Government, MILF set probe on bombing

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao — Government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiators will start their joint inquiry into the Dec. 24 bombing in Datu Piang, Maguindanao that killed the town’s mayor, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, and 17 others, immediately after the holidays.

But the investigation is being hounded by the differing views of both panels on the military’s ongoing "police actions" against secessionist rebels implicated in the carnage.

Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, father of the slain mayor, told Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, the government’s chief peace negotiator, and Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga in a dialogue the other day that his family’s main concern now is for authorities to put the bombers behind bars.

The Ampatuans, spread in the towns of Shariff Aguak, Datu Piang, Ampatuan and Mamasapano, all in the second district of Maguindanao, are known for their well-armed community defense militias whose members include MILF rebel returnees.

Gov. Ampatuan said members of their clan have agreed not to retaliate and instead allow the police and the military to run after the bombing suspects, reportedly led by Commander Rambo of the MILF.

The meeting of Ampatuan and Dureza was preceded by the capture by combatants of the Army’s 301st Infantry Brigade of a well-fortified enclave of Commander Rambo and his men in a secluded barangay in Datu Piang after a three-hour gunbattle.

"The newly established camp has about 25 overhead bunkers," said Col. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the 301st IB.

Since Dec. 25, there have been more than a dozen encounters with MILF forces in Datu Piang and surrounding towns as soldiers pursued Commander Rambo’s group.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said soldiers in Datu Piang have since been bombarding key rebel positions with 105 Howitzer cannons and mortars, thus violating the ceasefire.

Datu Piang officials claimed that more than a dozen MILF rebels have been killed in the encounters which, they said, erupted when the guerrillas opened fire on soldiers.

Dureza said the "police actions" against Commander Rambo’s group are not covered by any restrictions in the ceasefire.

The truce agreement, he said, only restrains military and rebel forces from embarking on any offensives that could compromise each other’s safety and the welfare of civilians in areas covered by the cessation of hostilities.

Dureza described the Datu Piang bombing, which seriously injured more than a dozen other people, as a "premeditated massacre."

Muslim religious leaders in Maguindanao have called on the MILF to fully cooperate with the authorities in carrying out the arrest of Commander Rambo and his cohorts.

"Instead of complaining that the military is using its police action against Rambo as a pretext to purge its forces in Datu Piang, MILF forces in the area should help work out his arrest and help build up a strong criminal case against him," said one of the preachers.

The ceasefire monitoring teams of both sides met in Cotabato City yesterday and agreed to start investigating the Datu Piang bombing after the New Year’s Day celebration.

Dureza and Lanang Ali, a member of the MILF peace panel, jointly presided over the meeting.