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Philippine president asks MILF, MNLF to end ties with Abu Sayyaf

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that the Muslim rebel groups should sever their connection with the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group for the peace process to succeed.

Duterte said that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were supplying weapons to the Abu Sayyaf rebels.

"I want to hear from MI(LF) and MN(LF) that they have no connection anymore with the Abu Sayyaf because the arms of the Abu Sayyaf belong to them," he said in a speech in northern province of Nueva Ecija in front of the government troops.

Duterte said there would be "no significant result" in the talks if the MILF and the MNLF would not cut their ties with the Abu Sayyaf whom he ordered to be crushed by the military during his first State of the Nation Address on Monday.

He even promised to provide a safe conduct pass to former MNLF leader Nur Misuari, who has been in hiding for instigating rogue MNLF members to take arms in southern city of Zamboanga three years ago, so that he can participate in the talks.

While the Philippines has signed separate peace agreements with the MNLF and the MILF, they continue to press the government for the implementation of the deals. Endit