Duterte urge Moro fronts to deny ISIS-inspired groups sanctuary

MAGUINDANAO -- President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday urged Mindanao’s two Moro fronts to deny sanctuary to emerging groups rising in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.Duterte said he will not hesitate to flex the strength of the Armed Forces in neutralizing terrorists holding out in any camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).Duterte made his appeal to the MILF and the MNLF before hundreds of enlisted personnel and officers of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division during his visit to Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao on Friday.Duterte came to give special citations to 12 soldiers wounded in an encounter Thursday with followers of the wanted mayor of Ampatuan town, Rasul Sangki, who is included in Malacañang’s list of narco-politicians.Four followers of Sangki were killed while three others were wounded in the encounters in Barangays Saniag and Masalay in Ampatuan town on Thursday.The skirmishes dislocated more than a hundred peasant Moro and Teduray families in the two barangays.The firefight erupted when followers of Sangki opened fire at combined police and Army teams that tried to surround the mayor’s hideout to serve him a warrant for his arrest.Duterte said the spread of fanatical ISIS-style groups in the south is now a serious problem the government is trying to address squarely. I am earnestly asking the MN and the MI don’t provide sanctuary to these terrorists. If you do, we will run after them in your camps, he said, apparently referring to the MNLF and the MILF.The MNLF forged a final peace accord with Malacañang on Sept. 2, 1996. The agreement binds both sides to jointly address peace and security issues in Moro-dominated areas.The MILF had two compacts with the national government, the October 15, 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro. I’m pleading, do not allow the Maute group to enter and seek refuge in your camps, Duterte asked both groups.The Maute group, led by siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute of Butig town in Lanao del Sur, boasts of allegiance to the ISIS.The group, also known as the Dawlah Islamiya, is using the black ISIS flag as its revolutionary banner.