COTABATO CITY — Hundreds of civilians fled from their homes after suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas reportedly took over their village in Sultan Kudarat and declared it a new rebel camp.
According to Kalamansig Mayor Rolando Garcia, hundreds were forced to flee their villages in Barangay Sangay in the coastal town and had taken refuge in makeshift evacuation sites.
Garcia said local officials are trying to convince the rebels to leave.
He said the policemen who were accompanying the local officials in convincing the rebels to turn back were even forced to return to the precinct to prevent an armed encounter.
“This is blatant disregard of the ceasefire between the government and the MILF. These rebels should leave right away so that the evacuees could return to their farms there,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the armed group numbering around 300 men was led by a certain Commander Boyet who took over Barangay Sangay and hoisted the MILF flag.
Garcia said Commander Boyet, an ethnic Maguindanaon, is the leader of a big MILF group based in nearby Palembang town.
“He and his followers just showed up in Barangay Sangay. They threatened civilians there and claimed that the lands there belong to their ancestors and that they are merely taking it back,” Garcia said.
Garcia said legitimate landowners in Barangay Sangay were forced to leave their homes after the rebels set up camp in the area.
He added the rebels also seized the harvest and farm animals of the residents.
“We have about 1,200 people in our temporary shelter areas... afraid to return to their farms,” Garcia told reporters, adding rice was about to be harvested when the rebels came late Wednesday.
Garcia urged the provincial government to convince the MILF leadership to leave Barangay Sangay and investigate the incident before the joint ceasefire committee.
“The longer my people will stay the in the evacuation sites, the poorer they will become,” he said.
Garcia also called on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the police to act on the incident.
“(They) should do something immediately,” he stressed.
Garcia said many Christian communities in the south feared of similar MILF attacks on their farms and villages as frustration boils over.
Officials noted the MILF is apparently flexing its muscles following the pullout of Malaysia from the 60-man International Monitoring Team (IMT) observing the five-year ceasefire.
The 11,000-strong MILF is meant to be observing a ceasefire and spokesman Eid Kabalu claimed he was unaware of any land seizures.
“We have not received any report on that,” Kabalu told reporters, adding the MILF leadership has ordered units to abide by a 2003 truce even after the Malaysian peace monitors withdraw.
Some MILF members are frustrated that long-running peace talks with Manila for the creation of a homeland for Muslims in Mindanao have been stalled since December 2007.
Last week, Malaysia said 20 of its 41 peacekeepers would leave on May 10 and the rest will be withdrawn by the end of August.
The move comes after the Malaysia-brokered peace talks floundered in December when the MILF negotiators walked away from a meeting to protest the GRP’s position that any accord should conform to the Philippine Constitution.
The pullout also triggered fears of renewed hostility breaking out in the absence of the monitoring team.
Malaysian officials said the peace process between the Philippine government and the MILF was not moving fast enough.
A Malaysian official brokering the talks said the Philippine government should stop harping on technical points to jumpstart the peace negotiations.
Othman Abdul Razak, the chief Malaysian mediator, said the Philippine government may have to back off on its insistence to abide by its Constitution if it hopes to restart negotiations.
He said Malaysia’s decision to start pulling out ceasefire monitors from the IMT is “meant to send a signal” to Philippine authorities that they should speed up efforts to sign a formal peace pact with the MILF.
“The trouble is that things are not moving in the talks,” Othman said. “The ball is in the (Philippine government’s) court, but they have been sitting on it.”
Othman said Manila’s insistence on the constitutional issue was “a constraint.”
“It really boils down to the political will of the (Philippine) government,” he said. “If the government wants the talks to progress, it can do it. It can think creatively. But if it wants to stick to the Constitution, things will not move.”
One reason the MILF is opposing Manila’s stance on the constitutional issue is that it would require any accord reached in the talks to be put to a national referendum. The rebels want any deal to stand on its own.
Othman stressed that Malaysia has no plans to stop mediating the negotiations, but added that “we may have to decide on many things” if the talks remain deadlocked for too long. He declined to elaborate.
According to the previous timetable, both sides had hoped to seal an agreement on Muslim ancestral land claims in January 2008. That could have paved the path for a comprehensive peace pact by this August, Othman said.
“Now we have no way of telling when anything will happen,” he said.
At least half of the 41 Malaysian monitors are expected to leave May 10, while the others are to return home before September.
Philippine authorities hope other monitors from Brunei, Libya and Japan will stay, although Brunei has reportedly said it would follow Malaysia’s lead.
Under the 2003 ceasefire, clashes have dropped from up to 700 a year to just 15 incidents last year. – With AP