Thousands flee as MILF rebels step up attacks

COTABATO CITY – Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at civilian homes in North Cotabato yesterday to stop the government from holding elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

A civilian wounded in the attack was taken to a hospital in Libungan town.

Some 2,000 residents of Barangay Gumaga in Libungan town fled their homes to escape the marauding rebels who are now occupying their homes and farms and who seized their livestock.

Local officials said the attack was aimed at intimidating the government into postponing the ARMM elections on Aug. 11.

Responding policemen and troops could not enter Barangay Gumaga because the rebels outnumbered them.

They withdrew to the national highway to ensure that the rebels would not cross to the next barangay.

Cotabato police commander Superintendent Lester Camba said the rebels, clad in combat fatigues and armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, surrounded Barangay Gumaga without warning and opened fire at houses at 1 p.m. yesterday.

The rebels attacked from different directions and fired rockets at fleeing civilians, he added.

Troops have guarded the Cotabato-Davao highway traversing Libungan after text messages reported that MILF rebels would block the thoroughfare to escalate attacks in Cotabato.

The rebels aim to drive away landowners in preparation for their takeover of farmlands after the agreement on ancestral domain is signed by the government and MILF tomorrow, the messages added.

Earlier, MILF rebels also burned almost a hundred houses in isolated barangays neighboring Aleosan and Midsayap towns, also in Cotabato province.

Officials of Midsayap, Libungan and Aleosan have urged President Arroyo to immediately replace the chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, Army Gen. Rey Sealana and the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Gen. Raymundo Ferrer.

They have accused them of failing to stop the continuing MILF attacks in the province, which started more than a week ago.