MILF 'shadow gov't' in Cotabato bared

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is maintaining a "shadow government" in a remote North Cotabato town using Islamic jurisprudence as basis of governance, the military said yesterday.

Barangay officials in Carmen, North Cotabato, scene of recent clashes between state and rebel forces, have confirmed that the MILF has been running the affairs of Muslim villages in remote areas of the embattled town, collecting "revolutionary taxes" and litigating civil and criminal cases through a local Sharia court.

In a letter to the Army's 6th Infantry Division, village officials, some of them ethnic Maguindanaoans, said local forces of the MILF in Barangay Macabenban, a hostile area in Carmen, have also been forcing villagers to ignore their barangay officials and pledge allegiance to the rebel front for their safety.

Col. Jaime Canatoy, head of the Armed Forces' Public Affairs Service, said the MILF's "shadow government" is in control of Barangay Macabenban, home to Maguindanaoan and Iranon settlers, mostly engaged in farming as their main source of income.

The military said the MILF started controlling the barangay last year, after it installed its own "mayor" and "chief of police" in the area.

Reports said farmers have to shell out a P38 monthly "tax" to the MILF.

"The MILF used all means to pursue its objectives and trampled the rights of Manobos, Iranons and other non-Muslims. They have gone too far in establishing this shadow government," Canatoy said.

Military reports said the MILF first established its "shadow government" in the barangay after siding with a group of settlers in their squabble with Christian villagers and militiamen over control of arable lands in the area.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the 6th Infantry Division, said the rebels have since built an enclave in the barangay, projecting that the MILF controls the area and that it can protect farms owned by Muslims from intrusion by Christians.