Due to MNLF leader’s old age, Duterte doesn’t want Misuari detained

President Rodrigo Duterte said he doesn't want Moro National Liberation Front leader Nur Misuari to be detained even with pending warrants for his arrest.

"With his fragile age, I don't want him detained... It's better that he stays there," Duterte said.

Duterte said it would be a big problem for the country if Misuari died while under government custody.

"Malaking problema yan, you lose the chance to have peace talks with anybody there," Duterte said.

Misuari is the subject of a warrant of arrest issued in 2013 over the 20-day Zamboanga City siege, which led to the deaths of over 200 people and the displacement of thousands of others.

The issuance of arrest warrants came after the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed rebellion charges and violation of the International Humanitarian Law against Misuari, MNLF commander Habier Malik and 60 others.

Duterte's peace adviser Jesus Dureza has said that Misuari would play an important role in the administration’s peace roadmap.

“He will play a vey important role because we cannot put close the agreement if he is left out,” Dureza said.

Dureza in July said the Duterte administration was trying to bring Misuari out of his hiding place to participate in the peace roadmap.

“The effort is to bring him out of Indanan [in Sulu],” Dureza said during a news forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

But he clarified that they will follow the legal process in doing so.

“The warrant is out and he is considered a fugitive. Any effort to get him out have to go through the legal process, we cannot short cut. Whatever it will be, we will have to comply with the legal process,” he said.

Dureza said Misuari’s lawyers can have his case reviewed.

“It is for his lawyers to initiate reinvestigation of his case. If given due course, then you move for the lifting of the warrant of arrest.  There are other ways to do it,  we are not sure how we are going to do it now,” he said. —NB, GMA News