Estrada warns MILF: We'll wipe you out

Leave or be annihilated.

An irked President Estrada issued this strong warning yesterday to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas occupying the municipal hall in Talayan, Maguindanao.

"Ngayon pa lang ay wina-warningan ko na ang MILF. Kapag hindi sila natutong sumunod, talagang magka-kaubusan tayo (I'm warning the MILF now that if they don't learn to obey, we're going to wipe them out)," the President said.

He has sent Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes to Talayan to oversee a potential battle threatening to scuttle the scheduled start of peace talks between the government and the rebels on Jan. 17.

Mr. Estrada stressed that he would not allow the rebels to make a mockery of the government and the military.

Reyes, in a radio interview, told the rebels to leave immediately or face a possible Army assault.

"We cannot allow this display of arrogance by the MILF. If they refuse to leave, then we have a job to do," he said.

More than 200 Army Scout Rangers, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, were posed to strike at the 50 rebels in the town hall if they did not leave, the President said.

Latest reports from Maguindanao said MILF rebels had ended their occupation of the Talayan town hall and parts of the Isulan-Cotabato highway, a key road linking the two major Mindanao cities of Cotabato and General Santos.

"They apparently sensed the danger," said Army Maj. Lopito Aceres who reported that the rebels left the two-story town hall which they occupied since Monday. "Guns fell silent this day and there were no reports of major armed clashes," he said.

Aceres added that the rebels may have gotten hungry since there was no food in the area.

About 1,000 MILF rebels seized the town hall on Monday afternoon, ordering civilian employees and lightly armed policemen to leave. The siege came at the at the height of sporadic clashes that started Saturday, the day the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended.

At least 10 rebels have been killed and 29 other people, 13 of them soldiers, have been wounded in the fighting in Talayan and the nearby towns of Datu Piang and Shariff Aguak, also in Maguindanao.

Maj. Gen. Jose Camiling, head of the Army infantry division arrayed against the rebels, said the MILF guerrillas voluntarily left Talayan at 9 a.m. on orders of MILF chief Hashim Salamat.

He said Army ordnance experts were inspecting the Talayan town hall for fear it may have been booby trapped by the rebels.

The building sits atop a hill overlooking both the Isulan-Cotabato Highway and the MILF training base known as Camp Omar.

Talayan, a town of about 7,000 people, has completely turned into a war zone as Mayor Udsag Mintinbang reportedly agreed to allow its destruction as long as the military could drive away the rebels.

Meanwhile, government and MILF representatives agreed yesterday to observe a ceasefire and reposition their forces.

In their low-level talks which began early yesterday morning in Sultan Kudarat, the two sides agreed to start a ceasefire at 6 last night. At the same time, they committed to strengthen coordination in monitoring the compliance of their forces to the agreement.

Oblate missionary Eliseo Mercado, who heads a committee inspecting ceasefire agreements between the two sides, said yesterday's talks were aimed at tracing the cause of the latest round of hostilities and preventing a repeat as the formal opening of talks nears.

The MILF and the government are set to meet for four days beginning Monday to try to come up with a political settlement to the secessionist rebellion that has rocked Mindanao in the last 21 years.

The rebel group, which musters about 15,000 fighters, is reportedly experiencing a deepening internal rift, according to the military.

A flash situation report from the military's Southern Command said MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar had been replaced on orders of Salamat, the group's chairman.

The report said Jaafar had been retained as spokesman but was stripped of his powers which were given to Aleem Abdul Aziz Mimbantas, one of the MILF's battle commanders who is father-in-law of Salamat.

Mimbantas also serves as the MILF's chief negotiator. In his meeting with Soriano yesterday, he reportedly asked for a "signed agreement" before the rebels would permanently withdraw from Talayan town.

Jaafar, on the other hand, had set his own conditions. In a telephone interview from Manila, he said the President must replace Soriano if he wants peace to reign in Mindanao.

He said the MILF would welcome the appointment of Maguindanao Gov. Zacarias Candao as Soriano's replacement. "The government panel should have enough authority to fulfill its promises," he said, adding that Soriano had reneged on his promise to stop the military from attacking MILF forces.

Jaafar also noted that the recent clashes should not have worsened had the government panel acted promptly.

"Since Saturday, after the Ramadan, we have been looking for even just one member of the government panel to mediate and reduce the tension by stopping the bloody encounters but we did not find any," he said.

Jaafar added that he no longer trusts Soriano whom he described as "wasting bond paper" for agreements that cannot be fulfilled.