Muslim group wants Imelda as peace negotiator

After Robin Padilla, they now want Imelda.

A Muslim cause-oriented group wants flamboyant former First Lady Imelda Marcos to act as chief government negotiator in peace talks with Muslim secessionist rebels.

The Muslim League Welfare Development Inc. in Manila urged President Estrada yesterday to appoint Marcos as head of the government peace negotiating panel to finally put an end to the decades-old conflict in Mindanao.

In a letter to the President, league chairman Shariff Mahadum Hashim said Marcos is the only person who has the "emotional intelligence" and the "resources" to negotiate with the rebels.

"Rebellion is rooted in poverty and peace talks are useless without money," Hashim told The STAR by telephone.

Hashim explained that he was never an associate of the Marcos family whose 20-year rule ended when dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in February 1986.

"I am just a firm believer of her," he said, adding that he has not yet talked personally with Marcos.

Hashim told Mr. Estrada that Marcos is the only person "who can fathom the feelings of the Muslims... (and the one who) has the resources to promote their welfare."

He suggested that the government release the $630 million alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses now being held in escrow at the Philippine National Bank to allow the dictator's widow to give part of it to Mindanao.

"Peace negotiations will remain mere peace pretensions," he stressed, "as long as poverty in Mindanao does not fall."

Muslim rebel groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the smaller yet more extreme Abu Sayyaf have been waging a war for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao, the country's second largest island, for almost 30 years now.

The war had been fought in different forms, with the Abu Sayyaf engaging in banditry and kidnap-for-ransom activities to raise funds.

Last March, the group took several hostages and asked the government to send movie star Robin Padilla, a Muslim convert, to talk with them. The actor acceded to the request but it did not improve the situation.

The group at present holds 21 foreign and local captives in Sulu after seizing them from a Malaysian resort last April 23.

Hashim explained that Marcos perfectly knew the plight of these rebels since she personally lobbied for the signing of the Tripoli Agreement in the 1970s. "She is the mother of the Tripoli Agreement. She even went to Libya to lobby for it," he said.

Under the agreement, the government recognizes the right of the Muslim people to autonomy. Such was fulfilled in a limited way when the four-province Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao was created in 1987.

The STAR tried to reach Marcos for comment on the Muslim group's suggestion but she was not immediately available. -