MEDIA RELEASE
May 3, 2000

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today laid the blame for the escalating war in Mindanao on the US-Estrada regime, saying the renewed conflict was a result of the government’s “simplistic and highly militarist approach to the Moro people’s struggle for land and self determination.”

“By dismissing the MILF as nothing but a terrorist organization engaged in criminal acts, the Estrada regime aims to justify its disastrous war of annihilation in Mindanao,” said Bayan Secretary General Teodoro A. Casiño.

The Bayan leader said that the renewed military offensives against the MILF “attempt to drown in blood the root causes of the Moro people’s struggle against feudal, religious and national oppression.”

“The Estrada regime has not learned the lessons of the Marcos dictatorship, that no military operation can wipe out the fighting unless the root causes of the conflict remains,” he said.

Casiño said the MILF’s defensive and offensive actions become justified due to the deployment of more than half of the military’s entire personnel in Mindanao, as well as the AFP’s “all-out drive” against the Moro group.

“The MILF has a right to defend itself and its people against an insensitive, exploitative and violent government,” he said.

Casiño said the government was doing to the MILF what it did earlier to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). “The government’s attacks against the NDFP and the MILF are a testament to how the Estrada regime wages a war of attrition against revolutionary groups instead of addressing the issues of the armed conflict,” he said.

Casiño said that peace will remain elusive under the US-Estrada regime. “Given its stance on the MILF and the NDFP, this government has proven to be the single biggest stumbling block to peace.” ###