Friday, August 29, 2008 Defense chief bares changes in offensives vs MILF
DEFENSE Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said there will be adjustments in the conduct of the military operations against recalcitrant Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels during the observation of the Muslims holy month Ramadan that begins next week.
But Teodoro insisted there will be no stoppage of the offensives against the group of MILF commanders Umbra Kato, Abdullah Saber Macapaar and Alim Pangalian who are being blamed for the recent spate of atrocities in Central Mindanao since last month.
"To me, a ceasefire, a total ceasefire is unacceptable because of the fact that we have to enforce law here," he told reporters based in Camp Aguinaldo.
"The overriding principle is that the enforcement of law is religiously neutral but we are also very sensitive to the fact that Muslim communities are involved so I guess the best balance is that operating commanders should in their tactics take into consideration community sensitivities," said Teodooro.
The defense secretary would not elaborate on the kind of adjustments that the troops would be adopting, saying this is left to the discretion of the ground commanders.
"Definitely, there will be tactical adjustment (during Ramadan) but it will depend on the commander operating in one area to take that into account but it also depends on how the fugitives will use Ramadan to shield their actions," Teodoro said.
"They could very well use Ramadan as also as a cover for their actions, I mean because what they have done are already unislamic; how do we expect them to conform to Islamic norms when they have slaughtered people which is contrary to the principles of Islam," he added.
He admitted that there are difficulties why the troops have yet to attain their objective. "The difficulty is we cannot just use full military tactics because of the civilians' involvement," he said.
"Secondly, we know these commanders, I mean they have no compunction about using communities as human shields that adds to the difficulty because you can't just shoot everybody inside or bomb everybody inside, you really have to make sure that civilians are not involved in the conflict," he also said.
Teodoro also said the reported resurgence of the Ilaga Group would be properly dealt with by security forces.
The Ilagas have fought Moro National Liberation Front in the 1970s.
"I'm quite alarmed by the resurgence of such kinds of group, it does not help solve the situation. I think the policy of having police auxiliaries is sufficient just to protect the communities but Ilagas with their connotation of having some quasi-cultural significance in conflict is quite alarming," he said. (VR/Sunnex)
