Troops Tighten Security In South RP

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 16, 2008) – Philippine troops have tightened security in Mindanao following intelligence reports that Muslim rebels were planning to bomb civilian targets, officials said Saturday.

Officials said rebels were targeting the provincial capitol of North Cotabato in Kidapawan City where a powerful bomb at a bus depot was disarmed Thursday.

“We have reports that rebels were planning to bomb the provincial capitol (building) and we have tightened security in North Cotabato to prevent terrorism,” Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Policemen on Thursday also arrested a would-be-attacker who admitted being a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the North Cotabato town of Mlang after a homemade bomb he was carrying in a bag exploded prematurely at a market area.

On Friday, two homemade bombs were recovered and defused by troops in Mlang. Fighting between soldiers and MILF rebels also broke out Friday in the towns of Pigkawayan and Midsayap, although there were no reports of casualties.

Sporadic clashes in North Cotabato since last month had killed close to 100 people and displaced some 160,000 villagers. The MILF said rebel forces killed at least 60 government militias and dozens of soldiers in fierce clashes across five towns in the province and that 13 of its fighters also died.

The MILF also denied military reports that it was planning to bomb civilian targets in North Cotabato or anywhere in Mindanao. “We are not terrorists, but a revolutionary organization fighting for a just cause and fighting for self-determination,” Eid Kabalu, a senior rebel leader, said by phone from his base in Mindanao.

The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, is currently negotiating peace with Manila, but despite a truce sporadic fighting still continue in some parts of the southern Philippines with both sides accusing each of breaking the cease-fire deal.

Security forces earlier this week have driven away some 800 rebels who occupied 15 villages in North Cotabato, one of several provinces the MILF is claiming as part of the Muslim ancestral domain. (Mindanao Examiner)