Members of the Cotabato City Police Office inspect Friday 07 July 2006 the site where a grenade is thrown inside the bungalow compound of Gov. Andal Ampatuan of Maguindanao province. The grenade did not explode. (Mark Navales)
MAGUINDANAO (Zamboanga Journal / 07 Jul) Police tightened security in Cotabato City ahead of President Gloria Arroyo’s visit following a failed grenade attack Friday on a bungalow owned by the powerful governor of Maguindanao province.
Arroyo is expected to arrive Saturday in Cotabato City where she would hold separate meetings with her Cabinet and the regional peace and order council, local government officials said.
Police said the target of the failed attack was Gov. Andal Ampatuan, but the politician, an ally of Arroyo, was not in the bungalow when an unidentified man tossed the grenade inside compound. The assailant escaped on a motorcycle, said Senior Inspector Samson Obatay, commander of a local elite police unit.
"We have deployed additional police forces and tightened security to prevent similar attempt on the lives of government officials. We have undertaken extra security measures, put up road blocks and more foot patrol in Cotabato City," Obatay told the Zamboanga Journal.
Ampatuan also escaped an assassination attempt June 23 when a bomb exploded near his convoy in Shariff Aguak town, but 5 people were killed in the attack, including the politician's nephew.
It was not immediately known whether the failed grenade attack was connected to Wednesday killing of the wife of one of two senior Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader tagged as behind the Shariff Aguak bombing.
The military said Nora Pakiladatu was gunned down in Cotabato City. The woman was the wife of Zaid Pakiladato, deputy chief of the MILF's 105th Base Command in Camp Omar in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao, where rebel and militiamen loyal to Ampatuan clashed for about a week.
The woman was shot inside her van in the busy business district of Cotabato, said Eid Kabalu, the MILF spokesman said. He said the woman's family blamed the killing to the skirmishes in Shariff Aguak. The killing came just hours after Zaid Pakiladato denied in a local radio interview any involvement in the bombing in Shariff Aguak town.
The bombing also wounded 14 people and police and military blamed Pakiladato and Jamil Ombra, commander of the 105th Base Command, as behind the attack. The target of the bombing was allegedly the governor.
Kabalu said militiamen executed 3 captured rebels in Shariff Aguak town. He said Ampatuan's militia was behind simultaneous attacks on a major MILF headquarters Camp Omar in the town in retaliation to the bombing.
Ampatuan, a former rebel leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), escaped unhurt, but the bombing killed nephew. Police ordered the arrest of Ombra and Pakiladato, but the MILF denied the accusations and refused to surrender the duo.
Dozens of militias and rebels were killed and wounded in the fighting, Kabalu said.
The MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group, is currently negotiating peace with Manila. Arroyo has ordered the military to work closely with the Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) to maintain peace and order in Maguindanao.
Arroyo also instructed the military to work closely with government relief agencies and the local governments to address the plight of thousands of Muslim evacuees and ensure their safe return to their homes.
Government spokespersons said the fighting between the rebels and militias was an isolated case and have not affected the current peace talks.
Similar fighting also erupted in February in Shariff Aguak and left more than a dozen militia and rebels dead. The fighting broke out after the MILF opposed a provincial government road construction that rebels claimed would encroach into their territories in the village of Datu Unsay.
Kabalu said guns fell silent on Friday after rebels and militia agreed to an informal truce, but negotiations still continue to prevent future clashes in Shariff Aguak.
He said government negotiators led by Secy. Jesus Dureza, presidential peace adviser, met separately with MILF leaders and Ampatuan's group to further discuss a permanent cease-fire between rebels and militia.
"There is a temporary cease-fire in Maguindanao and we are still discussing the possible declaration of a peace zone in Shariff Aguak and prevent future fighting," Kabalu said.
The MILF previously warned that the fighting could escalate and affect the peace talks if militiamen continue attacking rebel forces. (With reports from Mark Navales in Cotabato City and Juan Magtanggol in Maguindanao)
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