FORMER Gov. Nur Misuari of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) urged President Benigno Aquino 3rd to stop negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in connection with Manila’s bid to establish a new federal government for the Muslim population in southern Mindanao.
The MILF has no more personality because most of its leaders have defected to his group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Misuari recently told reporters and editors of The Manila Times during an exclusive roundtable.
In fact, he said, the MILF does not exist anymore and what is left is a ragtag group that the group calls Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters led by Umbra Kato and Commander Bravo, the very persons who led attacks on villages of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces in August 2008 over an aborted signing of a peace agreement with the Arroyo administration.
“The MILF is already disintegrated. A great portion of their military has rejoined us. Thousands and thousands of them defected to us.Practically all of them are now with us. I don’t know how many remained with the group of Kato and Bravo,” said the former ARMM governor, who taught political science at the University of Philippines for eight years.
The MILF broke away from the MNLF in 1980 and was formally organized in March 1984 under the leadership of Hashim Salamat, who died in 2003.
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