The Philippines' largest Muslim separatist
rebel group on Saturday called for the immediate resumption of peace talks with
the government as the military claimed that at least 100 guerrillas were killed
in three days of clashes, dpa reported.
Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said his
group has already asked Malaysia - which has been brokering the peace talks -
to convene the peace panels of the rebel group and the Philippine government.
"We have sent information to our facilitator two days ago but there is no
response to date," he told a press conference in a guerrilla camp outside
the southern city of Cotabato, 930 kilometres south of Manila.
Murad hinted that the MILF will intensify armed struggle if the hostilities in
the southern region of Mindanao were not immediately contained.
"We will continue our struggle in whatever form," he said.
Regional army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando said airstrikes and
ground assaults would continue against MILF rebels in seven towns in
Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.
The offensive was aimed at flushing out two senior commanders of the MILF who
led bloody attacks on several towns in the nearby provinces of North Cotabato, Sarangani, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, Ando said.
Ando said 24 soldiers were wounded since the offensive started on Wednesday.
The MILF rebels went on a deadly rampage in the southern region of Mindanao, burning homes, ransacking businesses and government buildings, and ambushing
military targets and private vehicles in the affected towns.
More than 100 people were killed in the attacks and ensuing clashes with the
military, while some 160,000 residents were displaced due to the hostilities.
The attacks followed the aborted signing of a territorial agreement between the
MILF and the Philippine government, which would have expanded an existing
autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao, the country's main southern island.
The Philippine government scrapped the deal amid strong opposition by Catholic
politicians, who challenged the agreement's constitutionality in the Supreme
Court.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo stressed that her government remains
committed to negotiating peace with the MILF, but said the rebel group must
take responsibility for the deadly attacks and surrender the commanders that
led them.
But Murad said he will not surrender the MILF commanders involved in the deadly
attacks.
"We cannot subject our members to the laws of the government," he
said. "We are a revolutionary force."