The tough talking President Rodrigo Duterte wants to end the years of uprising against the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) for the president knew, that leader of MNLF Nur Misuari would be a great help.
The president journeyed to Jolo, Sulu to personally meet and convince Misuari.
Duterte said,“My job when I became President was really to seek peace, not war,”as the president talks to soldiers and Moro rebels in Sulu and ask them to give his government the chance.
Misuari disappeared after the military operation in Zamboanga City that killed 200 people and thousands of injured. The said attack was done by his MNLF supporters to wreck the government’s peace deal with the MILF.
The siege lasted for a couple of days and destroyed more than 10,000 homes in the city.
“I’ve been telling him if we can just talk about peace, let’s find ways,” the President said of Misuari,
Misuari also led the 1996 signing of a peace deal to the government. He became governor of the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, which is still in the line of poverty despite some millions of pesos placed to it.
However, Duterte assured Misuari the his government is ready enough and asked his Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and the other members to somehow talk to Misuari.
Duterte wanted a unified talks with all Moro groups saying, “The other half with Nur and the other half with the MILF even as he appealed to Misuari to keep the peace while talks were going on."
He also said the government was ready to thwart any assault,“It’s better that you die than them," he said.
On Thursday night on Davao, Duterte said that he do not want Misuari to be detained and if anything will happen to to him you can never talk again with them, with the Tausug.
“Now, Misuari is getting old. I’m not saying, not saying, that he’s sick. But with the fragile condition of his age, he does not need to be pursued and I do not want him detained,” he stated. "If something happens to Misuari while we’re detaining him, that would be a big problem, as in big,” he stressed. “So you lose the chance, even if it’s a small one, to have peace talks with anybody there. That is dangerous.”
Duterte stressed,“I hope this is now the time for peace so that our troops can also go home. They will enjoy the peace of the land and go back to their families."
“I am appealing to you to stop this war, I am pleading. I will talk to you,” the president said.
source: Inquirer