Government forces in North Cotabato province, scene of fierce fighting with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels since last month. Rebel forces on Monday, August 18, 2008 pillage several towns in the province of Lanao de Norte and attack several areas in the provinces of Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat. Authorities say dozens of people are killed and wounded in the fighting. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Mark Navales)COTABATO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 18, 2008) – Dozens of people were killed and wounded Monday as hundreds of Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels attacked several towns in the southern Philippines.
Gunmen went on a shooting rampage and pillaged villages in the towns of Kolambugan, Bacolod, Maigo, Tubod and Kauswagan as they advanced to other areas in Lanao del Norte province.
Rebels also attacked villages in the neighboring provinces of Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat.
Police and military authorities also heightened security in Misamis Occidental after hundreds of villagers from Lanao del Norte crossed into the province to escape the hostilities.
“There is fighting in the areas and we are trying to drive away the rebels and secure civilians and vital government installations,” said Army Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, commander of a military task force.
One commuter bus on its way to Cagayan de Oro City from Zamboanga was also ambushed at a rebel checkpoint near Kolambugan town at around 4.30 a.m. and rebels executed at least 14 passengers as they pleaded for their lives.
“They were mercilessly gunned down. They were executed as they pleaded for their lives,” said bus driver Antonio Aurilla, who was able to escape the carnage along with three others.
Aurilla said the rebels ordered those who left behind to line up outside the bus and executed them. “I heard the rebels shouting ‘finish them off’ and then there was a burst of gunfire” he told a radio station dxRZ Radyo Agong in Zamboanga City by phone from his hiding place in the town.
One soldier, Cpl. Borlado, who was interviewed on the phone by dxRZ, said they also recovered 3 more corpses, apparently shot, at a bridge in Kolambugan town.
He said at least two soldiers from his team were wounded in the fighting with rebels in the town. “Fighting is fierce,” he said.
Six Catholic priests, led by Fr. Reggie Quijano, said they hid inside their convent in Kolambugan after rebels occupied the town. “I saw two squads of rebels near our church and we immediately hid on the second floor on the convent,” he said.
The priests were earlier reported to have been taken hostage by rebels.
By sunrise, the highway connecting Lanao del Norte from other provinces was already occupied by rebels as thousands of civilians fled their homes seek refuge in safer areas.
Mayor Bertrand Lumaque, of Kolambugan town, said rebels also took a still undetermined number of villagers and used them as shield against pursuing soldiers.
“I cannot account how many people were taken hostage by the rebels, but the reports we received said many villagers are being held by the MILF and using them, as shield,” he said.
Television pictures showed several houses and vehicles still burning in Kolambugan and the body of a man left near the road where rebels had passed. Video footages also showed civilians running away from a village in the town bringing nothing but bundles of clothes. The fighting turned Kolambugan into a virtual ghost town.
In Kauswagan town, at least 16 people were reported killed by rebels in the village of Lapayan.
Witnesses said some areas in the occupied towns were burning after rebels torched houses and buildings as the fighting was raging. Radio reports said rebel forces burned down markets and set on fire small government buildings in the towns.
The MILF, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, said the attacks were carried out by rebels disgruntled over the slow paced of the talks and the failure of both sides to sign the ancestral domain.
“This incident could be connected to the failure of the signing of the ancestral domain agreement and many rebels are disgruntled. We are trying to reach Commander Bravo, but we cannot get through him. This fighting should stop. We don’t want the fighting to spread to other areas,” Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, said.
Kabalu was referring to Abdul Rahman Macapaar, leader of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces in the province, who is responsible for the carnage. Macapaar, a known MILF hardliner, is a veteran mujahideen blamed by authorities in past attacks on military and civilian targets in Lanao del Norte.
Kabalu said the attacks were not sanctioned by the MILF.
Philippine military chief Gen. Alexander Yano said the MILF attacks violated the cease-fire agreement. He said he ordered security forces to drive away the raiders from the provinces. “We have filed a formal protest (with the cease-fire committees) against the MILF for these attacks,” he said.
Yano said: “We have launched military operations in Mindanao and this will go on until perpetrators are punished and normalcy is established in the area.”
Thousands of troops have surrounded the Lanao del Norte towns where MILF forces were holding-out, but rebels used villagers as shield as they escaped to other areas.
Government attack helicopters were also sent to the province to provide support to ground troops fighting hundreds of rebels.
Defense Secy. Gilberto Teodoro branded the rebel attacks in the provinces as a criminal act.
“This is plain and simple violations of the law and we cannot put any justification as to their actions, like they can be frustrated with the issuance of the TRO (Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order on the signing of the ancestral domain deal between Manila and the MILF). This is not sufficient reasons or justification to commit an illegal act,” he said.
Peace negotiators last month have reached a deal on the ancestral domain, but the Supreme Court stopped the formal signing of the accord after politicians and lawmakers opposed to the deal filed their petitions and asking Manila to make public the rest of the agreement.
Ancestral domain is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement with the Philippine government.
Presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon said there is need to amend the Constitution to allow plebiscite on areas under the ancestral domain that would make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity and give Muslims their own homeland.
The ancestral domain covers the whole of the Muslim autonomous region – Sulu, Tawi-Tawi-, Basilan, Maguindanao and Lanao, including Marawi City. And some areas in Zamboanga Peninsula, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces in Mindanao where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And also Palawan Island, off Mindanao.
Manila opened peace talks in 2001 with the MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting for the establishment of a separate Muslim homeland.
Arroyo condemned the attacks and ordered the military and police to flush out the rebels and restore peace in the affected areas. “Because of these sneaky and treacherous attacks, as your commander-in-chief, I have ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police to defend every inch of Philippine territory against MILF forces and immediately restore peace in the affected areas in Lanao del Norte,” she said.
“We will not tolerate and will crush any attempt to disturb peace and development in Mindanao,” she said.The latest fighting came barely a day after two homemade bombs went off in two budget hotels in Iligan City in Lanao del Norte, injuring three people. Lanao del Norte is among the areas being claimed by Muslim rebels as part of their ancestral domain.
Government troops on Friday also disarmed three homemade bombs in Kidapawan City and Mlang town in North Cotabato, where military forces regained control of 15 villages after a weeklong battle with some 800 MILF gunmen that left more than two dozen rebels and soldiers dead and wounded and over 160,000 people fleeing their homes. (With reports from Mark Navales)
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