|
By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
Muslim rebels said war and peace
are two different matters as they denied plotting to set off bombs
in Metro Manila and assassinate President Gloria Arroyo.
Mohaquer Iqbal, spokesman for the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), on Friday said it will be
highly impossible for them to get involved in such plot since they
are in peace negotiations with the government of President Arroyo.
“We are talking peace with the
government and the ceasefire is holding on the ground with the
presence of the International Monitoring Team,” Iqbal added. The
team is led by Malaysia, which has hosted peace talks between the
government and the Muslim rebel group.
“And what would we get if we
conduct bombings and assassinate the President? That would be
useless, and it would not resolve, but worsen, the problem,” he
said, apparently referring to their decades-old fight for a separate
Islamic state in Mindanao in southern Philippines.
Iqbal disputed statements made
Wednesday by Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the Armed Forces chief of
staff, that they are planning to sow violence in Metro Manila.
It was Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza,
however, who said Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf will carry out the
assassination plot. He is President Arroyo’s security chief.
Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf
are listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the US State
Department. Jemaah Islamiah is said to be operating from Indonesia
and Abu Sayyaf from Mindanao. Abu Sayyaf supposedly is a breakaway
group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Such statements from the
military and the government are unbecoming of the country’s
leaders,” Iqbal said during an interview with dzXL radio.
The MILF spokesman added that
they will file a protest against the government with the
International Monitoring Team for the “sweeping” statements made
against the Muslim separatist group.
Iqbal said the alleged plot could
be aimed at defusing “the situation there [Metro Manila] and maybe
they [security forces] are planning something big for Mindanao to
defuse the problem there.” Authorities have alerted Metro Manila
on possible turmoil arising from the latest allegations of
corruption against President Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel
“Mike” Arroyo, and a top ally, former elections Chairman
Benjamin Abalos Sr.
The Philippine National Police,
which had uncovered the alleged plot to assassinate the President,
denied engaging in diversionary tactics.
Its chief, Gen. Avelino Razon
Jr., however, refused to comment further on the alleged plot, saying
the threat on President Arroyo’s life “ should not have been
made public.”
|
