Ramos challenges communist leader

Ramos challenges communist leader

MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos yesterday called on the head of the Philippine communist insurgent movement to take the same steps towards peace as that of a Moro rebel leader.

Ramos, in a speech in the former communist guerrilla stronghold of Samar island, copies of which were released in Manila, said: "I sincerely hope that Chairman Jose Maria Sison ... will finally do what Chairman Nur Misuari has done for the MNLF."

Misuari, head of the MNLF, the Moslem insurgent Moro National Liberation Front, has accepted a provisional peace agreement with the government and has agreed to run as a ruling coalition candidate in September elections for a Moslem autonomous region in the south.

Ramos said yesterday he has "no reason to doubt" that Misuari will win as governor of the four-province Autonomous Region of Moslem Mindanao (ARMM) in the Sept. 9 balloting.

The Ramos administration has thrown its full support behind Misuari's candidacy as part of a package deal to convince the MNLF to abandon their 24-year armed struggle in which over 50,000 people were killed.

Support for Misuari includes bankrolling his election campaign and convincing potential opponents from powerful Moslem clans to back out, Ramos' aides have said.

Sison, who heads the communist insurgent group National Democratic Front (NDF) which is also holding peace talks with the government, has condemned Misuari for allegedly selling out to the government.

Ramos said the peace talks with the communists "are not yet to be considered as successful as the one with the MNLF but hopefully, they can take advantage of the opportunity to take part in our political life by way of the elections, the constitution and legal systems."

The negotiations began last month in the Netherlands, where Sison and other communist leaders live in exile, and are due to resume later this month.

The president noted that other former communist guerrillas had successfully run for minor political positions after surrendering to government.

He also cited military coup plotters who also forged a peace agreement with Manila last year and have since run in elections with one of their leaders, Gregorio Honasan, being elected to the senate.