DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 March) – Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari warned he will hang in public drug addicts and drug lords in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
“We will support the government policy to get rid of all drugs. We will hang all those who are violating this, hang them in public if they are caught doing the violation flagrantly,” he told his followers at the 50th anniversary celebration of the MNLF at the Davao Crocodile Park on Sunday.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Aaron Aquino said in a media interview on Feb. 19 that most of the barangays with non-functioning Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils are in the ARMM.
He said officials of barangays with inactive BADACs are most likely involved in drugs.
He said inactive BADACs make it difficult for authorities to conduct clearing operations thus worsening the drug problem in barangays.
The Philippine National Police reported that from July 1, 2016 to January 17, 2018 it carried out 81,919 anti-drug operations. These led to the arrest of 119,361 drug suspects and death of 3,987 others who were killed in alleged shootouts with law enforcers.
Misuari said he would destroy “foreign infiltrators” who try to create dissension among the Moro people.
“The foreign infiltrators to our homeland, to create dissension among us, to disunite us, we must guard against them even if they come from Indonesia, they come from Malaysia, they come from Saudi Arabia, from Morocco, from Iran and from all places in the world. We will have to destroy them, before they can destroy us,” he said.
“So we are now about to march on another path because there are some countries, who are trying to demonize us, who kidnap some innocent citizens and then bring to our homeland to create misimpression about our people,” he added.
He said the MNLF will participate in the joint undertaking of Indonesia and the Philippines in securing the territorial waters of both countries by deploying 10 big naval boats along their borders.
Half of the crews and officers will come from the Indonesian armed forces and the other half will come from the MNLF, he said.
Misuari was elected Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from September 30, 1996 until he was arrested off Sabah in late November 2000 and detained in the Philippines until April 2008.
Misuari was accused of leading yet another rebellion — the September 2013 Zamboanga Siege. Warrants of arrest were issued against him and 59 others for rebellion and violation of Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and other crimes against Humanity. He went into hiding but was granted temporary liberty late 2016, under the Duterte administration, to participate in the peace talks with government. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)