MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 4, 2008) – Southern Philippine troops were told to stay alert for possible attacks by rebels following a decision by the Supreme Court on Monday to block the signing of the final draft agreement on the ancestral domain.
“We are monitoring the situation now,” Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a regional army spokesman, told the Mindanao Examiner.
The High Court temporarily stopped the signing of the accord that would eventually grant Muslim a separate homeland in Mindanao. Zamboanga City Rep. Erico Fabian and other lawmakers filed the petition asking the Supreme Court to stop the signing.
The court issued the temporary restraining order a day before government peace negotiators are to sign the agreement with the MILF, which is fighting the past four decades for a separate Islamic state in the troubled South.
Ando said sporadic fighting between security and rebel forces in North Cotabato province the past days have forced many villagers to flee their homes.
North Cotabato is also included in the ancestral domain and so are other areas in Mindanao, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Zamboanga City.
Thousands of people in Zamboanga City led by Mayor Celso Lobregat rallied Monday against the inclusion of at least 8 villages in the proposed Muslim homeland. Lobregat said Muslims and Christians are living peacefully in Zamboanga City.
He said many Muslim village leaders are also opposing the inclusion of their communities to the ancestral domain.
Presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said only predominantly Muslim island of Sacol, which is several nautical miles of Zamboanga City, is included in the ancestral domain and that a plebiscite on areas cover by the agreement would be held a year later after the formal signing of the accord.
North Cotabato Deputy Governor Emmanuel Pinol last week also petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the signing.
Philippine authorities have previously blamed the MILF for the spate of kidnappings and terrorism in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)
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