Philippine rebels foresee no solution to conflict if nothing do with Constitutio

A senior leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest rebel group, on Saturday said they don't see a possibility of any solution to the decade-old conflict in southern Philippines if President Benigno Aquino III will do nothing with the Constitution.

This was the reaction of MILF chief negotiator Mogahher Iqbal over the pronouncement of Aquino's chief negotiator Marvic Leonen that it's too speculative as of now to talk about whether the Constitution needs to be amended.

Leonen said the government is studying closely the MILF's proposals.

"Good faith negotiations require that we consider the universe of possibilities. That does not necessarily translate to a certainty that amendment can or will happen," Leonen said in a statement to reporters.

Earlier, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles said it was "premature" to talk about amending or revising the Constitution, considering that the new peace panel had not even had the chance to sit down with its counterpart.

But Iqbal said while the issue of Constitution is shallow to argue, there will be no genuine end to the root cause of conflict in Mindanao.

"If they will not do something, we do not see the possibility of any solution to the real problem," Iqbal said.

The MILF earlier warned the government to resolve the problem in Mindanao within their time as more of their young fighters are getting radicals and militants.

A Japanese national doing research about the conflict in the south, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said that the actual numbers of MILF combatants is actually doubling the number to what MILF Chieftain Ebrahim Murad revealed to reporters recently.

Murad claimed they have 120,000 fighters all over Mindanao.