Ex-rebels welcome new Philippine leader’s war on drugs

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) – The Philippines’ one-time largest Muslim rebel group has welcomed newly inaugurated President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said in an editorial posted on its official website Friday that the group -- which is engaged in an ongoing peace process with the government in southern Mindanao island -- "finds comfort” in the election of Duterte and his “hard-line policy on drugs”.

“In fact, a possible understanding or arrangement can be worked out,” it said, highlighting that both sides could cooperate in the war of illegal drugs through existing mechanisms of the peace process.

Duterte, who took oath June 30, has vowed to pursue a campaign against drugs, criminality and corruption and even offered a bounty for the capture of drug suspects.

Since he won the May 9 election, thousands of drug pushers and users have surrendered to police to sign a pledge to stop trading and using illegal drugs, while the national police has said that dozens of drug suspects were killed in operations countrywide from June 16 to 20 alone.

Earlier this week, Duterte identified five Philippine police generals -- two of them retired -- allegedly involved in the illegal trade in drugs.

In Friday’s editorial, the MILF said they had launched a war on drugs -- especially methamphetamine or “shabu” -- a year ago, under which hundreds to thousands of drug pushers had been identified, especially in Central Mindanao.

The group acknowledged that its campaign -- whose slogan is “Shabu is haram [forbidden] and the roots of all evils” -- had many limitations, including the government’s insistence that the legal responsibility to stop drug-related violations belongs to the government.

“The MILF had told the government that while it is not a state but the drug menace is already destroying the future of the Bangsamoro people and hence should be confronted head on,” it underlined.

“It assured government that its campaign against drugs would not breach any of the provisions of the ceasefire agreement.”

In 2014, the MILF and the government signed a peace deal that would have been sealed by a proposed law that would have replaced the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more inclusive Bangsamoro autonomous region.

The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), however, stalled in Congress earlier this year, as it adjourned for campaigning for the May 9 polls.

The MILF underlined the success both sides had had in combatting kidnap-for-ransom gangs in the troubled region under their existing peace process mechanisms.

It insisted that “compliance to the ceasefire agreement by both parties is almost perfect” -- with the exception of a botched 2015 raid that left 44 police commandos dead and led to some lawmakers withdrawing support for the BBL.

The MILF expressed that it also shares Duterte’s concerns about narco-politics, underlining that its own campaign was limited due to “some of those engaged in drug trafficking… in one way or the other holding government positions”.

Without disclosing further details, it added, “in fact, several of them won during the recent elections using drug monies to buy votes.”