Palace on Misuari letter to UN: No need for peacekeepers in Mindanao

A Malacañang spokesman on Thursday dismissed the claims made by former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader Nur Misuari in a letter to the United Nations (UN), and said there is no need to send peacekeepers to Mindanao.

 

During a press conference earlier in the day, Misuari said he wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to request for the deployment of peacekeepers in Mindanao.

 

Misuari had said the deployment of too many Filipino soldiers to Mindanao may be an indication of impending war in the island, where there are pockets of violence in rural areas that have a communist and Muslim rebel presence.

 

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, however, dismissed Misuari's claims.

 

"Anong giyera? We are having a war against poverty I can gurrantee that. The war against poverty doens't need peacekeepers," Lacierda told reporters at a press briefing.

President Aquino's administration is in the final stages of negotiations for a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is expected to result in a Bangsamoro Political Entity that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The MILF is a splinter group of the MNLF, which entered into a peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ/YA, GMA News