15 Salamat followers surrender

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Fifteen followers of the late Hashim Salamat, who founded the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the early 1980s, surrendered to the military over the weekend and pledged allegiance to the Philippine government.

The rebels, led by Pakil Ayunan and Ali Mangko, also turned in assorted firearms and live B-40 anti-tank rockets to officers of the Army’s 602nd Brigade in Carmen, North Cotabato during simple surrender rites over the weekend.

Lt. Col. Franklin Del Prado, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the rebels decided to avail of President Arroyo’s reconciliation program after growing tired of hiding in the hinterlands of North Cotabato.

Ayunan and Mangko both operated in the tri-boundaries of Pikit, Carmen and Kabacan, all in the province of North Cotabato.

Ayunan told reporters who covered their surrender that he and his followers were involved in toppling down more than a dozen steel power pylons along the national highways in North Cotabato in retaliation for the military’s takeover in 2000 of their main enclave, Camp Abubakar, in Maguindanao.

Salamat, who passed away in 2003, had showcased his concept of a puritan Islamic community in Camp Abubakar, where he established the MILF’s first ever command center.

Local officials in Carmen said Ayunan and Mangko were the known henchmen of Salamat.

Col. Ruperto Rabustan, commander of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, said that since January, more than 200 MILF rebels in North Cotabato availed of the government’s reconciliation program and are now peacefully tilling their lands in their villages.