COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 24, 2011) – A long time spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was sacked after he held secret talks with politicians opposed to the Muslim rebel group to seek support for his ambition to become the officer-in-charge of the five-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Eid Kabalu held talks with former North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol, a staunch critic of the MILF; and Rodrigo Duterte, the vice mayor of Davao City, to help him convince President Benigno Aquino III to appoint him as acting ARMM governor.
The secluded leader of the MILF, Murad Ebrahim, has called for a special session of the group’s central committee and issued an order terminating Kabalu as his spokesman and chairman of the civil-military department.
“You are hereby terminated as Chairman of the Civil-Military Department, GS, BIAF, MILF and as military spokesman of the BIAF. This is in pursuance to the decision of the GS, BIAF and duly approved by the MILF Central Committee. You are liable for conduct unbecoming of an MILF officer and per your confession during a preliminary investigation by the GS, you had admitted having met with Filipino politicians in Davao City and Manila in pursuance to your unilateral decision and ambition to be appointed as ARMM OIC Regional Governor."
"You know pretty well that ARMM is not the solution to the Bangsamoro Question. The MILF only accepts a negotiated settlement of this problem,” reads the MILF resolution signed by Ebrahim on Tuesday.
BIAF refers to the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military wing of the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting for decades for self-determination.
Kabalu said he resigned all his positions in the MILF and is willing to serve as acting governor of the ARMM if President Benigno Aquino appoints him as officer-in-charge.
“I am willing to serve as OIC governor should the President chooses me and carry out all his reform programs in the ARMM to benefit the Bangsamoro people and the government as a whole,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Kabalu said many groups, including an influential Catholic priest and peace advocate Father Eliseo Mercado, has nominated him to be the OIC in the ARMM.
“My name is included in the probable contender for the ARMM OIC and I personally tendered my resignation as spokesman and civil-military chief of the MILF because I do not want to drag the name of the MILF into this and because of my concern and love to the organization,” he said.
President Aquino said he would appoint an officers-in-charge to run the affairs of the ARMM after the Senate postponed this year’s elections and synchronize it in the 2013 mid-term polls. (Mindanao Examiner)
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