Army intercepts MILF weapons

MANILA, Philippines – Government troops foiled an attempt by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to smuggle firearms and bullets to its fighters in Cotabato province.

Maj. Armand Rico, Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) spokesman, said the soldiers seized an M14 rifle, two caliber .45 automatics, a .9mm pistol, and various types of magazines and live bullets during a raid in Barangay Esperanza, Tulunan town on Monday.

Arrested for gunrunning were Junjie, 26, and Tobias, 54, all surnamed Gurit; Johnnie, 25, and Jun, 42, both surnamed Pananggulon, of Barangays Gunana and Nueva Vida, M’lang town, he added.

Rico said the troops also seized from the four suspects a black multicab used in transporting the weapons.

“The apprehended suspects are now undergoing tactical interrogation with emphasis on their possible connections with the MILF,” he said.

Rico said the MILF is buying high-powered weapons in the black market to replace firearms lost in fighting with government troops.

“It’s very probable that these were for the MILF’s arms build-up due to their firearms losses, and also because they cannot use their makeshift arms factories, so they buy on the black market,” he said.

In Sultan Kudarat province, police are hunting down MILF bomb maker Basit Usman based on intelligence reports that he masterminded the two bombings in the province last week.

One of these bombs Usman exploded prematurely at the gate of the Isulan municipal market, while the other was found and defused by Army bomb experts in Tacurong City.

Usman is known to have undergone training in handling explosives at a Taliban guerilla training camp in Kandahar, Afganistan in the early 1990s.

Usman is the leader of the MILF’s special operations group under now fugitive Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato, Sultan Kudarat police director Chief Superintendent Felizardo Serapio was quoted in radio reports as saying.

Kato, who carries a P10-million bounty on his head, is being hunted by troops since last month.

Serapio said Usman has been the subject of a police manhunt since a court issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with the bombing of Fitmart Mall in General Santos City on April 21, 2002. Sixteen people were killed 40 others injured in that terrorist attack.

In Iligan City, MILF commander Abdurahman Macapaar alias Bravo and his men have splintered into two small groups before withdrawing towards Lanao del Sur following another encounter last Sept. 14 with troops at the boundary of the Lanao provinces.

Lt. Col. Agane Adriatico, Army 1st Infantry Tabak Division spokesman, said troops are zeroing in on Bravo after the continuous military operation in Poonapiagapo and Munai in Lanao del Norte last week.

“At least several lawless MILF combatants were wounded as evidenced by blood found at the scene of the fighting at the boundary of Munai, Lanao del Norte and Balindong, Lanao del Sur,” he said.

“The encounter between Army soldiers from the 15th Infantry Battalion and the MILF lasted for an hour with no casualties on the government side.”

‘Surrender of rebels not in Tripoli pact’

The MILF said yesterday the surrender to the government of rebels facing charges is not required by the 2001 ceasefire agreement.

Mohagher Iqbal, MILF peace panel chairman, said they are confident that Malaysia as third party facilitator in the peace negotiations would not ask the MILF to turn over to the government Kato and Bravo.

“You know they are violating the ceasefire agreement,” he said.

“The ceasefire agreement does not say that if one of us commits offenses, he would be turned over to them, that’s what they should follow.”

Iqbal said the government could not impose a condition on the MILF, contrary to presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon’s statement that Kato and Bravo must be surrendered for the stalled peace talks to be revived.

“That’s an imposition, that cannot happen in a negotiation, impose condition on the other side, it cannot happen,” he said.

Iqbal said the government should instead comply with what has been stipulated in the Tripoli Agreement, particularly the recognition of the Bangsamoro homeland.

In Lanao del Norte, a majority of the men of Bravo have reportedly deserted him as he and a handful of supporters hold out in the mountains against thousands of troops.

Col. Benito de Leon, Army 104th Infantry Brigade commander based in Iligan City, said Bravo and his men have been avoiding Army troops as they flee deeper into the mountains of the Lanao provinces.

De Leon said they have received reports that most of Bravo’s men have abandoned him and have been mixing with the evacuees returning to their homes. – With John Unson, Lino dela Cruz, Jose Rodel Clapano, James Mananghaya