AFP putting up patrol base in captured Sibugay camp

MANILA, Philippines - The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will put up a permanent patrol base inside the captured camp of renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commander Waning Abdusalam in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

The militiamen manning the patrol base will ensure that members of the lawless group will not return to their former enclave, which they have been using as jump off and withdrawal points in their criminal activities like kidnap for ransom and highway robbery in the Zamboanga Peninsula and Basilan.

“With the support of the 1st Infantry Division and the Philippine National Police (PNP), we will have a detachment in the area as requested by the local government of Zamboanga Sibugay,” said Army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc.

Soldiers manning the seized MILF camp have discovered more freshly-dug graves in Payao town, where the military launched air raids in response to the series of attacks by Abdusalam and his followers in Zamboanga Sibugay last week, leaving four soldiers and four policemen dead.

“The 15 graves were inside a small cemetery near Barangay Labatan but our troops found more new graves in Talaib Point,” Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) spokesman Lt. Col. Randolf Cabangbang said.

He added that the caliber 50 machine gun seized by government forces on Friday was found in one of the graves.

The military earlier said at least 27 of around 100 lawless men were killed in a combined military and police assault against the MILF militants.

Military and police troops clashed with Abdusalam’s men in Sitio Talaib, Barangay Labatan in Payao town for almost four days.

Talaib Point has been identified by the military as the key withdrawal point of lawless elements operating in Basilan.

Intelligence sources said that after the killing of the 19 soldiers in Al Barka, Basilan, most of the MILF guerrillas immediately escaped toward mainland Zamboanga.

Sources said that after the military’s victory in Payao, the bandits could have sought sanctuary in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and even Sabah.

“They can hide somewhere else but they will always return to Basilan as they won’t leave their money-making extortion activities levied on Basilan businessmen and cooperatives,” said a military officer.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz yesterday visited the troops in Basilan following a conference with various stakeholders in the island province aimed at cushioning the impact on civilian communities of the air strikes being launched by the government against the lawless group.

AFP chief Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. said government forces were still tracking down the group of MILF commander Laksaw-Dan Asnawi, Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama, and kidnap-for-ransom leader Long Malat.

Asnawi, an escapee from the Basilan provincial jail, Indama and Malat along with their heavily armed followers were behind the slaying of the 19 soldiers.

The MILF blamed the troops for intruding into their so-called area of temporary stay (ATS) in Al Barka without any coordination.

But relieved Special Operations Task Force Basilan commander Col. Alexander Macario maintained that they had coordinated with their MILF counterparts prior to the launching of the operation to arrest Asnawi.

Meanwhile, former ambassador Macabangkit Lanto yesterday blamed “incompetent” municipal officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the recent clashes in Basilan and Zamboanga Sibugay.

Lanto, one of the contenders for ARMM officer-in-charge, said the local officials’ failure to implement the rule of law and deliver basic social services led to the resurgence of bandit groups like the Abu Sayyaf.

In a press briefing in Quezon City, Lanto said he believes that some ARMM officials were not attending to the needs of their constituents.

“This is the primary reason why the Abu Sayyaf was thriving in their areas,” he said.

“I was told that some municipal officials in the remote areas of ARMM are actually living in urban centers like Zamboanga City or Marawi City and are thus ‘absentee officials’ who neglect their governance responsibilities,” Lanto said.

“That is why people who are abandoned by their officials turn to the Abu Sayyaf for help,” he added. – With Perseus Echeminada