No firearms sold to MILF - AFP

MANILA, Philippines – The military rejected yesterday as propaganda the claim of the chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that they have been buying arms and ammunition from military officers and soldiers.

Capt. Enrico Ileto, Armed Forces deputy spokesman, said no soldier or military officer in his right mind would sell his firearm to the enemy, knowing the same firearm would be used to kill him.

“It’s a lie,” he said. “It’s just propaganda.”

Speaking at the Darapan complex, Barangay Simuay, Sultan Kudarat province, MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal said they have been buying and getting firearms and bullets for their fighters from soldiers and military officers.

“War is business and as revolutionaries do, we too are using the resources of our enemies to fight them,” he said,

However, Iqbal refused to name names because that would be disadvantageous to the secessionist movement.

Iqbal said a business in arms and ammunition has been flourishing in Mindanao as a result of the fighting between the government and the MILF.

“For our part, if the war is widespread, we buy more arms and ammunition from the military,” he said in Filipino.

Meanwhile, Ileto dismissed published reports that MILF guerrillas have already killed 500 soldiers since fighting broke out following the collapse of the peace talks in August last year.

Based on military combat statistics, the number of soldiers killed in action does not exceed a hundred in the whole of Mindanao, he said.

Ileto said from Aug. 4, 2008 to June 30, 2009, government troops inflicted heavy casualties on the MILF on almost all fronts.

“About 278 MILF rebels were killed, plus those who were wounded, captured, apprehended,” he said.

Ileto said 231 MILF rebels have also surrendered to government troops.

“There is no truth to the news (of) the biggest single day loss in Aug. 23 last year with 78 Army lives lost,” he said.

“The truth is around 40 MILF were killed and many of them wounded; while the government troops only suffered one killed.”

Ileto said last Sept. 13, after two days of fighting, government troops overran the MILF main camp in Barangay Daliao in Maasim, Sarangani, Camp Khalid bin Walid.

“The AFP recognizes and commends the heroism of our troops – to include the members of the Civilian Volunteer Organization, Cafgu Active Auxiliaries and Philippine National Police – who are continuously fighting against the MILF,” he said.

Ileto said the basis for winning is not only with the number of casualties but on how the war and fighting will end.

“We would appreciate, since they have already admitted that the AFP cannot be defeated, if they could sit down in the negotiating panel so we can totally end this war peacefully,” he said. – Jaime Laude