GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- A militant Moro party-list group voiced Thursday outrage over the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton in the country.

Amirah Ali Lidasan, spokesperson of Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People), asked the US Government to keep its hands off Mindanao.

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"She should bring home the 600 US soldiers permanently deployed in Mindanao," Lidasan said in a statement.

US soldiers have been around Mindanao under the Visiting Forces Agreement, conducting military training to Filipino troops and engaging in civic works in various parts of the country.

Lidasan said Clinton's visit "will only continue to bolster the government's anti-terror measures that have violated the civil and political rights of Moro civilians in Mindanao."

If the US military aid continues, the Philippine government "will continue to arrest civilians without warrants and vilify religious leaders," she charged.

Lidasan said the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is also better off without US participation.

Lidasan also scored the American interests in the island, citing the exploration activities of oil and gas industry giant ExxonMobil Corp. in the Sulu archipelago.

The Suara Bangsamoro strongly opposed the exploration of ExxonMobil in the Sulu Sea "for it would not only affect and devastate the environment and people’s livelihood, which majority are fishermen, but also a testament to the long-list of documents that Filipino people vend their natural resources to foreign countries."

Julkipli M. Wadi, associate professor of the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines, also believes that US soldiers deployed in Western Mindanao "seek to secure the multi-million dollar exploration activities of ExxonMobil."