Ritwal sa libing ng mga Muslim

Sa tradisyon ng Islam ay dapat mailibing ang bangkay ng isang naswing Muslim sa loob ng 24 oras. Tanging bangkay lamang na balot sa putting tela at walang kabaong ang dapat na mailibing. Ang paghahanda ng dasal para sa bangkay ng isang Muslim bago ito ilibing. Balot sa puting tela ang bangkay at tinatalian ito upang masigurong hindi ito matatanggal. Ganito kung paanong ilibing ang bangkay ng Muslim. (Mindanao Examiner)

BASILAN (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 29, 2010) - Lingid sa kaalaman ng iba, walang Araw ng Patay o undas sa paniniwala ng mga Muslim, ngunit kakaiba ang tradisyon ng Islam. At tulad ng sa Kristiyano ay may mga sinusunod na pamamaraan ang mga Muslim kung sila’y namamatayan.

Sa tradisyon ng mga Muslim ay dapat mailibing agad ang namatay sa loob ng 24 oras at ang mga ritwal na kinapapaluuban nito ang pagpapaligo sa bangkay bago ito ilibing. Dapat ay malinis ang bangkay sa huli nitong hantungan. Matapos na malinisan o mapaliguan ang bangkay ay ibabalot naman ito sa puting saplot bilang simbolo ng kalinisan at saka ito aalayan ng dasal ng isang Imam.

Kalimitang nagtatagal ang dasal sa loob ng 5 minuto o mas mahaba pa. Janazah ang tawag sa dasal ng mga Muslim na alay sa patay. Tradisyon rin na naroon ang pamilya ng namatayan - maliban lamang kung ito’y nasa malayong lugar at imposibleng makauwi agad bago malibing ang bangkay - habang isinasagawa ang pagdarasal.

Matapos ng dasal ay ililibing na ang bangkay na balot sa puting tela. Kalimitang may hugis na titik L ang hukay ng libingan ng isang Muslim. Bago ipasok ang bangkay sa hulay na mistulang kuweba ay aalisan naman ito ng saplot sa kanyang ulo at saka ihihiga ng patagilid at nakahalik ang mukha sa lupa katulad sa pagdarasal ng mga Muslim.

Dapat rin ay nakaharap sa Mecca (ang sentro ng relihiyon ng Muslim sa Saudi Arabia) ang bangkay at ito ay palaging naka turo sa lugar na kung saan lumulubog ang haring-araw o sa kanluran. At saka tatabunan ang libing.

Ngunit iba naman ang paraan sa mga namatay na jihadist o holy warrior kung tawagin o yaong mga Muslim na nakikipaglaban sa digmaan. Kalimitan ay hindi inililibing na ito agad ay hindi na kailangan dumaan sa mga ritwal ng tulad sa nabanggit dahil mga “martir” na ang turing sa mga ito na namatay sa pakikidigma.

Subali’t tulad naman ng mga kristiyano ay naging tradisyon na rin ng maraming mga Muslim na gunitain ang kanilang mga mahal sa buhay 3 araw matapos na malibing ang bangkay o kaya ay sa ika-pito o ika-siyam na araw at may ika-45 pa nga na kung saan ay ginugunita ng mga naiwan ang sumakabilang buhay na. Dasal rin ang kanilang alay. (Mindanao Examiner)

Moros condemn religious discrimination in Switzerland

A mosque stands in the background of a market place in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato. Muslims in the Philippines have condemned the Swiss ban of the construction of minarets in mosques in Switzerland. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Thousands of Muslim believers converged Sunday morning at a public square in Cotabato City in the southern Philipines to condemn a recent move in Switzerland to ban the construction of minarets in mosques.

Muslim religious leaders in Mindanao headed by Sheikh Jaapar Ali spearheaded the rally which was participated by various Islamic schools and other non-governmental organizations and civilians.

Several sectors in attendance have delivered speeches to denounce the Swiss law which for them discriminate the Muslims in Switzerland.

