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Monday, May 12, 2003
President rallies shell-shocked town against Moro rebels (1:41 pm)
SIOCON -- President Arroyo on Monday called on the residents of this strife-torn town to stand up to terrorism following a wave of deadly attacks that left nearly 100 people dead.
Arroyo warned the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest separatist guerrilla group, that time was running out on Manila's offer of a negotiated settlement to the 25-year rebellion.
She demanded that the rebels cut their alleged terror links.
"We bleed for the victims of terrorism but there is a time for rising up again and restoring what has been destroyed," Arroyo told a crowd of 4,000 in Siocon town, which was ravaged by a May 4 rebel attack that left 22 people dead.
"We will not allow terrorism to stay here," she added.
Arroyo is visiting Siocon and other towns and cities that fell victim to guerrilla attacks and bombings over the past two months.
After the Siocon raid, Arroyo suspended peace talks with the MILF and ordered the government to mount "punitive" actions against the MILF guerrillas and a diplomatic offensive to isolate the MILF and cut support from Islamic countries.
The 12,500-strong MILF has been waging a 25-year campaign for an Islamic state in Mindanao.
Arroyo's last scheduled stop Monday is the city of Koronadal, whose public market was rocked by a bomb attack on Saturday that claimed as many as 13 lives.
Sixty-three other people have been killed in the south since March in other MILF raids and suspected MILF bombings that hit two other cities and a town.
"The MILF can no longer hide behind a veil of legitimacy under the growing suspicion that it is involved in the entire web of terrorism, domestically and regionally," Arroyo said in a statement issued earlier Monday.
The MILF has acknowledged stepping up offensives but has denied they are targeting civilians or that they were behind the bombings.
Arroyo demanded that the MILF rebels cut off links with foreign or local "terror groups" such as the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim kidnap gang and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the al-Qaeda, two foreign Islamic extremist groups.
The MILF must make "a clear-cut statement on whether it is allied with the Abu Sayyaf and foreign terrorist groups such as the Jemaah Islamiyah or the Al-Qaeda or unequivocally reject them," she added.
Officials have accused the MILF of protecting the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnapping group that Manila and Washington have branded as terrorists.
There are also reports that the MILF has worked with JI and the al-Qaeda in staging urban bombings in the Philippines or training foreign militants in their camps in the south of the country.
The JI has been linked to a series of blasts in Southeast Asia including the Bali bombings last year, while al-Qaeda was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
The Siocon residents, holding placards hailing Arroyo as "our savior and our hero," cheered the president as light rain fell on the town square.
Arroyo praised the residents for not being cowed by the attacks and comforted a nine-year-old boy who lost both parents in the MILF raid.
A banner on the town hall declared: "We condemn terrorism. Justice for Siocon", as flags all flew at half-mast in memory of the dead.
Arroyo also visited the funeral wakes of a number of victims, including policemen. AFP
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