2 killed, 15 wounded in South RP grenade blast

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 17, 2009) – Two villagers were killed and more than a dozen injured in a grenade attack in the southern Filipino province of Sulu, the military said on Thursday.

It said the explosion occurred shortly before midnight Wednesday at a carnival on a village called Tubig Puti in the town of Luuk.

“Two civilians were killed and 15 are wounded in the explosion. They were hit by shrapnel,” said Major Ramon David Hontiveros, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command.

He said authorities are still investigating the motive of the attack. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the blast, but the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group is actively operating in the area. Clan war is also common in Sulu.

On Monday night, an explosion also rocked the port of Jolo in the province where US troops, escorted by a small team of Filipino soldiers, were unloading cargoes from a boat.

The soldiers, who panicked by the explosion, indiscriminately fired their weapons, hitting a mosque and several small buildings at the port.

US and Filipino troops involved in the shooting ignored investigations by the police and port authorities. The US troops previously closed down a hospital in the province on suspicion wounded rebels were being treated there.

American Special Forces are deployed in Sulu since 2006 and have been assisting the local military in defeating the Abu Sayyaf. (Mindanao Examiner)

2 Killed, 9 Wounded In Clan War In Southern RP Isle

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 31, 2008) – At least two people were killed and 9 others wounded in a firefight between followers of two Muslim clans in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said Friday.

Police said the fighting erupted in the island of Tulayan in the town of Luuk late Thursday afternoon. “Two people are dead in the fighting and at least nine more were wounded in the fighting between two warring Muslim clans,” Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the Sulu police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Kasim said more policemen were sent to the island to prevent the escalation of hostilities between the Omar and Buclao families, which have been fighting over ancestral lands.

He said Gov. Sakur Tan ordered police and military to disarm the protagonists and seize all illegal weapons on the island and file criminal charges against those involved in the fighting. “There is a joint police and military operation to disarm private armies in the area,” he said.

Tan previously ordered authorities to dismantle private armies and seize all illegal weapons and declared a total gun ban in the province.

Kasim said the protagonists traded mortar fire and engaged in sporadic clashes that lasted well into the night. He said the fighting subsided after police, backed by government soldiers, were deployed on the island.

Police said fighting in May between the two warring Muslim families of Arbison and Amiril in Luuk town also killed one person and wounded six others. The fighting, it said, was triggered by an old family feud.

Clan feud or rido is common in many parts of the southern Philippines. The U.S. Agency for International Development and think tank Asia Foundation have said more than 3,000 people have been killed over the past seven decades in family feuds in the southern Philippines.

Rido can involve disputes among family members or among two or more rival families, pitting neighbors or different ethnic groups against each other. The disputes center on issues of land, money, marriage or political power and involve revenge killing.

The violence increases with each act of retaliation, broadening to include those not directly involved in the dispute, including women and children, according to the Asia Foundation, adding, some feuds lasted for decades. (Mindanao Examiner)

Pabahay At Proyekto Para Sa Mahirap, MNLF Pinuri

Pinangunahan ni Sulu First Lady Nurunisah Tan ang pormal na hand over sa mga pabahay para sa mahihirap na Badjao sa bayan ng Luuk. Bakas sa mukha ng mga Badjao ang lubos na kasiyahan dahil sa pabahay na pinondohan ni Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan sa proyektong inilunsad sa bayan ng Luuk na kung saan ay humingi ng tulong ang mga mahihirap upang magkaroon ng tirahan. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 10, 2008) – Umani ng papuri ang lalawigan ng Sulu mula sa Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at Moro National Liberation Front dahil sa mga ibat-ibang proyektong at magagandang programa nito.

Magandang halimbawa umano ang ginagawa ni Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan at mga opisyal ng lalawigan, partikular sa mga pabahay sa mahihirap na Badjao at MNLF communities. Maging ang mga pro-poor organizations ay nagpahayag na rin ng kagalakan sa mga proyekto at katunayan ay mahigit sa 100 kabahayan ang ilalaan ng Gawad Kalinga sa Sulu sa pakikigtulungan kay Tan.

Natuwa ang MNLF dahil si Tan lamang umano ang nakapagpagawa ng mga proyektong pinakikinabangan ngayon ng mga dating rebeldeng Muslim at kabilang dito ang proyekto ng pabahay sa bayan ng Luuk.

Hiniling ng mga residente sa Luuk kay Tan na sila ay tulungan magkaroon ng pabahay, klinika at iba pa. Kamakailan lamang ay pinangunahan ni Tan at ng First Lady nitong si Hajja Nurunisah Tan ang inagurasyon ng mahigit sa 50 pabahay para sa mahihirap na Badjao sa Luuk.

Hindi maipaliwanag ng mga taga-Luuk ang kanilang kagalakan sa mga proyektong inilaan ni Tan para sa mga mahihirap. Maging ang Armed Forces of the Philippines ay katuwang ni Tan sa maraming mga proyektong isinagawa sa Luuk.

Naunang sinabi ni Tan na palalawigin pa nito ang pagbubuo ng mga cooperatives sa Sulu upang mabigyan ng hanap-buhay ang mga MNLF communities.

Nakahanda na rin ang ibat-ibang mga programang pang-agrikultura at livelihood trainings sa Sulu at ang tanging kahilingan lamang ni Tan ay huiwag samantalahin ng mga negosyante ang mga magsasaka.

