MANILA, 7 May 2003 - In a tandem move against the increasingly aggressive Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Philippine government yesterday pulled off from the peace talks scheduled for this weekend while the US government threatened to include the separatist group in its list of "terrorist" groups.
"I have instructed our peace negotiators to inform the Malaysian government of our wish to postpone the exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur until we can establish more auspicious circumstances to move the peace process forward," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said, citing a guerrilla attack that left 28 people dead in the southern Philippines on Sunday.
Arroyo said the government could not tolerate "terrorism in the guise of a fight for freedom."
Government negotiators had been scheduled to meet MILF representatives on Friday in Kuala Lumpur. Arroyo said the meeting would have to wait "until we can establish more auspicious circumstances to move the peace process forward."
Malaysia's envoy to Manila, Mohamed Taufik, said the postponement was saddening. "We're hoping that the talks would proceed. ... We're ready anytime," he told reporters.
In the meantime, the president said, the government will "pursue an all-out legal offensive against the leaders of the MILF, while conducting punitive action against the direct perpetrators of terrorist acts."
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone told reporters that the United States was considering classifying the MILF as a terrorist group, and said it was time for the Moro secessionist group to finally decide whether it was for peace or not.
"That certainly is the issue under consideration now for several years. It is up to the MILF to decide really what they're going to be, who they are and make that very clear," said Ricciardone during a lull in a live-ammunition exercise by Philippine and US troops at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, north of Manila.
"I think it's safe to say that if they continue with acts of terrorism, everybody in the world will consider them terrorists," he said.
The Americans, the country's closest military ally, questioned recent actions by MILF rebels. "If they don't choose peace, if they continue kidnapping people and blowing up buildings, that's terrorism. What you're seeing here is the US training with your soldiers to help your soldiers become more effective in dealing with terrorism," Ricciardone said.
"What we can do is to help our allies become stronger in dealing with these terrible people."
"If the MILF chooses to have peace in these areas, we'll see what we can do (with US aid)," Ricciardone said. But "it's ridiculous for us to try bringing electricity to the villages if the MILF is going to be blowing up electric pylons. We can't do that," he said.
Last year, the US State Department tagged the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army, the Abu Sayyaf bandit group and the Pentagon kidnapping gang as terrorist organizations, in a bid to freeze suspected foreign assets and dry up foreign funding.
On Sunday, the guerrillas seized the town hall and a hospital and set ablaze a public market in Siocon, a predominantly Christian town in Western Mindanao. Government troops regained control of the town later Sunday, but the guerrillas took dozens of hostages as they fled.
To pursue the rebels behind the raid on Siocon town, Zamboanga del Norte, the military has dispatched special troops, including Scout Rangers.
"We are shifting from the active defense mode into punitive mode against the MILF," military vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, who is also the current spokesman, said in Camp Aguinaldo.
Running gunbattles continued to take place near Siocon, and the military said the death toll had risen to 36 as of yesterday afternoon. The military said that since Sunday, five soldiers, six policemen, 14 rebels and 11 civilians, including a 16-year-old boy beheaded by the rebels, had been killed.
The number of injured victims also increased to 34: 19 civilians, 9 army soldiers and six policemen.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said the last eight remaining hostages were freed and recovered unharmed yesterday near Siocon's boundary with adjacent Siraway town, where the guerrillas were spotted heading. Previously, authorities said three hostages were being held by the rebels.
"Before last night, we did not know that they had that many hostages," Garcia said, adding that the military only learned later that the MILF picked up civilians along the way as they retreated to serve as protective shields against pursuing troops.
Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said the attack in Siocon was directed at an army battalion headquarters as part of the guerrilla group's "defense posture" against a continuing military offensive, and described the civilian deaths as "collateral damages."
Wrong Reaction
The Rev. Eduardo Layan, a parish priest in Siocon, said the scrapping of the talks was a mistake.
"This will only result (in) more bloodshed and more people will be affected," Layan told the Inquirer after meeting with Dureza and Philippine National Police chief Hermogenes Ebdane.
He said the Moro rebellion could not be resolved by military action.
"I know how the people of Siocon feel, but this is not the solution," Layan said.
But Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, the government's chief negotiator with the MILF, said the time was no longer ripe for talking peace.
"We have been walking an extra mile to reach something, but this time, the climate is not conducive for peace talks or exploratory talks," Dureza told the Inquirer before flying to Siocon.
Siocon Mayor Cesar Soriano said what the MILF did was a plain act of terrorism and that it was only proper the perpetrators of the raid are punished.
"The government did the next best thing. I support the temporary cancellation of the talks. I think it is but proper for the talks to be cancelled," Soriano said.
The attack on Siocon also gave more credence to the military's claim that the MILF had been violating international laws by using minors.
Soriano said based on accounts of witnesses, the Siocon raiders were mostly young boys and girls. "Majority of the attackers were aged 15, 16 and 17," Soriano said.
Layan said he himself saw some of the raiders. "I even saw them trying to reload magazines. It seems they were not trained well. Older rebels were even coaching them. What was disturbing, however, was that it looked like they were excited at what they were doing," Layan said.
More Attacks
Not letting up after Sunday's raid on Siocon, MILF rebels have struck in five towns in three provinces in the last three days.
Heavy clashes have taken place in Pantao-Ragat town, in Lanao del Norte, since Sunday.
As of Monday, at least seven rebels and two soldiers were confirmed killed.
Lt. Col. Francisco Simbajon, spokesman of the army's 401st Infantry Brigade based here, said soldiers wounded the leader of the Pantao-Ragat assault, identified only as a Commander Galto. (With Inputs from Inquirer News Service & Associated Press)
