MILF denies bomb threats via text messages

COTABATO CITY — The mainstream Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) dismissed yesterday as "rhetorically whimsical" the circulating text messages warning of attacks by members of the MNLF-Misuari Breakaway Group in populated areas in Mindanao.

‘"As far as we are concerned, there are no such plans by our brothers identified with our chairman emeritus,"Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema said, referring to jailed former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Nur Misuari.

Sema, who is MNLF secretary-general, said the front’s central leadership is convinced that a third party is behind the text messages.

Sources from the executive department of the ARMM said the attempt to sow panic through text messages could be aimed at embarrassing the leadership of ARMM Gov. Parouk Hussin, who is a key leader of the MNLF.

Sources from the office of Hussin, chairman of the regional peace and order council, earlier said his administration has been trying to reach out to leaders of the MNLF faction who figured in bloody encounters last February with government forces in several towns in Sulu.