3 MILF commanders, 184 men surrender

SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao - Three foreign-trained commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and their 184 followers bade goodbye to their firearms yesterday and returned to the fold of the law after more than a decade of fighting the government.

This developed as Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado confirmed the presence of suspected international terrorists training MILF guerrillas.

Mercado said the military is now gathering evidence against these foreigners. "If we find out they are violating our laws, then we will move," he said.

But Muhaquer Icbal, spokesman of the MILF central committee, belied the military's claims which he described as "the same old stories."

Icbal said foreign-trained MILF commanders, not Afghans, as the military claims, are the ones training their combatants.

"We have commanders who underwent training in Afghanistan in previous years who, in turn, are the ones conducting training for our muhajideens," Icbal said.

Icbal admitted that they have had some contacts in Afghanistan "but the Talibans were having their own problems so we stopped our contacts."

Mercado said the government has been receiving reports of the presence of foreign terrorists in the South but could not take concrete action due to lack of evidence.

In emotion-filled surrender rites at the Army's 603rd Infantry Brigade headquarters here, the MILF surrenderors pledged allegiance to the government in the presence of Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes and key Central Mindanao officials.

The surrenderors, led by Commanders Moises Kusain, Kutang Mawaraw and Alih Manguntara, who were all trained in Afghanistan, also yielded their firearms, mostly military-type assault rifles and shoulder-fired grenade launchers.

Maj. Julieto Ando, acting civil-military operations officer of the Army's 6th Infantry Division here, said the three commanders and their respective followers would receive socio-economic assistance from the government to be able to start life anew and also money in exchange for the guns they turned in.

"These rebels surrendered through the intercession of Col. Raul Relano (603rd Infantry Brigade commander) and Maj. Gen. Jose Camiling Jr. (6th ID commanding general)," Ando said.- With Paolo Romero, Edith Regalado and Roel Pareño