RP defense chief vows to crush rebels' offensive
RP defense chief vows to crush rebels' offensive
MANILA (Reuter): Moro rebels plan to launch attacks against civilian and military targets in the southern Philippines but the armed forces are ready to crush any offensive, the Philippine defense chief said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Renato de Villa defended a massive army build-up in the south, saying the government could not stand by and wait for a rebel attack to take place.
"If you are responsible for the protection of your citizenry, would you wait for them to be subjected to attack before you do your thing?" he told Reuters in an interview.
De Villa, a former armed forces chief, said the main threat came from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"They have taken advantage of our informal cease-fire...to build up their trained armed force, to build up their armaments, to recruit and to spread their armed elements outside of their traditional hiding places," he said.
The MILF's military preparations have reached a dangerous level, de Villa said, but added: "If they pursue it to the point of war then we will crush them."
Moslem community leaders say the armed forces' build-up is increasing the risk of renewed fighting. The military strength on the main southern island of Mindanao and neighboring islands is now 60,000 to 70,000 men -- more than half the armed forces' total strength.
MILF leaders have warned that a new war is inevitable unless peace talks between the government and another rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), produce agreement on an autonomous region covering 13 provinces.
The government says that constitutionally the proposal must be put to a plebiscite. Christians are in a clear majority in the area and there is no chance the autonomy plan will be accepted.
A third round of talks ended last month with agreement on a broad range of issues linked to an autonomy plan. There was no agreement, however, on the issue of whether to hold a plebiscite.
"The government has to preserve the integrity of the state. The government has to protect its peaceful citizenry. The government has to protect itself. And we will never allow any part of the Philippine territory to be removed from it either by negotiation or by force," de Villa said.
MILF leaders say Moslems have become a minority in their ancestral lands because of Christian migration and discriminatory government policies.
They say they have no choice but to fight for their community's survival.
De Villa said everybody would lose if hostilities resumed. The only hope was a negotiated settlement which would allow both Christians and Moslems to take part in the country's current economic revival.
"Any group that would launch any attack against the armed forces would have no chance of achieving victory," he said.
"They would only achieve destruction, death, violence and the loss of the opportunity for all communities to move forward with the rest of the country."
Moslems say 200,000 people died at the height of the last major round of fighting in the south in the 1970s while the government puts the death toll at 50,000.