Gonzales: Consider charges against MILF chief dropped

DAVAO CITY — Consider them dropped.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the charges against Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al-Haj Murad in connection with the bombing earlier this month in Makilala, North Cotabato that left six people dead, shall be dropped.

"The charges would be dropped not because the government would want to resume the peace talks but because there is really no concrete evidence but only circumstantial evidence linking Murad to the bombing," said Gonzales, who arrived here over the weekend to meet with local leaders and security officials before proceeding to join the party of President Arroyo in China.

The charges were filed against Murad and other MILF commanders while the peace talks with the front have reached an impasse following disagreements over the ancestral domain issue.

Government chief negotiator Silvestre Afable said a new draft will be submitted to the MILF this week on how the issue over ancestral domain could be resolved.

In 2003, the late MILF chairman Hashim Salamat and several other MILF officials found themselves charged for the spate of bombings in Davao City, which left more than 30 people dead and over 200 others wounded.

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), which represented Salamat and the other MILF leaders since they did not submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the court, moved for the dropping of the charges, which was eventually granted.

The dropping of the charges against Salamat and the other MILF officials paved the way for the resumption of committee-level meetings between the government and the front.