Protests greet Arroyo in Davao, Cotabato cities; 8 activists arrested

Filipino leader Gloria Arroyo during her visits Friday, July 17, 2009 to Davao and Cotabato cities. Her visits sparked protests from student activists who are opposing proposals by Arroyo’s allies in Congress to amend the Constitution that could prolong her stay in power. Arroyo is to step down next year, but is said to be seeking a congressional seat in her hometown in Pampanga. And her allies are proposing a shift to parliamentary government where

Arroyo could be elected as Prime Minister. (Photo by Allan Martin Tamayo / Text by the Mindanao Examiner)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 17, 2009) – Police arrested eight political activists during a rally in Cotabato City in the southern Philippines where Filipino leader Gloria Arroyo visited on Friday.

Police whisked the young men as they protested proposals by Arroyo’s allies in Congress to amend the Constitution that could prolong her into power.

“We refuse to be used as laboratory for ‘destabilizers’ and agenda seekers of Charter Change, we refuse to be categorized as ‘harborers’ of terrorists,” said Michael Dumamba, a spokesman for the youth organization called Liga ng Kabataang Moro.

Dumamba said his group was conducting a peaceful rally, but policemen stopped them and arrested the eight, mostly students. The Liga ng Kabataang Moro last week also protested the killing of an eleven-year old Muslim girl who was allegedly shot by soldiers during a raid at a village outside Cotabato.

The militant group Suara Bangsamoro has demanded the immediate release of those arrested. It said police were harassing political activists.

Arroyo arrived in Cotabato from Davao City where she inaugurated a new building at the Awang airport in Maguindanao province.

In Davao City, students of Holy Cross of Davao College lit candles and held a noise barrage outside their school also to protest amendments in the Constitution.

“We hold the future of this nation. We do not favour Charter change because it is a selfish move by politicians who are desperate to remain in power,” said Cai Safar, a social work student, who joined the protest.

Arroyo is to step down next year, but is said to be seeking a congressional seat in her hometown in Pampanga. And her allies are proposing a shift to parliamentary government where Arroyo could be elected as Prime Minister. (Mindanao Examiner)

NPA rebels ambush troops in Mindanao

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 17, 2009) – The Philippine military on Friday said communist insurgents attacked an army patrol, killing a soldier and wounding six more in the restive southern region of Mindanao.

The military said the soldiers were ambushed on Thursday near the village of Fortuna village in Impasug-ong town. The attack occurred after Manila announced it was resuming stalled peace talks with the New People’s Army rebels next month.

The talks collapsed in 2004 after both sides failed to sign a peace deal that would end more than four decades of bloody fighting.

The military has repeatedly said it would crush communist insurgency before President Gloria Arroyo ends her term next year. But the NPA just laughed off the claims, saying rebel forces are winning the war in the countryside.

“The persistent prating of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that it can crush the NPA before Gloria Arroyo's term ends is nothing but mantra parroted by its lower commands to supposedly show to their master Gloria Arroyo their victories in the battlefields thereby obtaining the much sought promotions and the needed budget for more corruption.”

“The NPA has launched more or less one tactical offensive daily nationwide. Further adding up to its strength is the regime's elimination of distinction between the legal and progressive forces to that of the armed movement as all enemies of state goading the former to adapt a guerrilla-style of work to dodge the dreaded death squads of the fascist state,” the rebel group said. (Mindanao Examiner)

Notre Dame College joins emergency drill in Kidapawan City

Hundreds of students joined an emergency drill held Friday, July 17, 2009 at the Notre Dame of Kidapawan College in the southern Filipino city of Kidapawan. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Geo Solmerano)

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 17, 2009) – Hundreds of students joined an emergency drill held Friday at the Notre Dame of Kidapawan College in the southern Filipino city of Kidapawan.

The drill was also joined by teachers and members of the local Red Cross as part of the city-wide activity that aims to prepare citizens from any emergency responses. Students were briefed on the use of fire extinguishers, first aid among other procedures that could save lives in case of calamities and other emergencies.

Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco earlier issued an executive order enjoining government agencies and private institutions to participate in Friday’s emergency drill. (Geo Solmerano and Nina Rodriguez)

Marines chief is new military commander for Western Mindanao

Major General Benjamin Dolorfino. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 16, 2009) – Philippine Marines chief Major General Benjamin Dolorfino has formally assumed Thursday as new commander of military forces in Western Mindanao.

Dolorfino replaced Lieutenant Nelson Allaga. He vowed to intensify the campaign against Moro and communist rebels and defeat terrorism in the southern Philippines.

It was also the same statement by previous commanders who served and go, but the problems on insurgency and terrorism were still unchanged.

Dolorfino, his aide and 21 other soldiers, including a defense undersecretary, were previously held hostage by Moro rebels in Sulu province after a failed meeting in February 2007.

Moro National Liberation Front rebels under Habier Malik and Khaid Ajibun held Dolorfino’s group for three days and freed them after a series of government negotiations.

The rebels demanded Manila to free detained MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari, who is facing rebellion charges in Manila in exchange for the release of the hostages so he can lead the MNLF to the tripartite conference in Saudi Arabia. (Mindanao Examiner)

Troops, cops rescue 2 kidnapped fishermen in Southern Philippines

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 16, 2009) – Security forces rescued two abducted fishermen after a firefight Thursday with suspected Moro rebels in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, south of Zamboanga City, the military said.