Sheikh Ali read the manifesto of the group. He called on all ulama or religious and political leaders, individuals, and the Organization of Islamic Conference to appeal to the Swiss government to uphold the universal principles for the freedom of religion and the rights of minorities in Switzerland and in other parts of the world.

Ustadz Norden Hussain who represented the group of Imams in the city also called on all Muslims in the world to stand united in condemning the Swiss government.

He emphasized that Muslims in the world are brothers and sisters even how far a distance they may be situated. He also challenged the Muslim leaders in the Philippines, especially those seeking elective position in the government for the May polls, to show their sincerity to be a true Muslim.
“Most of our leaders are so prompt to attend a rally if it’s for politics (campaigns) but they do not if it’s for fighting the rights of the Bangsamoro, most of all, for Islam. This is the time for you to express concern with our brothers in other country” Hussain emotionally uttered

Lawyer James Dalumimbang, who brought out the voice of the Muslim professionals, described the fate of the minorities in the Southern Philippines. He told the huge crowd the disadvantaged status of the Bangsamoro in its native place and narrated a few footnotes of the past where Muslims in the Philippines were abused and mercilessly killed.

For the women sector, Ustadza Anisa Taha challenged the Muslim ummah to condemn in the strongest possible term the law banning the making of minaret in the Mosques in Switzerland.

She also issued a strong opposition to the law in France prohibiting women to wear hijab. “I call on the united kingdom and the western world in general to propagate peace without discriminating other religion (Islam). Otherwise, world hatred will exist among religions in the world” Ustadza Anisa said.

The rally ended after the groups in attendance have signed the manifesto.(Nash Acan)

Sulu To Send Muslim Clerics, Students Leaders On Education Tour In Malaysia, Saudi

Sulu Governor Sakur Tan prays with other Muslims in Patikul town. Tan says he will send student leaders and Muslim clerics on educational tours in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia as part of a local government program aimed at enhancing their knowledge on Islam and Shari'a law. (Mindanao Examiner Photos/Nickee Butlangan and Mark Navales)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 12, 2008) - Muslim clerics in the southern Philippine province of Sulu hailed a proposal to send selected clergies in other Muslim and Arab countries as part of a local education program.

Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, the proponent of the program, said sending ulama in countries like Malaysia and Saudi Arabia will further enhance their knowledge of the shari’a law, including philosophy, dialectical theology or Quoranic hermeneutics.

Usually, the fields studied and the importance given them will vary from tradition to tradition, or even from seminary to seminary.

“We will send the ulama to an education trip to further expose them and enhance more their knowledge of Islam, the shari’a and other fields,” Tan, himself a religious man, told the Mindanao Examiner.

The ulama in most nations consider themselves to represent the ijma (consensus) of the Ummah (community of Muslims) or to represent at least the scholarly or learned consensus. Many efforts to modernize Islam focus on the reintroduction of ijtihad and empowerment of the Ummah to form their own ijma.

In a broader sense, the term ulama is used to describe the body of Muslim clergy who have completed several years of training and study of Islamic sciences, such as a mufti, qadi, faqih or muhaddith.

Aside from the ulama, Tan said he will also send dozens of Muslim high school and college student leaders in Malaysia for an education tour where they would visit different schools and meet with other student leaders.

“The tour will give our students an opportunity to see and observe the educational system in Malaysia and mingle with Malaysian students and we can even propose or start an exchange program between Sulu and Malaysian students,” Tan said.

Education in Malaysia broadly consists of a set of stages which are Pre-school, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Tertiary Education and postgraduate studies. In 2003, Malaysia introduced the use of English as a medium of teaching in all science subjects.

Tan said the Sulu provincial government will spend for both the ulama and students education program which will begin this year.

“This is good and we long wanted to travel to other Muslim or Arab nations and observe the implementation of their respective shari’a law and other Islamic scholarly issues,” one Muslim cleric, who identified himself only as Ustadz Mohammad, said.

