Military braces for possible MILF attacks

COTABATO CITY — The military is bracing for possible attacks by about a thousand Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels which started massing the other day in strategic areas in the neighboring towns of Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan, Maguindanao, an Army spokesman said yesterday.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said also spotted in Pikit were more than a hundred members of the Pentagon kidnapping-for-ransom gang and two smaller groups, led by Commanders Gary Dagandal and Rambo, both implicated in the Dec. 24 bombing in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town, which left 18 people dead.

Among those killed in the Datu Piang bombing was the town’s mayor, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, son of Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan.

Ando said the MILF rebels were first seen converging in Barangay Buliok in Pikit and in Kabasalan, a secluded district at the border of Pikit and Sultan sa Barongis, a known lair of the Pentagon gang and Moro guerrillas.

Ando said more than a hundred families have fled Kabasalan in Buliok because of the massing of MILF forces there. Local officials said the rebels had been harassing the villagers, demanding food and livestock from them.

Col. Cardoso Luna, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said their forces have been deployed in Pikit and Pagalungan to fend off possible MILF attacks from Barangays Buliok and Kabasalan, both situated in the Liguasan Marsh.

Luna said the MILF, in the past two years, has transformed the Liguasan Marsh into its new command base and sanctuary of kidnappers preying on Central Mindanao businessmen.

Army intelligence sources said Tahir Alonto, the elusive Pentagon leader who carries a P5-million prize on his head, was twice seen in Kabasalan last week, meeting with key MILF commanders. – John Unson