MNLF airs support for Arroyo administration

COTABATO CITY — The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) assured the administration of President Arroyo of its full support yesterday, saying that its former combatants now integrated into the Armed Forces as part of the 1996 peace accord, remain loyal to the Constitution.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, the MNLF’s secretary general, said senior MNLF members now holding key positions in different Army units in Mindanao assured the MNLF central committee yesterday that they would remain loyal to the President and the Armed Forces’ chain of command.

"They assured the MNLF leadership that they are for peace, that they detest the use of violence as a means of seeking redress," Sema said.

He added: "If there is one sector that has experienced the bitterness of pursuing an armed struggle to further a cause, it is the MNLF. The MNLF has learned, from its 30-year revolt, that no sensible objective can ever be achieved through the muzzle of the gun. All conflicts can be resolved only through peaceful negotiations."

In a statement, the Maguindanao peace and order council, chaired by Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, said the provincial government and all the 26 municipal mayors also support the Arroyo administration.

Datu Antao Midtimbang, mayor of the newly created Pindulungan town and a member of the 23,000-member Tableegh, a congregation of Muslim preachers in Mindanao, said they were confident that the mutiny by a band of young military officers would be peacefully resolved.

"As far as we (religious leaders) are concerned, we are for peace. We support the administration of President Arroyo," said Midtimbang, a scion of an influential Muslim clan in Maguindanao.