15 mayors want Nur out of Laguna

STA. ROSA, Laguna — Mayors in this province urged President Arroyo yesterday to transfer jailed rebel leader Nur Misuari from his detention bungalow here to any other secure place in the country.

But the President said Misuari is now under the jurisdiction of the court which would try him for deadly attacks in Jolo, Sulu and Zamboanga City, where hundreds of people, mostly his loyalists, died in clashes with the military.

Meanwhile, Misuari filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the Supreme Court, claiming he was "abducted" in Malaysia and "unlawfully detained and confined" at Fort Sto. Domingo.

Misuari’s lawyers Arthur Lim, Macapanton Abbas Jr. and Salvador Panelo filed the petition as 20 of Laguna’s 29 town mayors objected to Misuari’s detention in a special facility inside the Fort Sto. Domingo police training camp here.

The Laguna Municipal Mayors League, headed by Sta. Rosa Mayor Leon Arcillas, said some 200,000 residents may be endangered by Misuari’s presence and that foreign investors may withdraw from this booming industrial town.

A town resident said in an interview with ABS-CBN television station that she and her neighbors were afraid Misuari’s men would stage bombings or take women and children hostage as they did on Nov. 27 last year in Zamboanga City.

The mayors further complained that they should have been consulted on Misuari’s detention at Fort Sto. Domingo.

The town council has condemned Misuari’s arrival and said the government was "unjustly depriving (Sta. Rosa residents) of their much-deserved and hard-earned peace and security."

Chief Superintendent Domingo Reyes, Southern Tagalog police director, told reporters yesterday armed policemen will be deployed in elementary and high school campuses in Barangay Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa starting Monday.

Reyes said he made the decision following a request from parents and teachers during a dialogue with them at the Sto. Domingo National High School yesterday.

Police step up town security

Policemen will guard the Sto. Domingo National High School, Sto. Domingo Elementary School, and schools adjacent to Misuari’s place of detention, especially the Seventh Day Adventist University in Silang, he added.

Since Monday, students in Barangay Sto. Domingo have stopped attending classes at the urging of their parents, who fear that Misuari’s armed followers will attack Fort Sto. Domingo.

Last Thursday, residents of Sta. Rosa protested in front of the Special Action Force training camp to demand that police authorities immediately transfer Misuari to another place.

Reyes assured the residents that the police are "on top of the situation" and that they had nothing to worry about as there was "no threat at all" from Misuari’s followers.

"(Misuari) fled to Malaysia because he no longer has any armed followers," he said. "If they can make trouble in Mindanao, here in Laguna they cannot do that. They will just commit suicide."

Reyes said the government decided to detain Misuari at Fort Sto. Domingo after a lot of careful planning to determine if his presence would affect the security of Sta. Rosa residents.

"After a series of planning, our top government leaders were one that Misuari is most secured here in your place," he said.

Laguna Vice Gov. Dan Fernando said Misuari’s presence here has started to instill fear among foreign investors in Laguna Technological Park.

"Our Japanese principals are starting to have second thoughts whether to continue doing business because of the security problem brought about by Misuari’s detention here," he said.

Fernando said the Laguna Provincial Board will meet at the capitol in Sta. Cruz to tackle the problem before investors and other businessmen start leaving the province.

"Definitely I’m against Misuari’s detention here," he said. "He should be detained in another place as his presence is affecting the normal flow of business here."

Misuari was brought to the Sta. Rosa facility from Malaysia where he was arrested on Nov. 24 as he was trying to flee pursuing government troops who repulsed his men in separate incidents in Jolo, Sulu and Zamboanga City.

Misuari allegedly ordered the attacks on Nov. 19 to disrupt the eventually successful polls that elected his successor as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Nov. 26.

He was subsequently charged with rebellion before the Jolo, Sulu regional trial court but the government has asked the SC to transfer the venue of the trial to a court near Fort Sto. Domingo.

The President said it was also up to the high court to decide whether to grant Misuari’s four requests that the trial be held in Jolo, Sulu; that he be provided with a laptop computer and laser printer in Fort Sto. Domingo; that he undergo another medical check-up and that he be allowed free access to media.

Speaking before the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) in a Makati City hotel yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo said the court would have to decide whether to grant these demands.

"Those things really depend now on the court," she said. "He’s already in the custody of the courts."

Mrs. Arroyo said Misuari, through Abbas, sent her a letter insisting that he was still the duly elected ARMM governor.

"But the courts have already thrown out the (temporary retraining order) since before he came," he said. "And so (newly elected ARMM Gov.) Parouk Hussin is now operating. So that’s it."

Earlier, the Court of Appeals had withdrawn the TRO issued by a lower court on the petition of a losing gubernatorial candidate questioning the legality of Hussin’s victory.

In his appeal for habeas corpus, Misuari also claimed he had nothing to do with the attacks staged by his men and that he was just "visiting" Sulu after he learned that a "four-man mission from (the Organization of Islamic Conference) wanted to meet him in Malaysia."

He said he did not flee prosecution in the Philippines although he was captured in the Malaysian frontier island of Sempiras days after he was publicly sacked as ARMM governor and his diplomatic passport canceled.

"Trickery and deception attended his arrest in Malaysia in that he was in effect abducted by (the group of presidential assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza) who were waiting for him, as though in ambush, right at the Kuala Lumpur airport," Misuari’s lawyers said in their petition.

FVR disappointed with Misuari

Meanwhile, former President Fidel Ramos, who signed the 1996 peace agreement with Misuari, said the government is justified in filing sedition and rebellion charges against the disgraced rebel leader.

"The call for further violence that was announced by Nur in the bombardment of the 104th Brigade headquarters in Jolo was a very tragic mistake on his part," Ramos said.

The former president advised Misuari to consider the welfare of Muslims in the Philippines as well as the OIC in all his future actions.

"He should now try to straighten out the remaining legacy that he must now give to the younger Filipino Muslims," Ramos said.

In 1997, Ramos and Misuari received the UNESCO Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Award for the peace pact they signed on Sept. 2, 1996 which ended a 24-year separatist war.

On the other hand, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said he will propose to Mrs. Arroyo, once the newly formed Council of State is convened, how to resolve the controversy surrounding the deportation and detention of Misuari.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters Misuari’s followers must help raise funds for the detained former governor’s legal defense instead of getting involved in plots to sow terror.

"We would like to appeal to them that Mr. Misuari will have his day in court," he said. "He seems to have a topnotch New York lawyer and he’s being treated well. He is not being persecuted. If those groups think that Mr. Misuari should be freed, they should just contribute to his legal fund." – With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Delon Porcalla, Jaime Laude, Perseus Echeminada