ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 11, 2008) – Moro rebels and military officials on Tuesday traded accusations of cease-fire violations and propaganda with both sides claiming to have killed dozens of soldiers and mujahideen in fierce fighting in Mindanao.
The Philippine Army said at least 10 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were slain and 15 more wounded in Monday clashes in the town of Wao in Lanao del Sur town province.
And the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, claimed that at least 26 government soldiers perished in the fierce firefight that lasted several hours.
“We have intelligence reports that at least ten rebels were killed and that 15 more are wounded in the fighting,” said Col. Nicanor Dolojan, commander of 403rd Infantry Brigade in the province.
Dolojan said the bodies of slain rebels were taken away by MILF forces under Sulayman Pangalian.
He said more than 100 rebels clashed with security forces in the town’s hinterland village called Park after the military launched a preemptive strike to prevent the gunmen from getting near civilian areas. “We have recovered one B40 anti-tank rocket left behind by fleeing rebels,” Dolojan said.
But Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, denied the military report and said rebel forces killed many soldiers in the fighting. “Every time there is fighting; the military would say that many rebels were killed. It is our forces that had killed many soldiers and Monday’s fighting left at least 26 dead,” he said.
Pangalian is one of three MILF leaders wanted by authorities for killing innocent civilians in deadly attacks in August in provinces in Mindanao. The two other rebel commanders, Ameril Kato and Abdullah Macapaar, are also being hunted by thousands of army soldiers.
Security officials on Friday also said at least 19 MILF rebels were killed and three army soldiers wounded in sporadic, but fierce clashes in the towns of Mamasapano and Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao, one of six provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
The military previously said that Pangalian, Kato and Macapaar were on the run and without munitions because of the continued government offensives and in several occasions claimed the rebel leaders had been killed in separate fighting.
But both Kato and Macapaar later surfaced separately and held their own clandestine media interview and vowed to launch more attacks and at the same time dared the military to get them.
The media have virtually become a battle ground of lies and deceit and propaganda tool for rebels and the military with the public getting confused over what is being reported as the truth.
More than half a million people have been displaced by the hostilities in Mindanao since August despite a cease-fire agreement signed in 2001 after President Gloria Arroyo opened up peace talks with the MILF, which is fighting for self-determination in the troubled, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao.
Manila suspended peace talks with the MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao, after the rebel attacks in August.
The attacks were triggered by the failed signing of the Muslim territorial deal between the MILF and the government. The deal would have granted more than four million Muslims their own homeland across 700 villages in the troubled region, but the accord also sparked massive protests from residents and politicians opposed to the accord. The Supreme Court declared the government ancestral domain deal with the MILF as unconstitutional. (Mindanao Examiner)
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