COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 23, 2009) – Suspected Moro rebels killed a civilian and wounded four others in a raid on a southern Philippine village, officials said Tuesday.
Officials said about 20 Moro Islamic Liberation Front gunmen raided the village of Labungan in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao and also destroyed a back hoe owned by RDI Construction.
“Four civilians are wounded and another was killed in the rapid fire which lasted about 30 minutes,” Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a regional army spokesman, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Ponce said the attack was triggered by the failure of the construction firm to pay extortion money. “The motive here is extortion,” he said, adding RDI executives received an extortion letter prior to the raid.
He said troops were sent to the town Tuesday to track down raiders. The MILF has denied the accusuation. "We have nothing to do with it," Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, said in a separate interview.
Maguindanao is one of five provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region, a known stronghold of the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for independence the past three decades.
Manila’s peace talks with the MILF collapsed in August last year after the rebel group accused the Arroyo government of reneging on a Muslim homeland deal initially signed by both sides in Malaysia.
The Supreme Court said the agreement was unconstitutional. (Mindanao Examiner)
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