COTABATO CITY - Although the military has cleared their villages of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, thousands of residents in Maguindanao and North Cotabato are still languishing in evacuation centers, apprehensive of reprisals from the separatist rebel group for its heavy losses in recent clashes with state forces.
Dr. Tahir Sulaik, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office in Maguindanao, said displaced villagers in the province, numbering 11,324, mostly women and children, still refuse to return to their communities.
Sulaik said state and rebel forces are still locked in a standoff in many flashpoint areas in Maguindanao due to the absence of a "concrete peace pact."
"There has been a cycle where they return to their villages only to be driven away again to neutral areas by the sudden outbreak of hostilities, and then return only to evacuate again," Sulaik said.
In Kabuntalan, tension remained high in barangays near the town's border with Midsayap, North Cotabato following another MILF attack early this week on a nearby village where rebels robbed civilians at gunpoint of their belongings and work animals.
Edwin Antipuesto, a staffer of the Catholic-run Justice and Peace Commission here, said they still need more donations from various sectors for their continuing relief work for villagers displaced in Carmen, North Cotabato.
"There are still thousands of them in evacuation centers," Antipuesto said. "And we cannot just force them to return to their villages because they still fear for their safety."
Maj. Juliet Ando, information officer of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said the MILF's recent execution of a Christian couple in Barangay Malapag in Carmen has sowed more fear among the townsfolk.
The victims, Junito Antenado and his wife, Mary Anne, were on their way to an evacuation site near the town proper when the rebels abducted, tortured and shot them dead. Soldiers found the woman naked, bearing signs of having been raped.
"Actually the rebels in Carmen and in critical areas along the Isulan-Cotabato Highway have been driven by soldiers far away but these rebels are known for their treachery and for attacking populated areas at the least expected time," Ando said.
Local executives in the second district of Maguindanao said the displaced villagers refuse to return home because the MILF rebels might get back at barangay officials in the affected towns who have condemned the guerrillas' recent attacks.
"These barangay officials and local leaders have also asked the military to deploy more soldiers to their areas to secure civilians once and for all," said a town councilor, who requested anonymity for security reason.