MANILA, 27 June 2003 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday said the government was ready to resume peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but the separatist group should come clean if it really wants a political settlement of the Mindanao conflict.
Arroyo expressed concern over the MILF’s intentions after viewing substantial cache of C-4 explosives the military claimed to have recovered over the weekend from a “bomb factory” inside an MILF camp in Maguindanao.
The government and the MILF moved closer to resuming peace talks after the guerrillas on Sunday publicly rejected terrorism. But Arroyo said the discovery of the bomb factory “sets back the peace process.”
“We are preparing for the start of peace talks, but this does not mean we are being tactically blind to events,” said President Arroyo. The military seized 450 kilograms (990 pounds) of C-4 plastic explosives Saturday in Kabuntalan town, 900 kilometers (560 miles) southeast of Manila.
“The response of the MILF in ferreting out the truth will largely determine our reciprocal attitude and actions,” she said at the press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, the military headquarters in Manila.
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and military chief of staff Gen. Narciso Abaya and presented to the president the recovered explosives, bomb-making materials and ammunition.
Arroyo said the cache was larger than the entire armed forces’ C-4 inventory. Military officials said it was enough to blow up a 10-story building, or to make hundreds of smaller bombs. She then pressed the MILF to make a full disclosure of the sources and targets of its arsenal of explosives, before the peace talks resume. The explosives, she said, are proof of “continuing terrorist intentions and plans.”
Defense Secretary Reyes also said the explosives shows the MILF “still is trying to pursue terrorist activities” and “is not helping the peace process.”
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu accused the military of planting the explosives. He said the supposed discovery “is a scenario-making” to make it appear that the MILF was behind the bombings that hit the Davao airport and wharf in March and April, killing dozens of people.
Kabalu said FBI and Australian bomb experts have found that the C4 explosive was used in both bomb attacks, and the military apparently wants to show that the MILF are indeed the suspects if it is known that they have C4 in their arsenal.
He said such explosive component is not commercially available and could only be found exclusively in the military arsenal.
“The move, therefore by the government is seen as an escape goat at the expense of the MILF,” he said in a statement.
The president stressed that a mere denial by the MILF would no longer suffice, because the stockpile was too big. “Denials of knowledge, or the absurd claim that these were planted by our troops, are not acceptable. I think you can see how big it is. It’s not one ‘bayong’ (native bag) that you can plant,” she said.
“Whether the peace process moves forward or lags behind is largely in the hands of the MILF,” she also said, without elaborating.
Kabalu said if the government really wants peace to prevail, it should go ahead with its plan to resume the talks at the soonest time possible instead of overreacting to the explosives haul.
He was reacting to Foreign Secretary Blas Ople’s statement that a Cabinet security committee yesterday set a July 1 target date for restarting formal talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Inputs from Agencies)
Ople said the military might match a 24-day-old cease-fire by the MILF in support of the negotiations to be held in Malaysia, which will reprise its role as broker between Manila and the rebels.
The United States, a key ally of the Philippines that has given funding and training for counter-terrorism operations, will play “a consultative role” in the peace process, Ople said.
Arroyo met Wednesday with US Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Daley and welcomed the US promise of “financial and diplomatic support,” Ople said.
In Malaysia, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said yesterday the government had not yet decided how to respond to the Philippines’ request that it head a four-nation team of observers to monitor the peace process.
Renato de Villa, presidential adviser on strategic concerns, said he had told President Arroyo that a peace agreement was possible within three months.
“I said: ‘Madame President, if we work hard on this and if the other side is really sincere, I think we can nail this down in 90 days,’” de Villa told a news conference. “She said: ‘If you think so, then let’s do it.’”
