Sulu offensive scaled down

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Government troops have scaled down their operations after capturing two of the last strongholds of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) renegades in Parang town, Sulu.

"Our operation in Sulu has scaled down and troops are engaging in a hide-and-seek pursuit against the fleeing renegades," Armed Forces Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said.

Braganza reported the gains of government troops in Sulu to President Arroyo, who was in Butuan City in Agusan del Sur yesterday.

Pursuit operations continue against the fleeing renegades led by Habier Malik and their Abu Sayyaf allies under Radulan Sahiron, Albader Parad and Umbra Jumdail (alias Dr. Abu Pula), Braganza added.

Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, Joint Task Force Comet and Sulu military commander, said his men have been engaged in small-unit operations at the height of hostilities.

The last time the military mobilized a large operation, it captured two rebel camps after the MNLF renegades abandoned their lairs in Lanao Dakula and Silangkan and escaped towards the mountains in Parang, he added.

Dema-ala said Silangkan is a stronghold of jailed former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Nur Misuari.

The troops penetrated the area two days after the Feb. 1 visit of Armed Forces chief Gen. Efren Abu, he added.

Dema-ala said on the first day troops encountered resistance from the perimeter until the fourth day when the rebels abandoned their lair.

Troops had a hard time locating the MNLF renegades after they splintered into smaller groups, he added.

Dema-ala said Malik’s group is still in hiding, while a small number of his men could have slipped out of Sulu via sea in a fast boat.

"But the majority of the renegades and the Abu Sayyaf are still hiding here," he said.

Last week, troops captured Lanao Dakula and Silangkan camps, two of the last bases of the MNLF renegades in Parang, following four days of skirmishes.

Meanwhile, a senior MNLF official in Marawi City said yesterday the government "knows best" how to handle the fighting in Jolo.

"The MNLF here had earlier sent a peace mission to Jolo to offer assistance on any ceasefire initiative to stop the fighting, but since President Arroyo decided to pursue the lawless elements, we leave it to her because she knows what is best" in dealing with the situation in Jolo, said Marawi City Mayor Omar Solitario Ali, the most senior MNLF official in the two Lanaos.

"While we want MNLF combatants to stay put in their areas and government troops to go back to barracks, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, as commander-in-chief of the AFP, is in the best position to deal with the Jolo situation," he said.

"We are supporting the President on her decision of the Jolo situation and we advise any group or groups here in the two Lanao provinces to leave the matter in Jolo to the President."

On the other hand, Ali denied the claims of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that he is involved in the Movement for an Independent Federal State in Mindanao reportedly headed by former Army colonel Alexander Noble, who is now actively recruiting members all over Mindanao.

"It is not true that I still have links with Noble and that I am involved in that movement," he said.

His association with Noble ended when he pursued further studies at the Asian Institute of Management in the 1990s, he added.

Meanwhile, a philanthropist has underwritten some P50 million worth of projects to help the government in its massive rehabilitation of the strife-torn province of Sulu.

Armando de Rossi of the Peace and Prosperity Foundation who recently joined Secretary Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, in Sulu said the assistance has already been incorporated in the government’s program to rehabilitate the province.

Among his projects are a mosque, a hospital, classrooms and a water system in Panamao town, where MNLF renegades attacked a military camp, he added.

De Rossi said his foundation has also committed to donate an X-ray facility and an electricity generator to the hospital.

"I have seen the effect of the hostility and I am appealing to others that let us be part of the solution and not (the) problem," he said.

De Rossi said he expects the projects to be completed within two months in coordination with the rest of the rehabilitation projects for Sulu.

De Rossi is an Italian who has been in the country for the past 30 years. He was recently honored and crowned as Sultan Makapundec of Malabang, Lanao del Sur. — Roel Pareño, Aurea Calica, Lino dela Cruz