Marawi bishop: MILF attacks a wake-up call

MANILA, Philippines - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)'s attacks on some provinces in Mindanao on Monday should be a wake-up call for government and the public, a Catholic bishop said Tuesday. Marawi Bishop Edwin Dela Peña said the bloody incident is a product of the stalled peace negotiations and could go worse if the proper measures are not immediately taken. "I think this is also a wake up call to everyone that this is one problem that we really have to deal with," dela Peña said in a statement on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website. He said it also shows the urgency of the armed conflict to be addressed soonest. Dela Peña said armed conflicts have always been an imminent threat to many communities in Mindanao and "we should always aspire to move forward." "Maybe in a roundtable discussion it will be good if this will be resolved instead of letting the guns do the talking, so to speak," he said. On Sunday, four soldiers and four militiamen died while 10 others were injured after the MILF ambushed a military convoy in Mulondo, Lanao del Sur. He noted the attacks came after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between government and the MILF. Dela Peña said this could be the way of the MILF to state their desire the need to have the memorandum of agreement signed. "It's like the MILF is dramatizing their sentiment ... that they could use other means if they can't get their demands through the negotiation," he said. Dela Peña also called on the MILF to stop "sending their message through guns," saying it will only aggravate the problem. "They have already made their point. They have made their statement (heard). If this is their way to show their point, that's enough. I hope they would be willing to go back to the negotiating table and go forward, which is the only way we should go," he added. Meanwhile, the prelate urged the government panel to consider solutions that are "out of the box." "Maybe we should come up with some compromise because the old framework does not work anymore. We should explore and be open to face the changes that might work," he said. - GMANews.TV