Gov’t won’t interfere in the delisting of MILF members from the arrest warrant over the July 10 incident

By Ronron
August 23, 2007

The government will not interfere in a decision of the local court in Basilan whether or not it will delist members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) from the arrest warrant issued over the July 10 incident in Al-Barka town between military forces and Moslem rebels.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. told reporters Thursday in Zamboanga City that it will be up to the court, or the subject of the arrest warrant for MILF members to be removed from the charge sheet.

The MILF has sought for the removal of 74 of its members from the list of suspects with arrest warrant over the July 10 incident, where 14 Marine soldiers were killed and nine were wounded. Ten of the 14 slain Marines were mutilated, prompting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to file a case of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder against at least 127 suspects, mostly from the MILF and the rest from the Abu Sayyaf Group.

“In so far as the warrant of arrest is concerned, there are legal processes for that. The government cannot unilaterally interfere with the processes of the court of law… The President cannot dictate on the court as to what to do,” Teodoro said.

He said “those probably who may be affected by a warrant of arrest” have legal remedies that they can avail of.

The government is currently holding peace talks with the MILF, which has been seeking autonomy for how many decades now.

The exploratory talk was supposed to resume last Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur but the government sought at the last minute for a resetting as it reportedly needs more time for refinement of its negotiation position, particularly on the issue of territory.

The peace talks bogged down in August last year after the two parties failed to agree on the number of villages to be included in the MILF’s Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. The MILF is proposing over a thousand villages, but the government is only amenable to some 600 of those.

The peace negotiations was in peril when the July 10 incident happened because the MILF owned up the attack against the Marine forces, 10 of whom were found to have been beheaded later by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits.

The MILF said it attacked the government forces because it entered its territory without making prior coordination as provided for by the ceasefire agreement of both parties./DMS