Nabatid kasing binabagsak ng mga tiwali at sakim na mga negosyante ang presyo ng cassava na pangunahing pagkain sa Sulu at dahil dito ay nawawalan ng karagdagan kita ang mga magsasaka at napipilitang mangisda na lamang. Nagsumbong na rin kay Tan diumano ang mga magsasaka sa Sulu. (Chris Navarra)

Clan War Erupts In Sulu Province

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 05, 2008) – Fierce fighting between two Muslim clans broke out Monday and triggering an exodus of civilians in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police and government officials said.

The fighting erupted in the town of Luuk and at least one person was reported killed and six more injured from both sides of the warring groups. Police said the fighting erupted between armed followers of Allayon Arbison, the town's vice mayor, and the group of Salip Amiril.

"We are closely coordinating with the military to prevent hostilities from spreading further," Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the provincial police chief, told reporters.

He said the town's mayor, Ahmad Omar, an ally of Arbison, is trying to broker a cease-fire. Arbison is the brother of Sulu Rep. Munir Arbison, while Amiril is a trader, whose family is engaged in buy and sell of local and imported goods.

Khalil Tan, a member of the Sulu Provincial Board, said one person was killed on the side of Amiril and two others wounded. And that four of Arbison's followers were also injured in the clash.

"We are waiting for reports about the fighting and the status of those civilians who fled the fighting," he said.

Police said the fighting was triggered by an old family feud. "There is gun fight going on and we are trying to pacify the warring groups," Kasim said.

It was unknown how illegal weapons fell into the hands of civilians. Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan previously ordered police and military authorities to dismantle private armies and seize all illegal weapons and declared a total gun ban in the province.

Police said it was not the first time the groups of Arbison and Amiril clashed in Luuk town. (Mindanao Examiner)

AFP, Battling A New War In Southern Philippines

Badjao natives pose with Marine Generals Juancho Sabban and Cesario Atienza and Sulu Governor Sakur Tan and his deputy Nur Anna Sahidulla, center, and other provincial officials and behind them the newly-constructed bamboo houses, a project called "Operation Kandili." Badjao children listen to a marine soldier who doubles as a teacher in Sulu province as Gov. Sakur Tan and his deputy Nur Anna Sahidulla inspected a school built by soldiers in Luuk town. (Mindanao Examiner Photos)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 26, 2007) – From rustic M16 automatic rifles and smoke grenades, now Filipino marines are arming themselves for a new kind of war - a battle of wits and patience -- to win over minds and hearts of Muslims in the southern island of Sulu, where poverty breeds terrorism.

Now marines in this island of more than half a million Muslims are armed not with weapons, but chalks and pencils, battling to save poor children and educate them to win the war against illiteracy.

Soldiers have not only built schools for the poor in Sulu province, but teach the children basic elementary education. Called the "School for Badjao Adults and Out-Of-School Youth," dozens of mostly poor children who have not held a single book in their life, now are reciting the alphabets and slowly learning how to read.

"Our mission is to help the children in Sulu, our children," one soldier told the Mindanao Examiner and pointed on a signboard outside the school that reads: "Mission…To provide literacy program for the Badjao out-of-school youth that will qualify them for the formal elementary education of the Department of Education as well as basic education for the Badjao adults to be enable them to communicate and exercise their rights, conduct themselves with dignity and courage, and enable them to perform their civic duties as Filipino citizens."

Brig. Gen. Cesario Atienza, commander of the 2nd Marine Brigade in Sulu, said they are also collecting second-hand books for the children.

"The children now go to school clean everyday and eager to learn more and this is basic education and their teachers are the soldiers who patiently held them achieve their dreams and that is to learn how to read and write."

“The soldiers not only teach the children, they have also embarked on various skills training program to help poor families start their own small business – from mat weaving to rice cake baking and other sustainable livelihood projects," he said in a separate interview.

Atienza said soldiers also finished at least 50 bamboo houses, worth over P26,500 each, for poor Badjao families in Tandu Bato in Luuk town. He said Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan funded the project called "Operation Kandili – Preserving a unique culture through providing homes for the Badjao."

He said they will construct at least 50 more houses in Luuk town. They have also finished a basketball court. Tan inspected the projects on Monday and promised to release more funding for education and poverty alleviation programs drawing wild cheers and applause from more than 100 Badjao natives chanting his name.

"He is a good man, a good leader and without him, there will be no beautiful bamboo houses like those. Now, many Badjao families will no longer live by the sea or on those dilapidated thatched houses you see over there on your left," said Kasim, a 29-year old Badjao fisherman, pointing to a row of old bamboo houses on stilts.

Tan said more development projects are underway in Sulu. "We have been funding and implementing a lot of projects in Sulu and all these are part of our peace and development programs. We want a culture of peace and this can be achieved through education and basic infrastructure projects and with the participation of course, of the people themselves," he said.

Marine Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of military forces in Sulu, told soldiers during an inspection Monday to work hard to achieve peace in the province by engaging in humanitarian missions to win hearts and minds of the locals.

"We must put an end to the cycle of violence in Sulu, to the threats of the Abu Sayyaf and other terror groups and we can achieve this not by the barrel of the gun, but by winning hearts and minds of the people. With the people on our side, we will surely win the war on terror," he said.

The number of Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu have drastically dwindled over the past years after many of its known leaders were either killed or captured. From over 1,000 a decade ago, authorities estimate the number of Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the province to be around 200 or less. (Mindanao Examiner)