All-out war against MILF soon — Dureza brother
By Mic Mic O. Villaflor, Staff Writer

THE YOUNGER brother of Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza said the latter’s resignation as chief negotiator of the government panel in its peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was a signal that the Palace will soon declare a full-scale war against the MILF. With this, Davao City councilor Jimmy Dureza said he is planning through the City Council to ask Malacañang to exempt Mindanaoans from the gun ban.

“We cannot all the time rely on the military and the police to protect us, and a civil war is in the offing,” the younger Dureza said. “We might as well allow civilians to carry firearms provided they undergo the proper process.”

Aside from asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to exempt Mindanaoans from the gun ban, the younger Dureza also said the government peace panel which his elder brother used to head should be disbanded as it is already useless with the ultimatum given by the President.

Mrs. Arroyo issued Monday an ultimatum against the MILF to stop its attacks against military and civilian targets, otherwise the government will consider these Moro rebels as terrorists.

The younger Dureza, chair of the council’s Committee on Peace and Public Safety, also said his brother’s resignation manifests that the government will soon declare war against MILF guerrillas and will soon consider them as terrorists if they continue harassing civilians.

The elder Dureza resigned late last week as the government’s chief peace negotiator after the MILF admitted the attack in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte which killed more than 20 people.

“I’m sad,” Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said of the elder Dureza’s resignation. “He was doing good in his job but I guess his best wasn’t good enough.”

Reports earlier said the elder Dureza resigned not because he will concentrate in rehabilitating Mindanao under a government program but because the MILF refused to heed what was discussed in the exploratory talks in Malaysia.

Duterte also said the elder Dureza will not appear as an effective negotiator if the MILF continues harassing civilians and creating havoc in Mindanao.

He accused the MILF as the principal suspect not only in the attack in Zamboanga del Norte and the weekend bombing in South Cotabato but also in the two bombings in Davao City based on the report given by the police and military.

Charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder have been filed against MILF leaders and at least 100 of its members.

Asked if the position of chief government negotiator will be offered to him by the President after being appointed as crisis manager in Regions 11 and 12, Duterte said: “No way.”

If it had been offered to him when the communication lines between him and MILF chair Salamat Hashim were still open, then “maybe ... I will, but now no more,” Duterte said.

Instead, he said, everyone should be ready and vigilant as a “civil war” is really unavoidable.

But he said he is against the proposal to arm civilians except the members of the Citizens’ Armed Forces Geographical Unit, because arming non-Cafgu civilians might worsen the “civil war.”