MILF ousts spokesman seeking ARMM governor OIC post

CAMP DARAPANAN, Maguindanao, Philippines  – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has officially delisted its spokesman, Eid Kabalu, from its roster of members for aspiring to be appointed by President Aquino as caretaker of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

President Aquino, by legal implication of Congress’ having reset the region’s Aug. 8 elections to 2013, is to appoint officers-in-charge (OICs) for governor, vice governor and 24 regional assemblymen when the term of office of incumbent officials ends on Sept. 30.

The MILF central leadership found out that Kabalu, acting on his own, clandestinely met last week with Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former North Cotabato vice governor Emmanuel Piñol, both allies of the President, and sought their intercession for his possible appointment as OIC governor of the autonomous region.

But Kabalu was quick to issue a statement saying that he voluntarily resigned from the MILF after having committed something in violation of the front’s revolutionary policies.

Last year, the MILF central committee suspended Kabalu for six months for having forged “secret alliances” with certain senatorial candidates and for openly pledging support to the candidacy of defeated presidential candidate Manuel Villar in last year’s elections.

Kabalu was alleged to have received “hefty campaign funds” from the candidates he supported.

Members of the MILF central committee said there was no official permission for Kabalu to meet with Duterte and Piñol and asked for their help in working out his appointment as OIC governor.

Members of the MILF central committee, in a special meeting presided over by MILF chief Al-Haj Murad the other day, agreed, in a written resolution, to terminate Kabalu as the front’s spokesman and concurrent chairman of their civil-military relations group.

Kabalu, according to the resolution, has been stripped of his positions in the MILF for “conduct unbecoming” of a Moro revolutionary by aspiring to become a caretaker of the ARMM, which the MILF until now does not recognize and even want replaced with a mechanism patterned after its concept of an Islamic government.

Murad said the MILF, which has ongoing peace talks with the Aquino administration, does not recognize the ARMM as the solution to the quest of Moro communities in the south for self-governance.

The MILF earlier issued a statement denying that it had endorsed certain personalities, among them Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman, as its chosen candidates for governor OIC of the ARMM. – With Alexis Romero