The two - Ronnie Nabi and Renante Saquien – were rescued in Akbar town after policemen, backed by soldiers stormed the village of Semut and clashed with gunmen, believed to be members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Other reports blamed the abductions to the Abu Sayyaf and pirates.

“The fishermen are okay and they were brought to the Western Mindanao Command (in Zamboanga City) for medical examination and debriefing,” Army First Lieutenant Steffani Cacho, a regional military spokeswoman, said.

The fishermen were abducted off Basilan in March after gunmen attacked their trawler and killed three of its crew, said Basilan deputy governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul. “It is good this is over,” he said.

Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, the chief of staff of the police in the Muslim autonomous region, said the victims were rescued after security forces tracked down the kidnappers and eventually clashed with them.

“We have finally recovered the fishermen. There were no reports of casualties in the fighting, but the operation is going on to track down the kidnappers,” said.

Attacks on trawlers and fishermen are not uncommon at sea around Basilan because rebel groups such as the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf are actively operating in the province, just several nautical miles south of Zamboanga City.

In January, Abu Sayyaf gunmen intercepted a small boat carrying state teachers off Zamboanga City and seized the trio and brought them by boat to Basilan and freed in May after private negotiators allegedly paid huge ransoms for their liberty. (Mindanao Examiner)

Mindanao Examiner TV Week In Review July 5-11, 2009

Mindanao Examiner TV Week in Review July 5-11, 2009 Part 1




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Sayyaf amnesty proposal demoralizes troops, cops in Southern Philippine

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 15, 2009) – A proposal to grant amnesty or open peace negotiations with the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group is causing a demoralization in the police and military in the southern Philippines.

Senator Richard Gordon has proposed to grant amnesty to the terrorist group after the recent release of kidnapped Italian aid worker Eugenio Vagni after six months in captivity in the southern island of Sulu.

Sulu deputy governor Nur Ana Sahidulla also said that Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad told her that they are open for talks on amnesty. The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the spate of kidnappings-for-ransom and bombings in the Mindanao.

“We cannot afford to hold a peace talk to the Abu Sayyaf or worst allow they be granted amnesty. The Abu Sayyaf is a terrorist group that had killed not only policemen and soldiers, but innocent people as well.”

“There is growing demoralization now in the ranks of the military in Sulu and perhaps even in areas where soldiers are fighting the Abu Sayyaf,” said one government soldier, who spoke on condition that he would not be named.

Policemen in Sulu province also claimed the proposals to start peace talks or grant amnesty to the Abu Sayyaf has demoralized many of them.

“How many policemen were killed by the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu? Our good provincial commander Julasirim Kasim was killed by the terrorists. They murdered innocent civilians, innocent Muslims. There must be no amnesty, not even peace talks. The Abu Sayyaf and their allies must also be killed so we may have peace in Sulu,” a policeman said.

Kasim was ambushed in May and killed along with were his brother and three other policemen.

Sulu Governor Sakur Tan has also opposed any amnesty to the Abu Sayyaf, saying, the government does not negotiate with terrorists. He blamed the Abu Sayyaf for the series of bomb attacks and kidnappings in Sulu.

“There should be no negotiations with terrorists. Terrorists must pay their crimes,” said Tan, who survived a road bombing in May blamed by the police and military to the Abu Sayyaf group.

Tan, backed by the government, has declared a state of emergency in Sulu to allow authorities to run after Abu Sayyaf supporters who are providing them refuge.

Philippine authorities said the Abu Sayyaf has links with the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya, who was also involved in the kidnapping of Vagni and two other Red Cross workers Swiss national Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba in January in Sulu’s Patikul town.

Lawmakers also opposed the proposals, saying, it would go against the government’s policy of not negotiating with terrorists.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro has rejected any amnesty with the Abu Sayyaf and ordered the military to pursue the terrorist group and its supporters.

The military said it will strictly follow the chain of command and that operations against the Abu Sayyaf will not cease. “The Armed Forces will strictly follow the chain of command. The operation against the Abu Sayyaf is continuing. We are focus in our mission and that is to fight terrorism,” Cacho said.

But Cacho admitted the proposed amnesty and peace talks with the Abu Sayyaf have become a big issue in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. “It is a political issue. It is for the government to settle, but that’s a big issue in the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” she said.

Cacho said they have not received reports that troops were demoralized, but she was quick to say that the military respect the opinions of the soldiers. “Soldiers are entitled to their opinion and this should be respected,” she said.

Secretary Avelino Razon, the presidential peace adviser, also rejected amnesty proposal to the Abu Sayyaf, saying, it goes against the government’s policy of no-negotiations with terrorists.

It was unknown whether the proposed amnesty or peace talks with the Abu Sayyaf would affect US military assistance to the Philippines. Hundreds of US troops are deployed in the southern Philippines, including Sulu, and were helping the local military defeat the Abu Sayyaf since 2001.

The Abu Sayyaf is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by Washington.

Philippine authorities said several Jemaah Islamiya terrorists, among them Mauiya, Dulmatin, Zulkifli bin Hir and Umar Patek, who are all wanted by Indonesia for the spate of deadly attacks, including the Bali bombing in 2002, has joined the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

The US has offered at least $16 million rewards for their capture. (Mindanao Examiner)