Arroyo backs autonomous Muslim region expansion

Arroyo backs autonomous Muslim region expansion

MANILA (DPA): Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on
Friday backed the expansion of a four-province Muslim autonomous
region in the south to bring peace and spur development in the
conflict-wracked island of Mindanao.

Arroyo said a plebiscite on the issue, scheduled on Aug. 14,
was "an important event" to determine if other provinces and
cities in the south agree to widening the scope of the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The ARMM currently covers the provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi,
Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

If the proposed expansion is approved during the plebiscite,
the ARMM would include a total of 14 provinces and nine cities,
including the western province of Palawan.

"The progress of the ARMM will be good for the future of
Mindanao," Arroyo said in a news conference. "Regional autonomy
is an intelligent alternative to the freedom and independence
being sought by separatist groups."

She added that the goal of the plebiscite was the "expansion
of peace and development in Muslim Mindanao".

ARMM Governor Nur Misuari, chairman of the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF), a rebel group that signed a peace
agreement with the government in 1996, however, opposes the
holding of the plebiscite.

Misuari insists that the plebiscite violates the peace pact
between Manila and the MNLF, which he claims provides for the
automatic expansion of the coverage of the ARMM after a
transition period.

"This will destroy the peace agreement," he said in a
television interview. "If that happens, I will report to the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and tell them that the
government has abandoned the peace agreement completely."

The 54-member OIC helped broker the peace agreement with the
MNLF and has been monitoring the implementation of the pact.

Misuari also warned that the MNLF will "return to our original
position" - the establishment of an independent Islamic state in
Mindanao.

Despite opposing the referendum, the governor allayed concerns
that his men would disrupt the plebiscite with violence.

The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which
split from the MNLF in 1978 and currently holding peace
negotiations with the government, has announced that it will not
participate in the plebiscite.

Misuari, who was left out in the reunification talks amid a
leadership crisis in the MNLF, criticized the unity agreement as
a "conspiracy of the Philippine government".

Meanwhile Arroyo on Friday ordered an investigation into
accusations by a Catholic priest that some military officials
were coddling Abu Sayyaf rebels holding captive 21 Americans and
Filipinos on a southern island.

Arroyo said she "would not want to believe" the accusations
that a general and a colonel were paid to allow the extremists to
escape a military cordon in June.

"But in the interest of transparency, I have instructed
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes to order an inquiry within the
defense and armed forces community," she said at a news
conference.

The controversy centers on the escape of the Abu Sayyaf rebels
from a hospital and church compound in Lamitan town on Basilan
island province on June 2 despite a military cordon around the
area.