What The Heck? Zamboanga Residents Go About Their Lives

Zamboanga City residents go about their daily routine unmindful of the elections propaganda of politicians who promise "heaven and earth" to win in the Mayo 10, 2010 general polls. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

Sulu Guv Hit By Black Propaganda

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 8, 2010) – The Philippine National Police denied Monday a published report linking Sulu governor Sakur Tan to a grenade explosion last year at a carnival in the province’s Luuk town.

The September grenade attack killed three 3 people and wounded several others.

Chief Inspector Amil Baanan, of the Sulu Provincial Police Office, said the attack was triggered by a business rivalry between two amusement game operators at the carnival.

“Doon sa peryahan ay mayroon mga magka-kumpetensya sa amusement games, siyempre malaki ang kita nuong nasa kabila, yun sa kabila mahina so pumunta yun sa kabila doon at hinulog nila, hinagis ang granada sa mga tao doon na nanunuod.”

“Yun pangyayari eh talagang sinadya, business rivalry ito. Mayroon na tayong isang suspek pero at-large, pero na-file na natin yun case. Pinaghahanap na rin natin ang suspek,” Baanan said.

A local newspaper, the Daily Zamboanga Times, on Monday published the report. It said at least 6 people filed the case against Tan, a known philanthropist and a religious man. The newspaper did not get either the side of Tan or the Philippine National Police about the incident.

Tan’s supporters branded the report as black propaganda and politically motivated. “Who else would do that but those people with evil motives, those who cannot speak about their accomplishments because they have done nothing to improve the lives of the Tausugs or bring peace and development to Sulu just as what Governor Sakur Tan brought us since winning by a landslide the 2007 elections,” one supporter, Hajji Usman, said.

He said Tan’s political foes have been pestering the governor with incredible accusations and various lies. (Mindanao Examiner)

Electric coop to tear down signs put on Zambo street poles

Two candidates - who are part of the political party of Celso Lobregat, the mayor of Zamboanga City - for the Zamboanga City Council, put up their signboards on electrical posts in Zamboanga City despite a local ordinance prohibiting the putting of any signs on electric poles. Engineer Cesar Melat, of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 says they would tear down the illegal signs. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / January 27, 2010) – The Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative on Wednesday ordered the removal of signs put by politicians on street lights, saying, it violated a local ordinance.

Engineer Cesar Melat said there is an existing city ordinance that prohibits the putting of any signs on street poles. He said they would remove all signs illegally put on street lights.

Two candidates - who are part of the political party of Celso Lobregat, the mayor of Zamboanga City - for the City Council, put up their signboards on electrical posts.

“We will remove these signs. They are illegal because there is a city ordinance that prohibits the putting of any signs on street poles which is also dangerous,” Melat told the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

Many local politicians who are running for reelections have resorted to different propaganda ahead of the start of the campaign period on March 25 for the general elections in May.

Some politicians even had their jingles whose melody is lifted from different Filipino and foreign songs and aired in radio stations. (Mindanao Examiner)

Philippine Moro rebels deny military reports

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 13 2009) - Philippine Muslim rebels branded Saturday as propaganda claims by the military that at least 10 guerrillas were killed in fresh fighting in Mindanao.

Eid kabalu, a senior Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader, called the reports "a product of military propagandists" and said the claims were false.

"Every time the 6th Infantry Division comes out with a press release, you see MILF casualties in their reports. Even activities by criminals are blamed on the MILF. That's not psychological warfare, but a propaganda to cover up for the military's human rights violations and its failure to defeat the MILF," he said.

The army said 10 rebels were killed in the fighting in Maguindanao province in the restive Muslim autonomous region.

President Gloria Arroyo said she would resume stalled peace talks with the MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group. Negotiations collapsed last year after Manila reneged on a Muslim homeland deal.

Other MILF commanders believe Arroyo only wanted to resume peace talks as a cover so her political allies can freely campaign in the Muslim autonomous region and other parts of Mindanao for next year's polls. (Mindanao Examiner)

Military claims killing 7 rebels in Mindanao clashes

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 07, 2009) – At least seven communist rebels were killed in fighting with government troops in the southern Philippines, the military said Saturday.

But rebels denied the military claims and branded the report as propaganda. The military claimed seven New People’s Army members were killed in Friday clashes in the town of Tulunan in North Cotabato province.

Fierce fighting had been reported the past few days between military and rebel forces in the province where NPA gunmen ambushed an army convoy on Wednesday.

