CPP: Branding MILF as terrorist justifies US troops in South

By ROMER S. SARMIENTO
TODAY Correspondent

KORONADAL CITY - The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Friday came into the rescue of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), strongly warning that a government-sponsored move to declare the secessionist group a terrorist organization will only exacerbate the hostilities in Mindanao.

In a statement posted on the CPP’s website, Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal claimed that the Arroyo administration “is fanning a new round of war in Muslim-dominated areas in Mindanao” with the government’s move to classify the secessionist rebels as terrorists.

“Pinning the terrorist tag on the MILF by the US and Philippine governments were tantamount to nothing else but the further exacerbation of the Bangsamoro war in Mindanao,” Rosal stressed.

Following the raid in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, on Sunday, which the MILF admitted as its tactical blunder, President Arroyo has ordered officials to study the classification of the secessionist group as a terrorist organization.

Rosal said that even before the President’s order, premeditated efforts, allegedly instigated by the United States, was already “cemented” to list the MILF as a terrorist group to justify the deployment of foreign troops in Mindanao.

“The US has long been wanting to categorically also declare the MILF as a terrorist organization in order to justify the further deployment of US troops in Mindanao,” Rosal said.

The CPP expressed support to the war footing being observed by the Moro rebels. “It is absolutely correct for the MILF to carry out guerrilla attacks against government forces in order to defend its gains and recover lost ground, resist the AFP campaign of suppression and carry forward the Moro people’s struggle for self-determination,” Rosal said.

He added that “categorizing the MILF as terrorist “would not affect one bit” the legitimacy of the Moro peoples’ “struggle for self-determination against oppression by US imperialism and its puppet Manila government.”

Including the MILF on the list of terrorist groups would place it in the same league as the CPP and the Abu Sayyaf, two of the local armed groups on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The MILF, though, was unfazed by its probable listing as terrorist organization. Mohaqher Iqbal, MILF chief information officer, said, “So be it. What is important is that the MILF is a legitimate revolutionary organization fighting for a just cause.”

He said the civilians slain in the Siocon rampage were caught in the crossfire and should not be made the yardstick to condemn the MILF and classify it as terrorist.

In defending the MILF, Rosal admitted that the CPP is in tactical alliance with the secessionist group, saying, “The coalition is an open secret long known to the public.”

The military said the Siocon raid was perpetrated by the MILF along with the Abu Sayyaf. This allegation, Rosal said, was a “desperate attempt to tarnish the integrity of both the CPP-NPA-NDF and the MILF,” referring to the communist-secessionist alliance.

This developed as Rosal lambasted US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes for suggesting the inclusion of the MILF on the US terrorist listing.

“Ricciardone has once again come out with another of his unabashed interventionist utterances and schemes, and the chief US puppet in the AFP [Reyes] is drooling for it,” said Rosal.

He said the US prodded the Arroyo administration to mount military offensives against the MILF, in violation of the Philippine government-MILF cease-fire agreement of 2001, in order to scuttle the peace talks.

MILF chairman Hashim Salamat has cried foul over the military operation in February at his bailiwick, Buliok complex in Pikit, North Cotabato, which was captured by the government days later. Owing to the military assault, Salamat ordered his men to conduct reprisal attacks against the government, which to this date remains in effect.

Sporadic fighting has been noted in parts of Mindanao for about three months now. Despite the skirmishes, the government and the MILF met in Malaysia on March 27 and 28 for a possible truce that would pave the way for the resumption of formal peace talks.

A second meeting was scheduled to begin on May 9, again brokered by Malaysia, but President Arroyo decided to postpone it following the Siocon raid.