Tan, a known philanthropist in the southern Philippines, urged students to excel in their academics and pursue their goals so they can be a responsible citizen and future leaders of the province.

“Education is very important and only through education that we can help not only our family, but the government as well by becoming more responsible and a partner in nation building,” Tan, a former congressman, said. (With reports from Nickee Butlangan and Mark Navales)

Muslims To Get Own Homeland In Southern Philippines

MILF women during a plenum in Mindanao while rebels raise their flags. And a Muslim rebel reads the holy Koran during a break in the training in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 12, 2007) – Muslims in the southern Philippines may soon have a separate homeland, an aspiration they have longed for centuries, as the seven-year old peace talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Arroyo government may finally end in a treaty that will bring unity and harmony in the strife-torn, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao.

Philippine government and MILF peace negotiators have finally agreed on the issue of issue of ancestral domain, which refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.

Peace talks have been stalled since September last year after both sides failed to agree on the scope of the ancestral domain. It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement.

Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, said both sides are expected to sign the agreement on ancestral domain probably before the year ends after the two groups ended a meeting in Malaysia in November.

Malaysia, an influential member of the Organization of Islamic Conference, is brokering the peace talks between Manila and the MILF, but it had previously threatened to pull out its contingent from the International Monitoring Team if the negotiations remain stalled.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said they wanted progress in the peace talks.

Government and rebel negotiators had previously held secret talks in Kuala Lumpur since early this year, but they failed to arrive at an agreement that would end Muslim insurgency in the southern Philippines.

“We have already agreed on the issue of ancestral domain and we expect to sign the agreement soon,” Iqbal told the Mindanao Examiner.

The ancestral domain which covers the whole of Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And even Palawan Island in central Philippines and the Sulu Archipelago.

“Basically, nothing has been changed on the scope of the Muslim homeland and we are now consolidating all other agreements in preparation for the next round of peace talks in January next year in Malaysia.”

“We will tackle the political settlement and eventually, In ša Allāh, sign a peace deal and finally put an end to the problems of insurgency and start socio-economic projects in Mindanao,” Iqbal said.

In ša Allāh is an Arabic term evoked to indicate hope for an aforementioned event to occur in the future. The phrase translates into English as “God willing” or “if it is God's will”

In his recent released book entitled “The Long Road To Peace,” Iqbal wrote the peace negotiations have been driven in positive direction through a combination of several factors: moving forward creatively on substantive issues, political will on both sides, able third party facilitation, a solid cease-fire mechanism combined with joint law enforcement features, aggressive international support, constructive grassroots activism and interfaith dialogue, among others.

“Self-determination evokes strong emotions in the warrior and concern in established power structures. The fear of a new nation or sub-state spinning off from the main is valid, and must be conditioned by an enlightened gradualist approach.”

“It seems that both sides in the negotiations support this approach not only because it avoids pitfalls of misunderstanding among constituencies that need to be transparently brought and not forced into the process, and allows the conventions that breed conflict to wash off as the Philippine government and the MIF try to reinvent the strategies of peace,” Iqbal wrote.

Mohammad Ameen, a senior rebel leader, said the MILF will only sign a peace deal with Manila if it establishes genuine governance for Muslims either in the form of “state” or “sub-state”.

President Gloria Arroyo has opened up peace talks with the MILF, the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group fighting for the establishment of a strict Islamic state, in 2001.

The MILF earlier warned that hostilities may erupt in Mindanao if the peace talks fail or if Malaysia pulls out its truce observers from the International Monitoring Team in Mindanao, whose 16 million populations included four million Muslims.

The IMT is composed of 41 officers from the Malaysian Defense Forces, the Royal Malaysia Police, and the Prime Minister’s Department and is also supported by 10 military officers from Brunei Darussalam and 5 from Libya. Japan also has a member in the IMT.

