MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front on Wednesday dismissed claims by followers of Nur Misuari it issued a "war advisory" calling on the Moro National Liberation Front to prepare for war if the government abandons the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
Two non-Muslim followers of Misuari, Emmanuel Fontanilla and Absalom Cerveza, have been announcing since Tuesday to different media outfits in Metro Manila that MNLF leaders had received an official communiqué from the MILF urging them to be ready for war if the draft BBL is shelved due to the January 25 bloodshed in Mamasapano.
"It started as a text message spread by warmongers. It is not true that we have sent them such hostile advisories as they claim," Iqbal said.
Some local officials had branded as whimsical and preposterous the insinuations by Fontanilla, a lawyer, and Cerveza, a Christian preacher.
Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao told reporters he would be among the first to know if the MILF had indeed issued such advisory to Moro groups.
Hataman pointed out that he chairs the ARMM's inter-agency regional peace and order council, whose members include people from various civil society organizations, representatives of the political and religious communities in all five provinces under his jurisdiction.
Hataman and Iqbal separately aired their views on the allegations of Fontanilla and Cerveza during a press conference on Wednesday at the officers' club of the Army's 6th Infantry Division at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao."The membership of the council also includes provincial governors of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the mayors of the cities of Lamitan and Marawi. That is absolutely untrue. That is nothing but fiction spread by warmongers. So whimsical indeed," Hataman said.
The press conference capped off the MILF's return of 16 firearms rebels took from the policemen killed in firefights in Barangays Tukanalipao, Pidsandawan and Inog-og in Mamasapano town in the second district of Maguindanao last January 25.
The Philippine Star
