MANILA, (PNA) -– Rebellion charges are being prepared against members of the Moro National Liberation Front faction of Nur Misuari involved in the siege of Zamboanga City.
At a press briefing aired live over a television network, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II announced that government authorities are now preparing rebellion charges against followers of Misuari.
Roxas noted that MNLF forces committed several criminal offenses in infiltrating several barangays in Zamboanga City since Sept. 9 brandishing high-powered firearms, then taking about 200 civilians as human shields and setting ablaze more or less 900 residential structures.
Roxas said that arson, illegal possession of firearms, murder and burning 900 houses constitute rebellion.
The DILG chief said that officials of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group are now in Zamboanga City, along with a special team from the Dept. of Justice, working in building up the charges against Misuari’s followers.
Aside from the possible rebellion charges against the MNLF forces, Roxas said that violation of the Republic Act 9851 or an act defining and penalizing crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity could also be slapped against them.