MILF using small teams in attacking police, military outposts

MANILA, Philippines – Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels have divided into small units to harass military and police outposts in central Mindanao.

Khaled Musa, MILF deputy chairman for information, said they are now fighting a guerrilla war to avoid direct confrontation with troops backed by artillery and armored vehicles.

By waging a guerrilla war, the MILF intends to inflict heavy casualties on military units intruding into their positions, he added.

Maj. Armand Rico, Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) spokesman, said these small MILF units are using snipers against government troops on the front.

“The MILF are now using small teams to harass our positions to project that their fighters are all over Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sarangani and Lanao,” he said.

Rico said the MILF, especially Ameril Umbra Kato, can no longer muster hundreds of fighters in one area at a given time to fight advancing troops.

“The others (rebels) had abandoned him (Kato) after realizing that they were only gypped into joining the MILF last month,” he said.

Kato’s men have dwindled to a handful that harassed an Army outpost at Sitio Poypoyon, Barangay Bagolibas, Aleosan in Cotabato province last Friday, Rico said.

In Maguindanao, the MILF dismissed yesterday as a “wild claim” the military’s reported capture of Kato’s camp.

“How can the military capture an MILF camp when the MILF have ceased maintaining camps with fortifications after President Estrada’s all-out war against the MILF in 2000?” Musa said.

It is tactically disadvantageous for any guerrilla group to spend time and effort to build camps that are accessible to enemy intrusion, he added.

Most areas labeled by the military as MILF camps are villages, Musa said.

Kato has a P10-million bounty on his head after leading the pillage of northern Mindanao that displaced more than 500,000 civilians.

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. called on the public yesterday to help in the arrest of Kato, and MILF commanders Abdullah Macapaar alias Bravo, and Aleem Sulayman Pangalian who attacked several towns in Cotabato and Lanao del Norte provinces last month. – With John Unson, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Roel Pareño, James Mananghaya