledged more support to Manila’s fight against terrorism and said the United States would help the Philippines defeat the Abu Sayyaf group linked by authorities to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden. He also promised more aid to the Philippine military.

Despite the MILF’s denial, the Philippine military has insisted that its forces maintain links with extremists from the Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiya, blamed for the spate of bombings in Southeast Asia since 2000.

Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Friday night said the Philippines has in custody a key Jemaah Islamiya leader Taufic Rifqi, ranked second in the terror organization, after his capture in the southern city of Cotabato on Oct. 2.

Last Sunday, Philippine police killed Jemaah bomb-maker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, who was allegedly hiding in MILF territory. Al-Ghozi was the subject of a massive manhunt by Philippine forces after he escaped from a high-security prison in Manila on July 14, along with two Abu Sayyaf militants.

Al-Ghozi, who confessed masterminding the Rizal Day bombing in Manila in 2000 that left 21 people dead, was serving a 12-year prison sentence for illegal possession of explosives.