Local disputes triggered clashes with MILF rebel

MANILA, Philippines – Hostilities between militia-men and some guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) triggered the recent armed clashes in central Mindanao, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said yesterday.

Despite the armed hosti-lities, Teodoro said the military is taking the defensive posture to allow peace negotiations with the MILF to proceed unhindered.

Teodoro said the armed engagements in the area would not be considered as efforts to derail the peace process.

“Our reports (reveal) there are varied reasons for this, sometimes even land disputes come into play,” he said.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Alexander Yano earlier said the joint GRP-MILF ceasefire committee is now looking into the incidents and what triggered the clashes.

Teodoro said the military has practiced restraint in their actions due to the ongoing peace negotiations.

The military reported the other day that clashes erupted between govern-ment troops and some 100 heavily armed men said to be MILF guerrillas in Barangay Bagolibas, Aleosan town in North Cotabato.

The encounter happened two days after suspected MILF members reportedly attacked a militia detachment in the same town, killing a 61-year-old woman.

Yano said that there had been an improvement in the overall security situation in the area following the break-through in the peace talks with the MILF.

Last Tuesday, suspected MILF rebels attacked a militia outpost in Barangay Bualan in Pikit, Cotabato, just days after the government and the secessionist group made a breakthrough in the ancestral domain aspect of the peace negotiations.

The MILF has denied any involvement in the attacks, claiming they have stopped their offensives to allow the peace negotiations to push through.

AFP Public Information Office (PIO) chief Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said the attacks would not distract the military from observing the primacy of the peace process.

“We will continue to ob-serve the primacy of the peace process. It is for this reason that we are also beef-ing up our forces as part of our continuing adjustment tactically,” Torres said without  elaborating.

North Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino Mendoza, on the other hand, said the AFP is allowing the MILF to flex its muscles in the region.

“We’re afraid General Yano has just given armed outlaws a virtual license to continue launching attacks in Cotabato and nearby provinces,” she said.

Mendoza said the MILF has already categorically denied the attacks.

“Thus, the military has no excuse not to pursue these outlaws,” she said.         — James Mananghaya