"It is what the police said, and what the deputy mayor (in the barangay) said. They wanted to keep this quiet. But this is a public issue; it may not be the whole truth but it has to come out," Duterte said.
A Moro National Liberation Front faction has urged Malacañang to resolve the three remaining issues on territory, provisional government and definition and sharing of revenues of strategic minerals to complete the government commitment to pass an amended law to implement the final peace agreement they reached in 1996.
Datu Doloman Dawsay, spokesperson of the Manobo organization Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanugon (Unite to defend the land) said that military operations of 68th Infantry Battalion, 60th IB and 4th Special Forces displaced 1,353 individuals comprising 309 families from the sitios of Pongpong, Nalubas, Bagang, Bayabas, Saso, Lasakan, Sambolongan and Bugni of Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
The question cropped up after the arrest last week of ranking Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, even as the stalled peace negotiation between the two parties remained hazy and uncertain.
The Moro National Liberation Front–Executive Council of 15 (MNLF-EC15) said that the peace agreement signed today between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (GRP-MILF) is “problematic” and accused the Malacanang of abrogating the 1996 First Peace Agreement (FPA) with the MNLF,