RP suspends peace efforts with rebels
RP suspends peace efforts with rebels
MANILA (AFP): Philippine President Joseph Estrada said Saturday the government would suspend peace efforts with Muslim rebels after police accused them of carrying out deadly bomb attacks in Manila a week ago.
"For now, we'll suspend that. Anyway, it was not (fully) started yet so there'll be ongoing operations against the MILF (the Moro Islamic Liberation Front)," Estrada said, referring to moves to reopen peace talks with the separatist group.
His statement came after police said they had proof linking MILF leaders to five bomb blasts that rocked Manila on December 30, killing 22 people and injuring almost 100 others.
His announcement also followed police and radio stations reports that two new unexploded bombs had been found in cities outside of Manila.
"We cannot tolerate this. What they have done is a major blow not only in the lives of people but also in the livelihood of people, in terms of foreign investment, tourists and our economy," Estrada told reporters.
Speaking on a government television show earlier, national police chief Panfilo Lacson said the plan was to "neutralize the leadership" of the MILF.
He added that he would ask the cabinet to lift a suspension of arrest warrants against the MILF leadership when top security officials met with Estrada later Saturday.
Talks with the 13,000-strong MILF collapsed last year after the military overran most of the guerrillas' major camps and the government served arrest warrants on its leaders for allegedly planning a spate of bomb attacks in shopping malls in which one person was killed.
The MILF is the larger of two Muslim guerrilla groups fighting to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the largely Roman Catholic archipelago.
However Manila has recently been making peace overtures to the group again, even suspending the arrest warrants.
But on Friday, police sought the filing of criminal charges against MILF chairman Hashim Salamat, vice chairmen Mohammad Murad and Ghadzali Jaafar and four other alleged MILF members for the December 30 bombings.
Lacson said police had evidence against the MILF leadership, including a document captured by the military from a MILF camp in May detailing plans for more bomb attacks in Manila.
He said a car used in the bomb that went off near the Manila international airport on December 30 had been traced to MILF members.
Lacson also said police had reports that the MILF was planning to move from Manila to stage bomb attacks in the central city of Cebu and the southern city of Davao.
On Saturday, a bomb containing dynamite and a timer was found under a bridge near San Simon town in Pampanga province, north of the Philippine capital, according to local radio station DZBB.
The device was spotted by a motorist under a highway bridge, the station quoted highway personnel as saying. Explosives experts are still trying to defuse the bomb, the report added.
Police separately confirmed that a bomb, made of ammonium nitrate, a clock and bags of nails, was found and defused in a shopping mall in Davao on Friday.
It was not immediately clear if these new bombings were related to the Manila blasts.
In the southern Philippines, where the 13,000-strong MILF is based, Shariff Julabbi, a regional chairman of the group, denied it was behind the attacks.