Wednesday, July 02, 2008 200 families flee due to AFP, MILF skirmishes By Malu C. Manar Correspondent
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- About 200 families from a remote village in Aleosan town in North Cotabato fled to safer grounds when Army and suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels traded fires, Monday morning, reports from the Army's 6th Infantry Division said.
6th ID spokesman Colonel Julieto Ando said the evacuees are housed in two evacuation sites in nearby Pikit town, also in North Cotabato.
The Army and MILF traded not only fires, but also barbs.
Ando's counterpart in the MILF, Eid Kabalu, told media that 40th IB soldiers launched attacks on Moro-dominated Pagangan village in Aleosan, around 8 a.m., Monday -- almost 30 minutes after a group of suspected MILF rebels attacked a farming village in nearby Matalam town.
Two days ago, a Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) detachment in Pagangan-Uno village in Aleosan manned by a certain Staff Sergeant Pagsugiron was attacked by suspected MILF rebels under the 105th Base Command.
But Ando, in an interview, denied Kabalu's claims, saying government troops in the area were just doing road security.
"We vehemently denied what the MILF is saying about the attacks. We were the ones being attacked here," Ando said.
Colonel Cesar Cidello, chief of the Army's 602nd Brigade in North Cotabato, said he still believes that armed conflicts in Mindanao can be resolved through a peaceful negotiation.
Meanwhile, the provincial social welfare office here is already preparing relief operations in Pikit where hundreds of families have taken temporary shelter.
