MILF continues ambushes; 3 troops, 5 workers slain

DEATHS FROM REBEL ATTACKS GROW TO 35

Muslim rebels believed belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) shot dead three more soldiers and five rubber plantation workers yesterday in the latest bout of violence that brought the number of deaths blamed on the MILF to 35 since last week in what is the deadliest eruption of violence involving the separatist group in recent years.

The week’s killings have put extreme pressure on President Aquino to review the faltering peace process with the MILF, with some leading lawmakers calling for an all-out war.

The latest MILF attack involved two ambushes in Basilan and Lanao del Norte provinces, resulting in the killing of at least eight soldiers and civilians.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz said that elements of the Army’s 5th Infantry Battalion (IB), led by Lt. Col. Bagnus Gaerlan, were traversing Tukuran-Paranga Road in Barangay Payong in Sultan Naga Dimaporo in

Lanao del Norte at around 11 a.m. when they were fired upon by suspected MILF rebels.

Ortiz said that two soldiers were instantly killed during the attack while five others were wounded.

Acting Army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc said that while the military has yet to identify the group behind the latest ambush, he cited the presence of MILF groups in the area.

“Identities of the assailants are unknown but the MILF has forces roaming around in the area. They don’t have any area of temporary stay in that town,” said Cabunoc.

The Army’s 104th Brigade commander Col. Ricardo Visaya immediately dispatched his men, accompanied by armored vehicles, to reinforce the ambushed troops.

“They (Gaerlan’s group) were on their way to visit the troops when the incident happened,” said Visaya.

In Basilan, the MILF band of Hassan Asnawi was blamed for the ambush against plantation workers in Sumisip town at around 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

Cabunoc said that five people, four workers and an off-duty militiaman, were killed during the attack in Barangay Upper Cabenbeng.

“According to the source, more or less 40 MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) under Hassan Asnawi perpetrated the said ambush,” Cabunoc said, citing a military field report.

Killed during the ambush were Fernando Tantalon, the off-duty militiaman; and plantation workers Renato Aligay, Junrel Langugon, Delord Johnson, and Buenaventura Lugamay.

Those wounded were Alfredo Rojas, Danilo Tonghay, Adzar Madjakin, Abdul mot, Gilbert Guevera, Julibert Dingkong, Francisco Taklindom and Bonficiao Dagodong Jr.

Cabunoc explained that six were initially reported killed but only five were identified.

Last Tuesday, 19 Army Special Forces troops were killed in a 10-hour clash with combined MILF and Abu Sayyaf forces in Al Barka town, Basilan. The MILF accused the military troops of intruding into their area of temporary stay (ATS) in Al Barka that led to the bloody firefight.

Elements of the MILF’s 114th Base Command led by fugitive Dan Laksaw Asnawi were tagged in the Al Barka clash.

However, the military maintained that troops were out to serve a warrant against wanted Abu Sayyaf commander Long Malat in Barangay Cambug, which was four kilometers away from the MILF ATS.

Two days later, elements of the MILFs 113th Base Command launched strings of atrocities against police and military targets in Zamboanga Sibugay province, killing at least eight soldiers and cops.

The successive atrocities blamed to the MILF has triggered mounting clamor for the suspension of the ceasefire agreement with the group, which many believed places that military at a disadvantage during law enforcement operations.

In Al Barka, the military was “restrained” from pursuing the MILF perpetrators, who apparently went within their ATS recognized by the peace panel.

However, President Aquino has stood firm on his decision not to suspend the ceasefire but stressed that perpetrators will be punished.

No group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks, but the military said the MILF were known to operate in the areas where they happened.

The fresh assaults could have been staged by the MILF to ease military pressure against their comrades being hunted down elsewhere in the region, Cabunoc said.

“It is possible these might be diversions, that they might be getting desperate,” he added.

MILF fighters killed 19 special forces who allegedly strayed into a rebel camp also in Basilan last Wednesday, in violation of a ceasefire.

The military however said the soldiers were after a rogue MILF commander named Dan Laksaw Asnawi when they were ambushed.

A rebel leader called Asnawi in 2007 allegedly joined forces with members of the smaller Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebel group in a major clash with marines in 2007 in which 14 troopers were killed and beheaded. He was later jailed but escaped from a Basilan jail in 2009.

It was not clear whether the two Asnawis were related or whether Sunday’s ambush was linked to last week’s attacks.

President Aquino’s peace negotiator with the MILF, Marvic Leonen, has said a thorough investigation into the clashes was being undertaken and warned that the attacks would weigh heavily on the talks.

The MILF rebellion has claimed about 150,000 lives, with most of the deaths coming in the 1970s when an all-out war raged.

The government and the rebels signed a truce in 2003 to pave the way for the negotiations, but the ceasefire is often marred by clashes, and the negotiations are currently in a stalemate.

The new clashes were the heaviest since 2008, when MILF commanders launched raids across mostly Christian areas in Mindanao that left about 400 people dead. –Mario J. Mallari, Daily Tribune