MILF leaders go into hiding

Top leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have gone into hiding after criminal charges were filed against them by the government over the bomb blast at the Davao International Airport that killed 21 people last Tuesday.

Security officials vowed to capture the MILF leaders once the arrest warrants are issued.

"For our safety, for everybody’s safety, we have relocated," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP in a telephone interview from Cotabato.

"This will complicate matters more because the government can no longer have backdoor negotiations with us," he said.

Kabalu maintained the MILF had nothing to do in spate of deadly bombings that has rocked Mindanao and said they are not worried about government filing charges against them.

Authorities on Friday filed charges of multiple murder and frustrated multiple murder against the top MILF leaders and 50 known guerrillas.

Kabalu shrugged off the government’s threat of arresting them over the Davao airport explosion.

"We are not alarmed. We are innocent. We have been charged before and it was dropped for lack of evidence," Kabalu said.

Prosecutors have said Muntasher Sudang, one of the 21 fatalities in the Davao blast, was the man who carried the bomb in a knapsack.

Officials have said Sudang was an MILF member, citing a document recovered from him.

Kabalu, however, said the document was counterfeit, alleging that the "the public is being conditioned by the military that Muntasher Sudang was an MILF member, when in fact, he was not." He also accused the military of black propaganda against the MILF.

Vice President Teofisto Guingona said police investigators must now prove there was conspiracy on the part of the MILF to strengthen the case in court.

This developed as the police yesterday included Terso and Undungan Sudang, father and uncle respectively, of the alleged suicide bomber in the charge sheet.

"These two people (the Sudangs), who were arrested were not actually in the scene of the crime. So, that is being pursued here is that there was a conspiracy between the slain Sudang and his two relatives," Guingona said.

"But conspiracy is very hard to prove here. They were just there to retrieve the remains," he added.

Guingona said there should be a deeper and more objective investigation of the case.

He said it is but natural to file the case immediately "because passions run high."

"But if later it would be proven otherwise, let us look for the real culprits," the Vice President said.

Guingona said authorities should not also discount the possibility that "a third party" carried out the bombing.

But for Southern Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Isidro Lapeña, the case against the Sudangs and the MILF is strong.

"Our case is very strong," Lapeña said. "That was why we filed the case because we believe we have a case. People should understand, we went through a very tedious process in the investigation and in coming up with the case against the Sudangs and the MILF."

Lapeña stressed the Sudangs also had in their possession signed documents that they are MILF members.

Armed Forces Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said a joint police-military task force was ready to arrest the MILF leaders but warned of retaliatory attacks.

If officers try to arrest the MILF leaders, "we expect there will be additional terrorism but we will respond to the terrorism. We will stop the terrorists from further harming the people," Abaya said.

The likely targets for arrest are MILF chairman Hashim Salamat, political affairs chief and negotiator Ghadzali Jaafar, military chief Al Haj Murad and Kabalu.

In the past, the general location of these leaders was well known and many were accessible to the media.

‘MILF behind Tacurong blasts’

Police also blamed the MILF for a motorbike bomb that went off outside a church-run school in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat last Friday, killing the bomber and wounding at least two schoolgirls.

The MILF was also charged for the New Year’s Eve bombing of the city plaza last year which left nine people dead and 44 others wounded.

This developed as the Tacurong City court ordered the arrest of Salamat and his henchmen over the New Year’s eve bombing.

Kabalu issued anew a statement of denial after police have sought to link the MILF to Friday’s bombing.

Provincial police chief Superintendent Bonfilo Dacoco said an ID card recovered from the bomber identified him as an alleged MILF member.

Kabalu said the alleged bomber, Sammy Abubakar, was not in the MILF roster.

He reiterated the orders of Salamat in directing his forces to attack only military installations, not civilians.

Despite the accusations and the arrest threat, Mohaqher Iqbal, a spokesman for the MILF central committee, said Manila could still contact them through the Malaysian government which was due to host formal peace talks between the two sides later this year.

The MILF has been blamed for the spate of bombing attacks in Mindanao in recent weeks.

These attacks are believed to be in retaliation for the military’s capturing Buliok complex in Pikit, North Cotabato — a known stronghold of the MILF — last month which left nearly 200 rebels dead.

The bandit Abu Sayyaf has claimed credit for the Davao bombings but officials have largely discounted this as a diversionary tactic.

Security concerns

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has directed the reactivation of all local peace and order councils.

This also developed as Muslim leaders in Central Mindanao said they are scheduled on Tuesday to hold dialogues with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over security concerns affecting local government units in the south.

Following the Davao blasts, Duterte has been tasked by President Arroyo as crisis manager on efforts to track down those behind the Davao bombing in using all government resources.

Sultan Kudarat Gov. Datu Pax Mangudadatu, chairman of Region 12’s peace and order council in Central Mindanao, said President Arroyo has tasked him to spearhead the activity, which will also be attended by representatives from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

"This is to show to all sectors that Muslim leaders in Southern Philippines are also keen on resolving the nagging security problems in our communities through peaceful means, through dialogues. We are concerned as our counterparts in other parts of Mindanao," Mangadadatu said.

The Sultan Kudarat governor, however, declined to elaborate on the other concerns to be discussed with Duterte, but assured they would be "parallel with the efforts of President Arroyo in furthering the Mindanao peace process."

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) also issued a statement calling on Mindanao’s culturally diverse folk to "be vigilant" to prevent more bombing attacks it branded as "something all religions cannot accept."

"We need to work harder in building peace. We need to bring opposing sectors together at the negotiating table. The peace talks between the MILF and the government must also resume soon," said CBCP president Bishop Orlando Quevedo. — John Unson, Edith Regalado, Jaime Laude, Perseus Echimenada, AFP