Philippines rejects call for war with Muslim rebels

The Philippine government said on Saturday that the cost of going into war with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will be too great. Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte reacted to the demand to suspend the ceasefire with the Muslim insurgents following separate clashes with the government troops recently which left 27 soldiers and policemen dead. "The human cost of war will be too great. We understand the sentiments. We are also part of the public, we are not different from you, but like what the President (Benigno S. Aquino III) has said, we need to think, to be calm," she said, adding that if the government would declare war with the rebels, many lives would be lost. "The President is aware of the call for all out war and he has said no. He reiterated his reason for saying so," she said. But she assured that the government will go after those responsible for killing 19 soldiers in Al-Barka, Basilan province and eight others, including three policemen in Zamboanga Sibugay. The MILF has been fighting government troops for the establishment of a self-rule Muslim sub-state in the south of the predominantly Catholic country. Peace talks between the government and the MILF stalled in August 2008 following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain. A final peace deal with the government will touch the issues of autonomy and the civil settlement of the rebel group's 11,800-strong guerrilla fighters.