The MILF said Libya also wanted to help in the peace talks and has offered to host the negotiations in Tripoli. Former Libyan ambassador Salem Adam has met with MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim and has assured the rebel group of Tripoli’s support to the peace talks.

“Libya has been very supportive of our struggle to have peace in Mindanao,” Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, said in a separate interview.

He said the MILF is optimistic with the peace talks.

“We are glad that the talks were fruitful and the MILF is looking forward for the resumption of the peace negotiations. We wanted peace to reign in Mindanao,” Kabalu said.

But analysts fear that Arroyo or her allies in the House of Representatives might use the peace talks with the MILF as an excuse to amend the Constitution to change the system of government from Presidential to Parliamentary or Federalism to allow the MILF to have a separate state and eventually prolong her into power beyond 2010.

Under the Presidential form of government, Arroyo is allowed only three terms, but she can be elected as Prime Minister should Congress, dominated by her political allies, approves a proposal to dissolve the Senate and change the system of government to Parliamentary.

Arroyo, who deposed President Joseph Estrada in a people power revolution in 2001, is unpopular in the Philippines and topped the list of the most corrupt presidents in recent history, according to a Pulse Asia Survey.

The survey conducted Among 1,200 respondents nationwide from October 21-31, 2007 showed that 42% think that Arroyo is the most corrupt followed by Ferdinand Marcos with 35% and Joseph Estrada with 16%. Former presidents Fidel Ramos with 5% and Corazon Aquino with 1% came in at the bottom of the list.

The Philippines is also perceived to be among the world’s most corrupt countries and ranked 131st out of the 180 nations studied, with a 2.5 rating, together with Burundi, Honduras, Iran, Libya, Nepal, and Yemen, according to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index released recently by the Berlin-based organization Transparency International.

The index score ranges between 0, which is highly corrupt, and 10, which is very clean. (Mindanao Examiner)

RP Poll Body Gets New Muslim Member

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 01, 2007) - President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday named a prominent Muslim judge from the southern Philippines to sit at one of seven commissioners at the Commission on Elections.

The Philippine News Agency said Arroyo appointed Iligan City Judge Moslemen Macarambon Sr. to fill a post that has been vacant for nearly a year. The last Muslim poll commissioner was Mehol Sadain, a professor of Asian studies at the University of the Philippines.

The appointment must still pass the scrutiny of and confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, which convenes next week.

But this early, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he would oppose Macaranbon's appointment because of the judge's close association with former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who was accused of cheating in the last presidential elections in favor of Arroyo.

Macarambon's appointment completes the six slots for commissioners. The seventh slot, that of chairman, has been vacant since October 1, when Benjamin Abalos resigned.

Abalos resigned after he was accused of bribery over a government broadband deal favoring a Chinese firm. Senior Commissioner Resurreccion Borra has replaced ABalaos.

Commenting on the appointment, Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento said he was "quite surprised" since Macarambon's name was not in a purported list recently circulated to the press.

"Honestly, I do not know the person, his professional background, his competence… but he is a Muslim and for me it is a welcome (move) because it is consistent with the peace agreement between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the government, that Muslims be appointed (to high posts) in government," said Sarmiento, a former undersecretary in the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The purported list, however, mentioned another Muslim, Alioden Dalaig, Comelec's director of the law department, as among the candidates from whom the President picks her choice.

Macarambon was reportedly recommended by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. and now ambassador to the Philippine mission in the United Nations. He belongs to the well-known and highly-regarded Macarambon clan of Lanao province.

The rest of the commissioners are Florentino Tuason, Romeo Brawner, and Nicodemo Ferrer.

Zamboanga Maid Abused In Dubai Flies Back Home

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 29 Mar) – A Filipino maid, who was abused by her employers in Dubai, is set to return to her native home in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines.

But the 21-year old Faija Salamat has reasons to come home happy despite her ordeal in the hands of a Kuwaiti woman and her Iraqi husband after a court in Dubai found the couple guilty.

