MILF rebels subsist on boiled banana stalks

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Life has become so hard these days for guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan, Maguin—danao that they have reportedly been eating boiled banana stalks since their camps fell to military control last month.

"This could be the reason why we have been receiving surrender feelers from MILF forces in the area lately," said Col. Cardoza Luna, commander of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade.

Luna also noted several chance encounters between MILF rebels retreating from the Buliok Complex and militiamen guarding far-flung barangays in surrounding towns.

Pikit and Pagalungan officials said they have received information that at least 30 wounded MILF guerrillas, confined in a makeshift shelter at the Liguasan Marsh, are dying from gangrene due to the absence of antibiotics.

"Without food and medication, they will surely die," said a 60-year-old ustadz, who asked not to be identified.

Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said they are ready to provide the wounded MILF fighters the necessary medical attention if they would voluntarily come out of their hideouts without firearms.

"Members of the 6th ID are respectable soldiers. They are ready to extend assistance and even reconciliation to enemies who would need such an urgent attention," he said.

Senga said the 6th ID is even willing to put up a relief site for wounded and hungry MILF fighters on neutral grounds for them to realize that while the military will never compromise its peacekeeping mandate, it is ready and considerate to respond to the humanitarian needs of enemies of the state.

"They have no more food. Some of them are now eating boiled banana stalks," an evacuee, who asked to be identified only as Arifa, told reporters in the Maguindanaoan dialect.

Luna said reports that MILF forces in Pikit and Pagalungan no longer have food and ammunition were credible.

"They have been harassing populated areas lately in search of food. They take farm animals at gunpoint and loot villages of rice and (other goods with which they can) sustain themselves," Luna said.