Palace: No deadline for MILF to renounce terrorism

Malacañang said yesterday there is "no deadline" for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to renounce its links with international terrorist groups.

Presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao said the government is now focusing more on reaching out to separatist rebels rather than declaring them as terrorists.

"There is no deadline," Tiglao told the weekly Bulong-Pulungan forum on whether Malacañang came out with a decision to declare the MILF as a terrorist group.

Despite the ongoing military offensive, Tiglao said the government is also encouraging the separatist guerrillas to return to mainstream society.

President Arroyo suspended informal peace talks with the MILF on May 6 after a series of raids and bombings on civilian targets, which were blamed on the 12,500-strong rebel group.

The MILF, which has been fighting for over two decades to set up an Islamic state in Mindanao, has denied it engages in terrorism or is linked with terror groups.

Mrs. Arroyo had previously threatened to formally brand the MILF as terrorists if the group did not disavow terrorism by June 1.

The MILF, for its part, declared a 10-day unilateral ceasefire which took effect Monday, in the hope the government would cease all military offensives against them.

According to Tiglao, the government is still in the process of observing the MILF forces even after Malacañang’s security advisers had recommended an aggressive reintegration program for MILF guerrillas.

He also expressed hope that the MILF is sincere in declaring the unilateral ceasefire.

Tiglao noted that a lot of key MILF officials and guerrillas have sent surrender feelers after the military launched punitive actions against the rebels.

He said the government is still open to peace talks and the military, for its part, is exerting all efforts to put an end to the hostilities in Mindanao.

Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, chairman of the House defense committee, said the MILF should show sincerity in its desire for lasting peace by surrendering those who were behind the spate of bomb attacks in Mindanao that left almost 100 people dead since February.

He said the MILF should also be accountable for the damage to civilian property.

"It’s so easy to pinpoint the government and the military as the culprits for the suffering of our people in the refugee camps, But we should put the blame squarely on the MILF for this state of affairs, especially after their elements began to go after civilian targets," he said.

The MILF, on the other hand, accused the government of lack of political desire to end the conflict.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the government is taking the military option "because it has no political formula to address the Mindanao problem."

As this developed, the military had claimed Army Corporal Johnny Ompoy was brutally murdered after being captured by MILF guerrillas.

The military said the ferocity and abuse against Ompoy was evident in the slain soldier’s body, which was found in a shallow grave riddled with 10 gunshot wounds.

"Parang pinagtulung-tulungan siyang barilin (It seems he was shot by more than one person)," said a soldier, who helped dig for the remains.

Government troops who recovered Ompoy’s body earlier overran a 12-hectare MILF camp in Barangay Nunungan in Poona-Piapago, Lanao del Norte last Sunday.

The rebels captured Ompoy with six members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) while on patrol securing the transmission towers of the National Power Corp. in Barangay Abaga, Baloi town, Lanao del Norte on March 6.

The six militiamen were later released to the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) while Ompoy remained captive.

But the MILF denied executing Ompoy, saying he might have been hit by the military.

"No, we did not execute him. We don’t do that to our hostages. Maybe he was hit by the military because they were already conducting operations against us when Ompoy escaped and hid in the forest," said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu.

The MILF maintained that it cannot release Ompoy since he escaped on March 7 after he befriended one of his captors.

MILF commander Abdurahman Macapaar, alias Commander Bravo, also denied the camp was his.

"We don’t have a camp in Nunungan. You can ask the mayor there and the residents in the area because the houses the military claimed to be our camp are owned by civilians there," he said.

Maj. Gen. Cristolito Balaoing, Army 4th Infantry Division commander, expressed suspicion that "something untoward" occurred after the rebels released the six militiamen to the ICRC but left Ompoy behind.

"We cannot discount the possibility that Ompoy suffered a misfortune at the hands of the MILF because these people can do anything even against civilians," Balaoing said.

The military said they will continue the offensive against those responsible for the recent bomb attacks in various towns in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, residents in the coastal towns of central Mindanao have called on the military to implement stricter security measures along the coast to prevent possible landing of firearms for the MILF guerrillas.

Sources from the neighboring towns of Sultan Gumander, Malabang and Kapatagan, all in Lanao del Sur, said plainclothes operatives must be deployed in strategic spots on their shores, which the MILF had previously used as landing sites for shipment of firearms from abroad.

"There are no government forces guarding these areas now because most of them are guarding former MILF camps now being developed as peace zones," a 45-year-old Maranaw imam, who requested anonymity, told The STAR.

Muslim leaders in the coastal communities of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces have also warned of a possibility that firearms could easily be brought into central Mindanao through their coastlines, where local MILF forces have surprisingly been "silent" even during the government’s takeover of all rebel enclaves at the border of Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan, Maguindanao last February.

Local officials and sources from the police and military intelligence communities said there have seven MILF arms landings on the coast of Lanao del Sur between 1990 to 1997, shipments that were reportedly brought into the area by small fishing vessels.

The biggest haul, according to the sources, was a shipment delivered by a small motor launch near the Tuka Panga area in Maguindanao’s Matanog town, which consisted of dozens of "slightly used" M-16 rifles with thousands of anti-tank rockets for shoulder-fired launchers.

Community leaders in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur said it is "very possible" for the MILF to take advantage of facilitating clandestine shipment of firearms and other war materiel into central Mindanao during its 10-day truce. – With Bong Fabe, John Unson