Army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said they will enlist the help of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in filing the criminal cases against MILF chieftain Hashim Salamat and five of his subordinates for Tuesday’s highway robbery, the second in two weeks.
Ando said they are now gathering evidence and sworn statements from witnesses, including the two survivors.
One of them, Rommel Gamiao, survived by playing dead after he was shot by the rebels in the torso and legs.
Six of the passengers were killed instantly while two others were taken by the rebels and executed elsewhere. Their bodies have not been recovered, Ando said.
Ando said witnesses identified the supposed MILF robbers as Franco Talyo, Hamid Halil, Amiril Cato Ombra and one Seiko, all wanted for a string of criminal cases.
The military said the suspects, all identified as loyal followers of Salamat, were also seen by witnesses leading a group of about 200 MILF guerrillas in blocking a portion of the Cotabato-General Santos Highway in Talayan.
The rebels blocked a portion of the highway as they fired at two delivery trucks, wounding the drivers and crew and then used the commandeered vehicles as roadblocks.
The gunmen then boarded the Mitsubishi L-300 van that ran into the roadblock and shot dead six of the male passengers after separating them from the women. The passengers were also robbed, the military said.
Even as the rebels robbed the passengers and unloaded the fish cargo from the trucks, another group of rebels harrassed an Army detachment in Barangay Bagan while simultaneously toppling three wooden electrical posts along the highway.
A day after denying responsibility for killing the passengers, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said they did shoot the men but said the victims were soldiers and not civilians as the military claimed.
He said MILF guerrillas ambushed the van and dragged the men before killing them.
Kabalu said there was heavy fighting at the time the ambush occurred.
The execution took place barely two weeks after suspected MILF rebels also took hostage some 50 passengers of a bus along the same highway in Pikit, North Cotabato last March 10.
The MILF said they were merely protecting the passengers from being caught in crossfire with pursuing government troops.
Arrest warrants were also issued against Salamat and his henchmen over the killing of 22 people in the Davao International Airport blast last March 4. The explosion also wounded 159 people.
The MILF, on the other hand, accused the military of violating the truce agreement when it attacked their main stronghold in Pikit last month.
Despite the renewed fighting on both sides, the government said they are committed to pursuing peace with the separatist rebels.
Presidential adviser on peace process Eduardo Ermita said the government panel will resume the stalled peace talks with the MILF next week.
Ermita said the Malaysian government has finally agreed to to mediate the peace talks.
"The Malaysian government has alerted us that the MILF has agreed to resume the peace talks in Kuala Lumpur," Ermita said.
Ermita and presidential adviser on special concerns Norberto Gonzales met yesterday with Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople on the possibility of granting safe conduct passes to the MILF leaders during the peace negotiations.
Ermita said Kuala Lumpur was chosen as venue for the government’s peace talks with the MILF as part of the confidence-building measure.
"One demand is to sit with Malaysians. So, we will sit with Malaysians," he said.
For his part, Gonzales said the MILF and the government panel (GRP) has not set any preconditions yet.
"We don’t deal directly with the MILF. We deal with the Malaysians and the Malaysians have advised us there will be talks," Gonzales said.
Gonzales said the GRP has already forwarded to the Malaysian authorities the final draft agreement earlier approved by President Arroyo, which includes absolute amnesty for MILF rebel returnees.
Among the provisions included in the final peace agreement is the dissolution of the military arm of the MILF, surrender of all its firearms and weapons, shared governance in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and integration of the MILF to the Armed Forces.
The military had claimed the MILF was building up its military might during the duration of the initial ceasefire agreement forged with the government in 2001.
They said there is evidence that the MILF was purchasing arms and weapons reportedly worth $2 million from foreign black market sources.
For his part, Surigao del Norte Rep. Prospero Pichay, chairman of the House Committee on Defense, said an inquiry is proper to determine where the MILF sourced the money to purchase arms.
"We should consider that possibility and I urge the intelligence community to investigate where the $2 million really came from," he said.
"If we say that it came from (international terrorist Osama) bin Laden, his financial network has already been marginalized so we should consider the boast of (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein that he could bring the war all over the world and that the MILF’s $2 million could have come from Iraq," Pichay added. — With Jose Rodel Clapano, Mike Frialde