COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 16, 2009) – Suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels raided Monday a small village in the southern Philippines and abducted three people, the army said.
It said the rebels also took 15 cows in the village of Dado in North Cotabato’s Alamada town. An army spokesman identified the hostages as Rolijun Lindayao, Riyo Lindayao and Ritoy Elarkosa.
The fate of the hostages was unknown.
“There is an ongoing operation to recover the hostages,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division.
The raid occurred a day after a grenade attack killed a village official and wounded five others in nearby Pikit town. Ponce said authorities are still investigating whether the two attacks were connected or not.
The motives of the two attacks were unknown, but MILF rebels have been fighting for a long time pro-government militias and Christian settlers in North Cotabato over Muslim ancestral lands.
The rebels claimed Christian settlers have grabbed their lands and converted them into private farms, ranches and rice fields. The MILF is fighting for independence in Mindanao the past decades. (Mindanao Examiner)
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