MILF: MILF not to meddle in 2013 polls

Posted to the MILF Website (Jan 2): MILF not to meddle in 2013 polls

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not meddle in the national and local elections in May this year. Muhammad Ameen, chairperson of the MILF Secretariat, told Luwaran that this policy of no participation in Philippine elections, which has been adopted since 1984 when the MILF was formally renamed as such, still holds water. “Philippine election is so divisive and expensive that after every election so much bloodshed and corrupt practices ensue,” he said, explaining that candidates spent so much money and after election if they win they have to get back their money with “interests” mostly through fraudulent ways. For the losers, except those made of better stuff, he described them to be those whose hearts are full of remorse and frustration and accused their rivals as “cheaters”.

He, however, have admitted: “We can find many good people even those who lose in elections.”
Asked about MILF’s leaders’ relatives running in these elections, he bluntly asserted: “Just the same we do not support them and urged them this early to quit or reconsider their running.” However, he clarified that the MILF will not stop their members from voting in these elections and to choose candidates who are not hostile to the GPH-MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamnoro.
He also appealed to politicians who were hostile to the GPH-MILF peace negotiations before especially to the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) to make amends by supporting the current negotiation which is about to wind up after the parties succeed to sign the four Annexes on power-sharing, wealth-sharing, normalization, and Modalities and Arrangement. “There is always second time for people who sincerely repent and make up,” he said.

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