The rebels also attacked army soldiers the next day, sparking sporadic clashes that forced civilians to flee their homes, according to military reports.

“The military is resorting to propaganda because of the defeat they suffered from the hands of revolutionary forces,” a rebel spokesman, Ka Valentin said.

The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, has been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.

Rebel leaders broke off peace talks with the Arroyo government in 2004 after the United States listed the communist rebel group, including the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad on government's prodding.

The NPA vowed to intensify attacks against police and military targets in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)

MILF, AFP trade accusations of truce violations, propaganda in Mindanao

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 11, 2008) – Moro rebels and military officials on Tuesday traded accusations of cease-fire violations and propaganda with both sides claiming to have killed dozens of soldiers and mujahideen in fierce fighting in Mindanao.

The Philippine Army said at least 10 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were slain and 15 more wounded in Monday clashes in the town of Wao in Lanao del Sur town province.

And the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, claimed that at least 26 government soldiers perished in the fierce firefight that lasted several hours.

“We have intelligence reports that at least ten rebels were killed and that 15 more are wounded in the fighting,” said Col. Nicanor Dolojan, commander of 403rd Infantry Brigade in the province.

Dolojan said the bodies of slain rebels were taken away by MILF forces under Sulayman Pangalian.

He said more than 100 rebels clashed with security forces in the town’s hinterland village called Park after the military launched a preemptive strike to prevent the gunmen from getting near civilian areas. “We have recovered one B40 anti-tank rocket left behind by fleeing rebels,” Dolojan said.

But Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, denied the military report and said rebel forces killed many soldiers in the fighting. “Every time there is fighting; the military would say that many rebels were killed. It is our forces that had killed many soldiers and Monday’s fighting left at least 26 dead,” he said.

Pangalian is one of three MILF leaders wanted by authorities for killing innocent civilians in deadly attacks in August in provinces in Mindanao. The two other rebel commanders, Ameril Kato and Abdullah Macapaar, are also being hunted by thousands of army soldiers.

Security officials on Friday also said at least 19 MILF rebels were killed and three army soldiers wounded in sporadic, but fierce clashes in the towns of Mamasapano and Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao, one of six provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

The military previously said that Pangalian, Kato and Macapaar were on the run and without munitions because of the continued government offensives and in several occasions claimed the rebel leaders had been killed in separate fighting.

But both Kato and Macapaar later surfaced separately and held their own clandestine media interview and vowed to launch more attacks and at the same time dared the military to get them.

The media have virtually become a battle ground of lies and deceit and propaganda tool for rebels and the military with the public getting confused over what is being reported as the truth.

More than half a million people have been displaced by the hostilities in Mindanao since August despite a cease-fire agreement signed in 2001 after President Gloria Arroyo opened up peace talks with the MILF, which is fighting for self-determination in the troubled, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao.

Manila suspended peace talks with the MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao, after the rebel attacks in August.

The attacks were triggered by the failed signing of the Muslim territorial deal between the MILF and the government. The deal would have granted more than four million Muslims their own homeland across 700 villages in the troubled region, but the accord also sparked massive protests from residents and politicians opposed to the accord. The Supreme Court declared the government ancestral domain deal with the MILF as unconstitutional. (Mindanao Examiner)

13 MILF rebels killed in Philippine military air strikes

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Rebels, Troops Clash Anew In Mindanao

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Mindanao War, The Battle For Propaganda

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 10, 2008) – Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines has become a battle ground, not only of skirmishes between Filipino troops and Moro rebels, but of their propaganda.

Militant groups and political activists, including leftist organizations opposed to President Gloria Arroyo’s rule, have also joined in the propaganda war. Communist rebels too, are now calling the Filipinos to topple the US-backed democratic, but scandals-laden Arroyo government.

Politicians who wanted publicity also are issuing statements about the situation in Mindanao. And civilians are paying a high price for the senseless wars in the restive region.

Since fighting broke out last month, more than 200 people had died and over half a million more are in temporary shelters put up for war refugees in Mindanao and the hostilities continue.

Seven mostly Muslim civilians, including children and a pregnant woman, who died Monday from a military air strike Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town added to the long list of war victims in the southern Philippines.

And the latest casualties had been used both by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine military in their propaganda.

The rebels accused the government forces of killing innocent civilians and the military insisted those killed were either MILF members or had been used as shield by guerrillas fleeing the offensive. And this happened during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month.

