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Sunday, September 07, 2008
Ceasefire deal with Moro rebels still in effect
ILIGAN CITY -- A military official told government troops Saturday that a ceasefire agreement with the Moro rebels is still in effect and government still respects the peace process.
"But who we are after now are the lawless members of the MILF led by Commander Bravo and Umbra Kato," said Major General Nehemias G. Pajarito.
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"The government is not abandoning the peace talks," said Pajarito, who is chief of the Army's 1st Infantry (Tabak) Division.
Pajarito said the current operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato are aimed at capturing Commander Bravo and Umbra Kato and his men and not against the whole Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) organization.
National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., in a radio interview said the Armed Forces is having a hard time cracking down the so-called lawless MILF rebels considering the President's order to prioritize the welfare of the communities caught in the military operation.
He said adding to the difficulty is the confusing statements released by the MILF regarding the actions of the two commanders. The MILF, Teodoro said claimed earlier that the two commanders are still under their control but lately it denied any involvement on the actions of the two.
On the other hand, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is identifying measures that would be adopted to prevent attacks by renegade MILF similar to the recent atrocities in the provinces of North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.
PNP spokesman Nicanor Bartome said top police officials in Mindanao attended a workshop in Davao on Friday, principally to address similar actions by the rebels against the civilians.
In July, the group of Umbra Kato occupied scores of villages in North Cotabato, sending hundreds of thousands of residents displaced. They were subsequently dislodged by government troops weeks later.
On August 25, the group of another MILF commander Abdullah Saber Macapaar alias Bravo attacked Iligan City and four towns in Lanao del Norte, resulting in the killing of 28 civilians, three military men, including Lieutenant Colonel Angel Benitez, and a policeman.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) leadership ordered an offensive against the two commanders for the atrocities.
At present, at least 4,000 Army soldiers are still engaged in the offensive in several parts of Mindanao, including Maguindanao, Sharif Kabunsuan, and Lanao del Norte, among others.
Meanwhile, the MILF in a press statement calls for the investigation of the abuses perpetrated by both government and MILF forces in Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sarangani and to include all human rights violations, massacres in the past by a non-partisan organization recognized by the Parties so that justice shall be served and the culprits to suffer for their crimes.
The MILF also calls for all aid agencies including agencies of the United Nations to help internally-displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the ongoing skirmishes in the provinces aforementioned.
Latest figure of the National Disaster Coordinating Committee (NDCC), the number of IDPs has swelled to 500,000 which are already to the level of humanitarian crisis.(Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (September 7, 2008 issue)
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