Philippine President Clears Muslim Leader of GunningPhilippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Saturday absolved Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Nur Misuari of any complicity in the gunning activity of his caretaker.In an interview with the country's top broadcast journalists, Arroyo said the target of a police raid Thursday in the residential compound of Misuari in the southern city of Zamboanga was his caretaker, a certain Asah Asawil, who lives in a shack within the compound. During the raid, police seized a cache of high powered rifles and ammunition from the house. The president, however, said that she has still to receive a report about the incident from Misuari himself, who was not present at the moment of the raid. Earlier, presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said the raid was a legitimate police operation since it was covered by a search warrant issued by a judge in Zamboanga. Misuari, chairman of the former rebel Moro National Liberation Front, signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996 under which the four-province ARMM was created. The MNLF, founded in 1972, had for years fought for an independent Islamic state in the southern island of Mindanao. |
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