Militant groups and other allied organizations were quick to condemn the killings and at the same time pursued calls for Arroyo to step down. And those calling for Arroyo’s ouster were tagged by police and military as communist rebels and if they are members of any Muslim militant groups, authorities would tag them as terrorists and listed as enemy of the state.

The Kawagib Moro Human Rights Organization on Wednesday said the attacks launched by the military troops were no longer against the MILF, but an attack to Muslim civilians and communities.

It said the military initially denied the incident, but later admitted that the air strike had killed the civilians. Security officials had insisted government plane used machine guns and rockets to put down the rebels and not bombs as reported by residents.

“Their statements contradict to what they are doing, and we are used to these lies of the military whenever they committed human rights violations. They denied they used bombs but later admitted they dropped rockets to scare MILF. They said those killed were rebels, but photos and reports showed that all the victims are minors and civilians,” Bai Ali Indayla, Kawagib’s spokesperson said.

“The government and its troops are again showing its military might and it seems that there is an undeclared Martial Law here. What the military committed is a big violation to the International Humanitarian Law, the Protocols of War and Human Rights and the military officials in command should be held accountable and for disrespecting the rights of the Muslim civilians to peacefully observe the holy month of Ramadan,” Indayla said.

The Philippine Army in Maguindanao province branded the slain children as “child warriors” of the MILF.

The Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC), a non-government organization helping children in armed conflict cope with trauma, also deplored the military’s aerial attack on the civilians.

“It is doubly appalling that the military persistently use the ruse of branding children as child warriors whenever they are made to account for their human rights violations. How can these young kids mistaken for children warriors?” asked Maria Esmeralda Macaspac, CRC executive director.

Macaspac scored the military’s penchant for branding children they had killed in their operations as “child warriors.” “The women and children were already fleeing from the military operations in their barangay (village) when they were hit. Would their lives be considered as mere collateral damage?”

She said that it is already inexcusable that the military continues to fail to draw the line between civilians and combatants in their military operations. “Many civilians have already been killed and hundreds of thousands more have been forcibly displaced by the military operations. Every time the government declares war, the civilians are the first to be killed and be displaced rather than be the first to be put to safety,” Macaspac said.

The Maoist-inspired Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization also urged citizens to rise up against Arroyo.

“The Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization urges the Moro people to live out the spirit and call of the Qur'an to pursue peace and justice and fight against oppression and tyranny by intensifying the struggle for the self-determination and frustrating the attacks of the US-Arroyo regime.”

“The MRLO urges the MILF to continue to pursue the path of revolutionary armed struggle and to unite with other revolutionary forces to fight the fascist US-Arroyo regime. The struggle for the right to ancestral domain must continue and commanders who are engaged in tactical offensives against the AFP and the interventionist US troops must be fully supported,” Omar Mukhtar, the group’s leader said.

The outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines also condemned the killings of the civilians in the air strike and put the blamed on the Arroyo government and the US military for the fighting in Mindanao.

“The people must concentrate their anger and condemnation on the US-Arroyo regime as directly responsible on the deaths and damages of the people in Mindanao caused by the escalation of the armed clashes between the AFP and the MILF.”

“The problem can be rooted to the US-dictated two pronged militarist policy of the regime which is the all-out war against the revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) while neutralizing the Moro secessionist movement of the MILF thru a deceptive and bogus peace process to finish the revolutionary movement in 2010,” rebel spokesman Frank Fernandez said.

The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, but talks had been suspended after a series of rebel attacks led by Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar killed dozens of civilians in North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, Sarangani, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, including the Organization of the Islamic Conference have expressed grave concern over the fighting and the humanitarian crisis in Mindanao.

Arroyo has ordered security forces to pursue Kato and Macapaar, but at the same said that “violence must stop, order must be restored, and peace must be our goal. There is no room for wanton violence against innocent civilians.”

“It is in the best interest of all Filipinos, Muslims and Christians, to end the violence that has held that part of our country back,” she said.

“Continued fighting and war is no alternative to a lasting peace. The government is on the side of peace and needs the support of all Filipinos, Christian and Muslim alike, if this opportunity for peace is to be realized and if the country is to prosper.”

“We must now secure peace, order and stability in the region and then reassure all the people that we can then move ahead with any broad-based discussion on the peace process – this includes bringing relief to affected refugees and victims and bringing to justice those purveyors of violence,” Arroyo said, but for political activists the statement was just another government propaganda aimed at masking the real situation in Mindanao, where over half a million hungry war refugees are housed in temporary shelters. (Mindanao Examiner)

Terrorists Again Plotting To Bomb Manila: Military

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