By Sammy F. Martin
MANILA, (PNA) — A veteran lady Muslim solon on Friday downplays the claim of some lawmakers that P40 Million exchange hands between Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile and former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairman Nur Misuari to sow terror in Zamboanga City.
Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema said that those involved in spreading the news “should come up with hard evidence or shut up and stop muddling the issue.”
“I don’t believe Chairman Misuari and the rest of the MNLF will allow themselves to do something with historical roots just in consideration of that amount. I don’t think so,” Sema, vice chairperson of House committee on Appropriations sponsoring the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao 2014 budget said in disgust.
She said that we are not just talking of any ordinary or extraordinary thing here but “life which is precious than anything else.”
Magdalo party list Representatives Ace Acedillo and Gary Alejano last week claimed that somebody gave Musuari P40 Million to launch terror in Zamboanga City allegedly to apply squid tactic to divert the issue and forget the P10 billion pork barrel scam. Both Acedillo and Alejano refused to give additional details on who financed Misuari’s faction.
But Senator Miriam Santiago on Thursday named in an ambush interview that it was Enrile who is the brain and financier of the standoff in Zamboanga.
Sema claimed that even after the government manage to neutralize the Misuari faction rebels, the root of the standoff will remain unsolved.
“Maaring matatapos pero hindi ko alam if it would solve the problem. Hindi po ako naniniwala … we don’t know kung anong klaseng intervention o ano. Pero yung to wage war in consideration of money, buhay yan eh. Di naman binebenta yung buhay ng tao,” Sema pointed out.
Philippines News Agency tried to check with Magdalo solons the veracity of Santiago’s expose’ but they refused may comment.
The solons denied having talked with Santiago on this issue but beg to let government security officials to investigate the matter instead of creating speculations.