MILF hits Arroyo bill splitting ARMM into two

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Friday criticized as a “divide-and-rule scheme" the bill filed by former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo to split the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) into two areas. An MILF leader said the bill only seeks to perpetuate disunity among the Moro tribes in Mindanao. “It is a weird thing to know that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had been negotiating with the MILF for nine years only to surface now that she was not true to what he instructed her negotiators of solving the ‘Moro Question’ in Mindanao," the MILF leader said in an article posted Friday on the MILF website. The leader, who the MILF did not name, said that while the MILF does not care what happens to ARMM, it is wary of the “underpinning evil intention to forever drive a wedge between and among our people." Under House Bill No. 173, Rep. Arroyo proposed to split ARMM into the Autonomous Region in Southwestern Mindanao (ARSWM) and Autonomous Region in Central Mindanao (ARCEM). She said there are still some issues that need to be addressed, including the geographical constraint in governing the ARMM. ARMM is composed of the of Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Marawi City. – VVP, GMANews.TV