Maguindanao leaders agree to 3-day truce

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao — Local leaders have agreed to a three-day suspension of hostilities here and in surrounding towns to allow the joint ceasefire committee to serve the arrest warrants for two radical commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) implicated in the deadly June 23 bombing here.

Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said the three-day truce, to start tomorrow, would also pave the way for the formulation of measures that would stave off encounters between MILF forces and militiamen.

Dureza met with Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan here yesterday.

The hostilities between radical forces of the MILF, led by Said Pakiladatu and Amiril Kato Ombra, both tagged as masterminds of the June 23 bombing, and the militiamen erupted last June 28 when the police tried to serve the arrest warrants for the two.

The Ampatuans furnished Dureza and retired Brig. Gen. Ramon Santos, chairman of the government ceasefire committee, the arrest warrants for Pakiladatu and Ombra during their two-hour meeting here.

"Now we can let the government ceasefire committee talk with its MILF counterpart about these warrants and, hopefully, the two committees could work out the surrender of the (two suspects)," Dureza told the Ampatuans.

Judge Cader Indar of the Cotabato City Regional Trial Court issued the warrants.