MILF denies Murad's death

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spokesman Eid Kabalu yesterday shrugged off text messages that circulated last weekend that their chairman, Al Haj Murad, died of cardiac arrest in an undisclosed location.

“There is no truth to those rumors that have been circulating that the chairman is in poor health and everything else. The chairman is very much alive and kicking. He is well and in the best of health, he is not sick and he has not died,” Kabalu told The STAR. 

Kabalu said the rumors on Murad’s health were probably the handiwork of certain sectors that wanted to disrupt the peace process and would not want the MILF to go back to the negotiating table next month. 

The formal peace talks are slated to resume next month as it was agreed upon by the government and MILF panels in a recent exploratory meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Murad was also reported late last year to be recuperating from an illness in a hospital in East Malaysia, but the MILF leadership dismissed this.

The MILF yesterday kicked off a 10-day consultation meeting with various Moro sectors to look into the gains of the peace process. 

Kabalu said the consultations, being held in Darapan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, is spearheaded by their peace panel and will be attended by their political and military leaders. 

However, the consultations, anchored on the theme “Building on the gains of the peace process,” will be off-limits to the media as it is considered an internal matter of the MILF.