Fragile truce with MILF

The government moved yesterday to prevent the violence in Midsayap town in North Cotabato from escalating and shattering a fragile four-year-old ceasefire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the military was ordered to preserve the ceasefire and maintain security in the area.

"We have a peace process to protect,’’ Ermita told The STAR, adding that the international donor community is closely watching the developments in Mindanao.

Malacañang’s call for the Armed Forces to preserve the ceasefire came in the wake of Friday’s clash that left a 60-year-old woman dead and her 15-year-old grandson injured in Datu Saudi, Maguindanao.

Ermita did not say how the government intended to preserve the ceasefire with the MILF but Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said it would involve the "repositioning’’ of troops.

"We have to maintain the primacy of the peace process so we are doing some movements of troops to adjust some positions or do some repositioning so that there would be no more encounters and the people would be more secure,’’ Esperon told The STAR.

He said the Army company deployed in the two barangays where the clashes took place is set to withdraw since the situation has stabilized.

But Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Friday’s clash was an isolated incident.

"The government is resolved to forge peace through the implementation of principled peace talks and a fair ceasefire mechanism supported and participated in by strategic partners and allies in the international community,’’ Bunye said.

He said the ceasefire committees of both sides are "working with the International Monitoring Team (IMT) headed by Malaysia to prevent the escalation of violence.

Esperon said the military is keeping a "delicate balance’’ between withdrawing troops and protecting the villages from "lawless elements’’ who are believed to be rogue members of the MILF.

"We are very mindful about the implications of any action we undertake on the peace process but there are really some issues arising from protecting civilians from lawless elements,’’ he said.

The troops, he said, will move back about two kilometers from the villages to areas near the checkpoints they had set up along the highway between Midsayap and Datu Piang.

He said the checkpoints should be kept to protect civilians from highway robbers. He said even the MILF is not opposed to the setting up of military checkpoints.

The Armed Forces chief stressed the military did not start the clash with the MILF. He said the rebel group used as staging point for its attacks its 105th Base Brigade in Liguasan Marsh.

When asked whether he was disappointed by the redeployment of troops, Esperon said, "Why should I be disappointed? I’m here to uphold the peace process. Encounters affect the livelihood of poor residents we are sworn to protect.’’

The international donor community on Friday urged President Arroyo to push for the signing of the final peace agreement with the MILF to improve peace and order, and spur economic growth in resource-rich Mindanao.

The peace negotiations have been stalled by disagreements over the issue of ancestral domain.

The government signed in 1996 a peace deal with the Moro National Liberation Front, the first Muslim separatist group in the Philippines.

Esperon said the 2003 ceasefire agreement has enabled many local residents to devote more time to livelihood but there has been harassment from alleged rogue elements of the MILF.

"They (MILF) said they have an organization but how strong their chain of command is another thing,’’ he said.

"Part of the harassment could be driven by the need to eat. I don’t think anyone would want to continue robbing farmers of their harvest if they can find livelihood so the peace process must succeed,’’ Esperon said.

He pointed out that construction of the Mal-Mar irrigation project in Cotabato greatly helped reduce poverty in the region as thousands of families were able to cultivate previously idle land.

Collapse of ceasefire feared

The MILF said the "wanton military encroachment" into recognized rebel enclaves in North Cotabato and Maguindanao threatens to shatter the ceasefire with the military.

In a press statement, Muhaquer Iqbal, the MILF’s chief negotiator, said the military has been defying all low-level security arrangements covering hostile areas in Midsayap and parts of Maguindanao by intruding into known rebel territories acknowledged by the joint ceasefire committee.

"We will not take the aggressions sitting down,’’ Iqbal said.

The encounters in recent days, which occurred in Barangays Kadigasan and Lumupog, in Midsayap, left 18 MILF fighters dead and displaced thousands of families in the two barangays.

The MILF has blamed the Army’s 6th Infantry Division for the hostilities.

The government and the MILF signed a ceasefire agreement on July 18, 1997 in Cagayan de Oro City.

Despite the agreement, President Joseph Estrada ordered in 2000 an all-out offensive on MILF’s Camp Abubakar, which eventually fell to government hands and converted into a "peace zone" where various foreign and locally funded humanitarian projects are now being implemented.

Von Al-Haq, chairman of the MILF’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, said in the group’s website, www.luwaran.com, that the 6th ID violated a security agreement, detailing the pullout of soldiers from several barangays in Midsayap, after the Jan. 25 to 28 hostilities in the municipality.

He also accused the 6th ID of ignoring a joint ceasefire resolution directing the soldiers and the rebels to stay away from at least four barangays in Midsayap.

But Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the 6th ID, said the soldiers were merely performing routine community peacekeeping missions in the two barangays when they were fired upon by MILF guerrillas, prompting them to fight back.

"There are mounting clamors both by Muslim and Christian farmers in these areas for the military to secure their farms from armed men who often attack and rob them of their harvests and other belongings," Ando said.

Ando said Friday’s fatalities were caught in a crossfire between patrolling soldiers and MILF rebels.

Ando said MILF rebels, prior to the Friday encounter, harassed a detachment of the Army’s 64th Infantry Battalion in Datu Saudi.

He said the rebels were "retaliating for the deaths of their comrades.’’ – With Marvin Sy