Salamat was subjected to gratuitous torture and violence at the hands of her female Kuwaiti employer and an Iraqi man last July until her escape.

The two were jailed on February 27 having been sentenced to three years followed by deportation. They were found guilty of sexual harassment, battery and illegal detention, the Dubai-based online news site 7DAYS reported on Thursday.

The couple allegedly admitted torturing Salamat like she was a prisoner at the Abu Ghraib, a notorious U.S. military facility in Iraq.

“All I can think of now is to be with my family,” 7DAYS quoted Salamat as saying.

“I’m so excited to see my parents and my seven siblings back home. I just want to be home as soon as possible. I feel anxious - the memory of the cruel abuse continues to haunt me,” she said.

Salamat, a high school graduate, left home when she was only 18, to work as a housemaid in Kuwait in 2003 before working in Dubai eight months ago.

“I’d like to forget all about it and move on. At night, I sometimes cry myself to sleep when I remember them and the torture,” she said.

Salamat said her employers would undress her and touched her intimately and often times would stub lit cigarettes near her private parts. They also burned her with hot coals and scrub ice cubes on her body.

She said she was kept in a room for three days before forcing the door open and fleeing to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai.

“I don’t think I can forgive them for the awful things they have done to me. I hope that it will serve as a lesson for employers not to mistreat and subject maids to physical and psychological abuse,” Salamat said.

It was not immediately known where Salamat’s family is residing in Zamboanga City and the Department of Social Welfare and Development said it has to receive a report from the Philippines’ Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) about the young Muslim woman.

“We have no reports about Faija Salamat or anything about her case. We have to receive an endorsement from the OWWA so we can take an immediate action about this as soon as she arrives home,” a local social welfare assistant Maryann Boncaras told the Mindanao Examiner on Thursday. (Mindanao Examiner)

Militants Denounce Arrest Of Muslim Farmer In Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 26 Feb) – The militan party list group, Suara, on Monday urged the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the illegal arrest of a Muslim farmer in the southern Philippine port city of Davao.

It said security forces arrested Nahar Darawi, 20, for a still unknown reason. It condemned the arrest that occurred Friday in Purok 5 in the village of San Isidro in Bunawan District.

"We have been warning about this and it is coming; the Moro people suffering the deadly effects of a law anchored on paranoia and the desire to curtail the basic rights of the people," said Zaynab Ampatuan, national deputy security general of Suara.

"We condemn this incident and all the incidents where the Moro people, the national minority, end up being victims of an oppressive government. What happened to Nahar Darawi is an additional proof that this government can tag any individual as terrorist, make unlawful arrests and detain without filing charges against the person," Ampatuan said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Ampatuan said the farmer was arrested just after Friday’s Muslim prayers. Police and military operatives barged into the houses, even without search warrants, and seized Darawi and interrogated for hours, his relatives said.

"The military and police wanted some information from Nahar Darawi and they wanted it pathetically that they took him even without proper court documents. This just shows that civilians barely can trust their lives and freedom from very people who are supposed to secure them and assure them of free space for the exercise of this freedom," Ampatuan said.

Abubakar Uy, the party list’s secretary general in Mindanao, denounced the arrest.

"We also call on the Commission on Human Rights to investigate. This is not just a simple case of questioning and wanting to get information from a farmer. This is about the Moro people being the usual suspects. This is about harassment and profiling," Uy said.

Uy said the occurrence of this incident, along with other similar cases in Mindanao is one of the reasons why their group has consistently registered their opposition to the enactment of the anti-terror bill.

He said if such violations to basic human rights of the Moro and the rest of the national minorities are prevalent now, "how much more if such a hasty and vague legislation is implemented soon."

