Indons present at new MILF ‘training camp,’ military told

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The military has been receiving persistent feedback for weeks now from local officials in towns around Camp Abubakar on the presence of Indonesians in a newly established guerrilla training camp at the border of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, a ranking Army commander said.

However, Col. Antonio Romero II, commanding officer of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade based at Camp Abubakar, the MILF’s former bastion and now a zone of peace, told reporters that they still have to validate and confirm the reports, mostly relayed to them voluntarily by civilians now peacefully tilling their lands in the area.

"We are initiating means to confirm with the help of local executives if, indeed, there are foreigners in this newly established camp. They would know if there are foreigners in their surroundings," Romero said.

Army intelligence sources said last week’s harassments by MILF forces of soldiers in Buldon and Barira towns, both in Maguindanao and the known gateways to Camp Abubakar, could be "test missions" for guerrillas who have just trained in the newly established enclave in a forested area at the tri-boundary of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and North Cotabato.

Sources have confirmed that MILF guerrillas from other parts of Maguindanao and North Cotabato have been frequenting the new camp, about 10 hours by foot from Camp Abubakar, now a peace zone where government agencies are implementing various rehabilitation projects to improve the lives of villagers.

Romero said their forces around Camp Abubakar figured in running gunbattles with marauding MILF rebels last week, precipitated by the intrusion of guerrillas into supposedly demilitarized areas.

Tapz Jilani, chairman of the MILF’s coordinating committee on cessation of hostilities, however, denied that their forces provoked last week’s series of Army-rebel skirmishes around Camp Abubakar and in three other hostile towns in the second district of Maguindanao.

On the contrary, Jilani said it was the military that raided their enclaves in the guise of running after lawless elements.

The government-MILF ceasefire committee met in Cotabato City on Monday and agreed to jointly formulate measures to stave off confrontations in many potential flashpoint areas covered by the ceasefire.

The meeting was jointly presided over by Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, chairman of the government peace panel, and lawyer Lanang Ali, a key MILF negotiator.

Both sides agreed to enhance the capabilities of the ceasefire committees in monitoring the implementation of the truce and in initiating peace dialogues among rebel and military commanders in areas where rival forces continue to face a standoff and are ready to shoot at each other at the slightest provocation.

Dureza told The STAR that his panel has yet to receive any report on the presence of Indonesians in the newly established training camp.

Dureza said the joint ceasefire committees could best address thorny issues and concerns in areas covered by the agreement on cessation of hostilities on the negotiating table.

The ceasefire and all other low-level peace pacts the government has forged with the MILF restrain the faction from establishing military bases to build up its forces and initiating tactical maneuvers in any area without prior coordination with the military.