How MNLF-ASG relations shifted from co-existence to state of war

From the Manila Times (Feb 10): How MNLF-ASG relations shifted from co-existence to state of war

The Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf Group in the past co-existed with one another in the hinterlands of Sulu.

Although there was never any tactical alliance between the two groups. But because both professed the Islamic faith, they did not confront each other.

This co-existence went to the extent that ASG forces could pass through the area of responsibility of the MNLF unharmed.

The situation abruptly changed when the Abu Sayyaf resorted to kidnapping for ransom. Their victims were both foreign nationals and Filipinos.

Since then, the MNLF leadership decided not just to distance their Front and their members from the Abu Sayyaf but also to condemn the ASG for their “non-stop kidnapping of innocent people.

What the MNLF leadership found most reprehensible is that the Tausug ASGs even kidnapped their fellow Tausugs in Sulu. As long as they thought victims’ families could raise ransom money the ASG perpetrated kidnapping.

In effect, the ASG members have used kidnapping as an income generating tool to raise funds for their group.

In one phone interview with the Times in the past, one ASG commander who identified himself as Abu Ali even admitted that though kidnapping is condemned by everyone they had to resort to it purposely to raise funds to purchase more highpowered weapons to add to their arsenal and to finance their operations as well.

Some have said that the ASG founder was a former MNLF member.

Ustadz Murshi made it clear to The Times clarified that the late Abu Sayyaf founder Ustadz Abdurajak Janjalani was not a full-pledged member of the MNLF, but he was a supporter of the MNLF-led “Jihad Fi Sabilillah” (Fighting in the Way of Allah) during the years before the MNLF and the Philippine government forged the 1996 Peace Agreement, among whose result is the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with the blessing of the Organization of the Islamic Conference now known by the name Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The currently acknowledged Abbu Sayyaf Chieftain is Raddulan Sahiron of Patikul.

He was “a sagacious and intrepid commander of the MNLF until the early 1990’s,” said Ustadz Ibrahim Murshi.

But, said Ustadz Murshi, Sahiron detached himself from the MNLF because he believed that the Philippine Government was not sincere in its relation with the MNLF.

Sahiron belived, said Ustada Murshi, that the Philippine government was not sincere in its pledge to honor its international binding obligation to implement the 1976 Tripoli Agreement that was signed in Libya under the sponsorship of the late Libyan strongman, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.

This resentment of Sahiron was exacerbated by the non-full implementation of the t996 Final Peace Agreement, Ustadz Murshi added.

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/special-report/41197-how-mnlf-asg-relations-shifted-from-co-existence-to-state-of-war