MILF names new spokesman

COTABATO CITY ,Philippines  – The central committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has designated the former chairman of its ceasefire committee as MILF spokesman, replacing Eid Kabalu, who was dropped from the MILF's roster of members due to alleged bad behavior.

The new MILF spokesman, Von Al-Haq, had served as chairman of the rebel group’s coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities from 2004 to 2009.

Al-Haq was first designated as acting MILF spokesman when Kabalu was suspended for six months after having been proven to have forged secret alliances with certain candidates for national and local positions during the May 10, 2010 elections.

Al-Haq is related both by blood and by affinity to certain immediate relatives of the founder of MILF, the late Egyptian-trained Islamic theologian Ustadz Salamat Hashim.

Kabalu was booted out of the MILF’s leadership circle after his secret meeting with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former North Cotabato governor Emmanuel Piñol at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City to ask for their help in working out his appointment by President Aquino as officer-in-charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The law resetting the ARMM elections scheduled on Aug. 8, 2011 authorizes the President to designate caretakers for the regional government until the new set of officials are elected in 2013.

Kabalu was said to have received campaign funds from the politicians he befriended which caught the ire of its central committee, which has a strong policy against partisanship among the MILF’s rank and file.

Sammy Al-Mansur, the chief-of-staff of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces signed Al-Haq’s appointment over the weekend, adding that Al-Mansur’s designation was with “full imprimatur” from their central committee.