COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 17, 2009) – Suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels blasted a steel pylon in the southern Philippines, cutting off electricity in some areas in the troubled region, an army spokesman said on Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, of the 6th Infantry Division, said the rebels planted and detonated explosives late Monday on one of the towers of state-owned National Power Corporation, about 80 meters from the highway in the village of Malabuaya in North Cotabato’s Kabacan town.
He said troops also recovered an unexploded improvised explosive in the area.
“This attack is perpetrated by the MILF’s special operation’s group,” Ponce said without further elaborating, but previous bombings in the area were also quickly blamed to the rebel group which is fighting for independence in Mindanao.
The MILF denied Ponce’s accusation. “We have nothing to do with the bombing. Authorities should investigate these attacks and stop blaming us for all crimes in the southern Philippines,” said Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader.
Ponce also blamed the MILF for raiding a small community in Alamada town also in North Cotabato where rebels took 15 cows and abducted three villagers last Sunday.
But Kabalu blamed cattle rustlers for the attack.
The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which has signed a cease-fire accord with Manila in 2001. However, peace talks between the two groups collapsed last year after the failed signing of the ancestral domain deal which would have granted homeland to more than four million Muslims across over 700 villages in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)
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