Tuesday, August 12, 2008 MILF men occupy Cotabato highway By Malu Cadelina Manar and Ben O. Tesiorna
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Heavily armed members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) set up roadblocks along Midsayap-Pikit highway in North Cotabato while they traded bullets with government troops in Barangay Dalingaoen in Pikit around 7:30 a.m. Monday, police and Army officials said.
Major Medel Aguilar, 5th Civil Relations Group chief, said MILF rebels attempted to occupy the national highway, but Army troops immediately deployed in the area to stop them and secure the civilians residing there.
SPO1 Dan Tobias of the Aleosan police, who happened to be a passenger of one of the buses plying the Cotabato-Davao route, said the Weena bus he was riding was stopped by MILF rebels. They told the driver to return to Kidapawan City or face risks.
Tobias said the rebels fired at one of the buses whose driver did not heed the order to return but proceeded instead to Aleosan town, just few meters away from Barangay Takepan in Pikit.
"I just don't know what happened to the bus passengers after they were fired upon by the MILF rebels," said Tobias in an interview over Catholic-ran dxND.
According to Father Eduardo Vasquez, parish priest of Pikit, a civilian identified as Lucio Pana was reportedly killed by sniper fire from MILF guerillas while another was wounded.
Lieutenant Colonel Diosdado Carreon, 40th Infantry Battalion chief, said the rebels from Carmen, North Cotabato occupied the highway in the village of Takepan around 7 a.m.
Senior Inspector Elias Dandan, Pikit police chief, confirmed reports on the movement of MILF rebels in Barangay Dalingaoen.
Dandan, however, denied Tobias's report that MILF rebels were able to set up roadblocks along the highway.
"They attempted to block the highway but our troops, including the Army and armed civilian volunteers, prevented them from doing so," said Dandan in a separate radio interview.
Dandan said they monitored MILF troops’ movement along the highway since last night.
"So, we already alerted our troops and informed the Army in the area," he said.
The highway closure, according to Dandan, was ordered by authorities in North Cotabato.
"When we assessed that the situation along the highway is already tense, we ordered road closure. The situation is already critical. We don't want the commuting public to be affected by the ongoing fighting," he said.
Reports reaching Sun.Star showed that the road was closed around 7:30 a.m. and remained closed as of Monday afternoon.
In a telephone interview Monday noon, Aguilar said the MILF rebels were already driven away by government troops away from the national highway.
The fighting in North Cotabato prevented voters in the northern part of Kabuntalan in Shariff Kabungsuan, a town adjacent to Midsayap, from casting their votes, according to an Armm Comelec official.
Voters from four villages in the northern part of Kabuntalan were among those who fled to safer areas when mortar shelling and trading of bullets between the rebels and government troops erupted Sunday.
The villagers, according to reports, proceeded to Barangay Poblacion in Midsayap to seek temporary shelter.
To date, the number of evacuees, according to the office of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office in North Cotabato, numbered about 50,000.
Of the number, 22,000 evacuees are housed in Pikit. Some of them in the gymnasium of the OMI parish in Barangay Poblacion, others are in schools, while the rest, because of lack of spaces, set up camps or tents along the Pikit highway, said Fr. Vasquez.
