Renegade chief ousted; lawmakers nix sub-state

THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Wednesday the expulsion of renegade commander Ameril Umbra Kato meant he no longer was covered by a truce shielding the group’s fighters from military assault.

“His decision not to return to the fold is probably his biggest blunder,” said Ghazali Jaafar, vice chairman of the rebel group.

He said the group’s central committee was expected to issue a resolution ousting Kato, who is leading a breakaway faction that he calls the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Jaafar described Kato’s group, composed of about 350 fighters, as “insignificant” and “without influence.” The MILF would stop giving safe haven to him and his fighters.

But the Palace on Wednesday said it was concerned that Kato’s group would continue operating in Mindanao even after the government signed a peace agreement with the MILF.

“That is a possibility. That would have to be discussed during the August 22 meeting in Kuala Lumpur,” said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, referring to the peace talks being brokered by Malaysia.

Rebel spokesman Von Al Haq said Kato angered rebel leaders when he stoked a deadly land feud between two commanders in Mindanao.

In August 2008, Kato led a wave of attacks on predominantly Catholic villages in central Mindanao after the Supreme Court rejected a deal that would have created an ancestral homeland for Muslims.

A more recent MILF proposal for a sub-state in Mindanao would create a similar homeland, but the lawmakers from the region are opposing the move.

The lawmakers met Tuesday with presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles and the government’s lead negotiator, Marvic Leonen, to learn more about President Benigno Aquino III’s secret Tokyo meeting with MILF chairman Al Haj Murad, and then complained that they got “nothing substantial” from the two.

“Deles and Leonen refused to disclose what was discussed in Tokyo, and they also refused to disclose the peace talks agenda in Malaysia on August 22. So what was the use of meeting them?” said Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones of Kidapawan, North Cotabato.

“We were disappointed because they preferred to disclose the peace agenda in Malaysia than with us, the affected residents of Mindanao,” Lanao del Norte Rep. Fatima Aliah Dimaporo said. –Joyce Pangco Pañares and Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today