MILF attacks Army outpost in South Cotabato

Heavily armed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters attacked an Army outpost in Tupi, South Cotabato on Saturday, the military reported yesterday.

The MILF assault undermined an earlier pronouncement made by Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz that the government remains hopeful it could strike a peace deal with MILF soon.

Cruz issued this statement after the Kuala Lumpur-sponsored GRP-MILF negotiations bogged down late last May over the nagging ancestral domain issue.

Reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo showed that 40 MILF fighters were behind the high noon assault of an Army outpost of the 57th Infantry Battalion manned by militiamen at Sitio Babak, Barangay Koronadal, Polunoling, Tupi, South Cotabato.

Armed with two rocket-propelled grenades and high-powered firearms, the MILF fighters led by an unknown commander tried to overrun the Army outpost but failed.

Reinforcement from the 27th Infantry Battalion led by 2Lt Vincent David Bonifacio chased the retreating MILF fighters towards Sitio Bunawan, also in Barangay Polunoling.

While there was no reported casualty in the fighting, the latest attack once again put the shaky government-MILF ceasefire on the line.

Late last month, hope for the forging of the GRP-MILF peace agreement in Mindanao bogged down in Kuala Lumpur as both sides could not come into agreement on the issue of ancestral domain.

But despite the setback, the government is not about to give up. Cruz said the peace fact could still be forged before the end of the year or before the observance of the Muslim Holy month on Ramadan. — With Roel Pareño