Last year, Rakman Camili, from Tagum City, was allegedly abducted by the military and had never been seen since then. Authorities linked Camili to the bombing of Sasa Wharf in April 2003 that left scores of people dead and wounded. (Mindanao Examiner)

Philippine Soldiers Accused Of Torturing Muslims Linked To Rebels

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 05 Feb) – The Moro Islamic Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) accused Monday Philippine soldiers of torturing five Muslim villagers they seized in North Cotabato province, scene of clashes between security and rebel forces.

It said members of the Philippine Army’s reconnaissance unit tortured the five, one of them a mother, into admitting they were MILF rebels. The five, the MILF, said were only farmers who fled last week’s fighting between rebels and troops in Midsayap town.

One of the five, identified only as Harun, was badly beaten that he was rushed to hospital in Cotabato City. And the rest had been mauled by soldiers and that two claimed they were clubbed with a hammer on the head and hands by their interrogator to force them to admit they were terrorists.

The four, Mira Matelendo, 29; and brothers Tho, 24; Bahnarin, 18; and Endong Alim, 16, were searching for food in the village of Kadingilan to bring back to a government refugee shelter nearby when soldiers arrested them.

An MILF cease-fire unit and members of the Malaysia-led international truce monitoring team rescued the four on Sunday; about four hours after soldiers arrested them.

The MILF said many Muslim villagers had been arrested and tortured in North Cotabato after accusing them as members of the rebel group, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila.

“I was frightened to death while we were in the hands of the soldiers. All that was in my mind is my five-month old baby. It also came into my mind that Tho will be killed when the soldiers took him from us and brought him to one place,” Mira said.

The MILF on Monday protested the arrest and torture of the civilians and it will bring the matter to the attention of the government peace panel.

Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, said a Muslim preacher was earlier arrested by soldiers in Midsayap town on suspicion that he was a rebel. A Muslim woman, he said, was also shot and wounded by patrolling soldiers near a farm after tagging her as a rebel.

“How can the government win the hearts and minds of Muslims in the southern Philippines when they continue to live under the shadow of constant fear and oppression by soldiers? Where is justice here?” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

Col. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, denied the accusations and branded the reports as propaganda. “They are all lies. It is propaganda. Soldiers are here to protect the civilians against bad elements,” he said in a separate interview.

Last week, rebels and soldiers clashed sporadically for three days in Midsayap town, killing at least 2 people and had forced about 6,000 villagers to flee their homes after government planes, backed by combat helicopters, assaulted suspected MILF strongholds.

Mohager Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, said the fighting erupted after armed militias and Christian landowners tried to drive away local Muslim villagers, some of them members of the MILF. He said the soldiers sided with the militias and attacked rebel forces, sparking sporadic, but fierce clashes since Friday.

The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, is fighting for independence the past three decades. It signed a cease-fire with the government in 2001 that paved the way for the peace talks, but despite the truce, sporadic clashes still continue in many areas in the troubled region with both sides accusing each other of violating the fragile accord. (Mindanao Examiner)

Strafing Injures Muslim Mother, Boy In Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 15 Jan) – Unidentified gunmen on Monday opened fire on a house in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, wounding a Muslim mother and his son, police said.

Police said the woman and the nine-year old boy were hit in the body. Both were sleeping in their room when the gunmen fired at their house in the village of Talon-Talon at around 1 a.m.

They were rushed to hospital by neighbors. “I don’t know the motive of the shooting, but the two men escaped on a motorcycle,” the woman’s elder son, Said Dara, said.

Police said it is still investigating the attack.

Dozens of policemen and soldiers and civilians had been killed in a string of gun attacks in Zamboanga City since last year. Authorities blamed hired assassins and Abu Sayyaf militants as behind the spate of attacks. More than 200 people had been killed in violent attacks and summary executions here the past years.

Zamboanga is a predominantly Christian city located on the tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula in the western part of Mindanao island. (Mindanao Examiner)

Muslim Killed In Zamboanga Shooting

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 15 Dec) – Two masked gunmen shot dead a young Muslim man and wounded another in an attack just outside their school in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.

