Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he is open to the possibility of admitting former rebels into the military if this would help in stamping out the threat of extremism and help end the insurgency.
“I will hire you as soldiers — same pay, same privileges [as regular enlisted men]. I will build houses for you,” Duterte offered former rebels of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in a speech he delivered on Saturday during a visit to wounded soldiers in Sulu, which was made available only on Monday.
Duterte also revealed that he was also talking with Nur Misuari, the chairman emeritus of the MNLF and that he had received a letter from him suggesting the recruitment of more Moros into the armed forces.
The president said Misuari had also proposed that Moro soldiers be posted in key Philippine Army units in Mindanao, particularly the 1st Infantry and 4th Infantry Divisions.
Duterte said Muslim soldiers had been fighting on the side of the government as individuals for decades. Under the terms of the peace accord signed by the government of then President Fidel Ramos in 1996 with the MNLF, a number of former fighters of the latter group will be taken in as members of the military as well as the national police.
The president said in the case of the ongoing fighting in Marawi City, Moro soldiers would be a big help in confronting the terror threat posed by the Maute.
“These former rebels know the terrain very well,” Duterte said.
Currently, the government is drawing on the ranks of military reservists based in Iligan City and Marawi City to aid in the effort against the Maute, a group of extremists operating in Lanao.
Duterte said the fight against the Maute as well as the Abu Sayyaf are being financed by the drug trade and other illegal activities such as kidnap for ransom.
“We cannot allow our country to be destroyed by these evils. We have to fight because this is the only country we have,” he said.
“The root cause of the present crisis is illegal drugs,” he said, noting Marawi is the hotbed of methamphetamine crystal manufacturing and trade in Mindanao.
The Abu Sayyaf on the other hand, had evolved from disgruntled former followers of Misuari.
Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brig. Restituto Padilla said the government had considerable success in integrating former rebels into the fold of the military.
Padilla said former fighters of the MNLF as well as the northern Philippines-based Cordillera Peoples’ Liberation Army, had successfully been integrated into the mainstream military before and are continuing to take an important role in the peace process.
“If such a mechanism is employed for the benefit of the MILF once we are done with our talks, then so be it because these are all welcome developments that we have been doing with the two previous talks that we have had with the MNLF and the CPLA,” Padilla said.
