COTABATO CITY, 5 April 2004 — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday warned the government of attempts to derail the peace process after state prosecutors pushed forward a resolution indicting MILF leaders and members in the twin bombings of Davao City last year.
“If it’s not sabotage, it’s a plain act of harassment,” MILF spokesman Edi Kabalu said, as he belittled the prosecutors’ resolution as being based on “hearsay.”
Kabalu was reacting to a resolution passed by the regional state prosecutor’s office in Davao, which indicted the MILF leaders and members based on a “confession” by a man named “Noog” of the Abu Sayyaf gang.
Noog claimed to have heard the late MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim talking to his men about the plan to bomb Davao City.
Several people were killed in the bombings that hit the Davao airport and wharf in a span of three weeks in early 2003.
In the first place, Kabalu said, how could an Abu Sayyaf member hear Salamat issuing such an order when the Abu Sayyaf and MILF “have no established relationship with one another, organizationally or otherwise.”
It is clear, he said, that the prosecutor’s resolution was fabrication meant to derail efforts to resume formal peace talks.
Government and MILF negotiators agreed to resume the talks in Kuala Lumpur at the end of April after an advanced team of international truce monitors visited Mindanao last week. Malaysia is hosting the talks.
One of the two major issues agreed upon by the parties to be implemented before the talks could resume was the “dropping permanently” of criminal charges filed against MILF officials in connection with the Davao bombings. Kabalu said the prosecutors’ resolution came as a surprise since the so-called “Maniwang Commission,” which investigated the twin bombings, found no evidence to link the MILF to the attacks.
Kabalu said it is incumbent upon the government to prevent saboteurs from within its ranks from hindering the peace process.