Police said the attack occurred late Thursday in front of the Universidad de Zamboanga in the village of Tetuan. The gunmen escaped on a motorcycle after the shooting, witnesses told police investigators.

“Witnesses claimed they saw two men, their faces covered, and that one of them shot the victims who were just talking in front of the school. The assailants escaped on motorcycle,” said police investigator Romeo Katimbang.

He said the victims were shot in the face and body. No group or individual claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but Katimbang said they were investigating the motive of the shooting.

Gunmen had killed dozens of people in separate attacks the past months in Zamboanga but police blamed the proliferation of illegal weapons and family feud in the spate of attacks. But many of the killings were believed carried out by the Abu Sayyaf group. (Mindanao Examiner)

2 Bodies Of Muslims Found On Boat

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Dec) – Two young Muslim men believed victims of summary execution were recovered Sunday by fishermen from a boat drifting near Sacol Island, several nautical miles off Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, an army commander said.

Colonel Antonio Supnet said the bodies were believed victims of a clan war. “That’s the report we got from the islanders, but we are still investigating this incident,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

The victims were believed to be Muslim natives from Basilan island, who migrated to Zamboanga City, Supnet said, quoting intelligence reports.

He said fishermen found the boat drifting and were shocked to see the bodies. No groups or individual claimed responsibility for the killings, but Supnet said troops were sent to the island to investigate.

Family feud or clan war are common in the strife-torn region, where fighting between protagonists sometimes could last for months and years or even decades until blood money is paid and settlement has been agreed among the warring groups. (Mindanao Examiner)

Killing Of Muslim Girl Sparks Fire Fight In South RP

MAGUINDANAO (Juan Magtanggol / 27 Nov) – Moro Islamic Liberation Front soldiers clashed with government forces after a militia commander allegedly attacked three people, killing a six-year old girl in the southern Philippines, a rebel spokesman said Monday.

Eid Kabalu said the fighting broke out late Sunday in the farming village of Dapiawan in Datu Piang town, where government militias earlier attacked a Muslim woman, Faiza Adam, and her six-year old daughter. “The girl was instantly killed,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

Prior to the attack, militias also ambushed a rebel leader, Ibrahim Kanapia, wounding his baby, in the neighboring village of Matia. “The attacks were obviously planned and these triggered the fighting,” Kabalu said, adding, Kanapia and Adam are relatives.

He said Kanapia’s group attacked the militias under Taib Munca and torched their detachment in Dapiawan village in retaliation to the killing. He said the fighting may have been triggered by clan war between militias and rebels.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division said five people were wounded in the rebel attack and they also burned and ransacked more than a dozen houses owned by farmers in the village.

It protested the MILF raid on the village, saying, it was a violation of the six-year old truce between the government and the rebel group. “The attack is a violation of the cease-fire agreement. We have submitted to the government peace panel our reports about this incident,” an army spokesman Lt. Col. Julieto Ando said in a separate interview.

He said the Malaysia-led truce observers should investigate the rebel attack.

Manila opened up peace talks in 2001 with the MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group fighting for independence in the southern Philippines.

Malaysia is brokering peace talks between the Filipino government and the MILF, but negotiations ended in September in Kuala Lumpur with both sides failing to sign any agreement on the most contentious issue -- ancestral domain -- which refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.

It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement.

Government peace negotiators previously offered the MILF the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989.

The ancestral domain covers the whole of Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And even Palawan Island in central Philippines.

Peace talks between the government and MILF started in January 1997 but the absence of a neutral third party bogged down the initiative. It was only on March 24, 2001, after the all-out war against the MILF declared by former President Joseph Estrada that Malaysia, at the behest of the Philippine government, facilitated the talks.

However, in February 2003, despite the avowed all-peace policy of President Arroyo, an all-out war was again declared against the rebels, but both sides later agreed to resume peace talks. Just this year, President Arroyo said that 80% of the peace talks have been completed and that permanent peace in Mindanao is within reach. (Mindanao Examiner)