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Friday, January 24, 2003
MILF leader tied to Irish priest's slay yields
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Police started Thursday investigating a guerrilla leader accused in the murder of an Irish Roman Catholic priest, who voluntarily surrendered Thursday.
Dimasangkay Dimauga, 35 along with five armed sub-commanders and 57 followers of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) turned themselves before the 67th Infantry Battalion Tuesday.
4th Infantry Division spokesperson Major Johnny Macanas said Dimauga's group also surrendered with them 57 high-powered firearms.
Dimauga, a member of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has been blamed for the 2001 fatal shooting of Father Rufus Halley on Mindanao island.
Halley, a 20-year resident of the Philippines, was accosted near Malabang on Aug. 28, 2001 by a group of armed men who tried to abduct him. When he resisted, they felled him in a hail of bullets.
A spokesman of the MILF denied Dimauga and his followers were MILF members and described him as a mercenary.
But Macanas said, "every time a band of MILF surrenders the front leadership automatically disowns them."
He said several military reports have already pointed out that this group is indeed composed of MILF members.
Macanas said Dimauga yielded along with his subcommanders Mamalandok a.k.a Rambo, Tungkoguro a.k.a Matanog, Hadji Jabdulah Dumato, Bodi Maro a.k.a. Bin Muslim, Diaw Lando and Abel Anaon a.k.a Gumogubat and 57 followers.
"All of them were operating within the Marugong, Lumbatan and Tuburan all of Lanao del Sur," he said.
The high-powered firearms they had with them included four M14s, one M16, two RPGs or grenade launchers, ten carbines, 22 M79s and seven garands.
Also one submachine gun .45 cal. Thompson, two shotguns, two .45 pistols, four rifle cal. 22 and two V40s which can destroy armored tanks.
The guerrilla group has waged a 24-year armed campaign to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the mainly Catholic Southeast Asian islands.
It is currently involved in peace talks with President Gloria Arroyo's government.(Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro with AFP) |
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