ZAMBOANGA CITY – Forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) took over a public school in a village in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte last week, raising tension among residents there, authorities said.
Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, Western Mindanao police director, said the MILF fighters occupied the public school in Barangay Lakiki and forced the villagers to evacuate for fear that government troops would engage them in a firefight for doing so.
“The MILF took actual possession of the school,” Caringal told reporters during the traditional New Year’s call at the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command here.
He said Sibuco Mayor Norbie Edding has conducted dialogues with local leaders on the MILF rebels’ action.
Edding, in a text message, confirmed that the municipal peace and order council met with the local leaders, and adopted a resolution denying the MILF a camp in Barangay Lakiki.
Edding said they have requested the Philippine National Police to put up a community police action center in Barangay Lakiki as soon as possible.
Caringal said they will file a complaint on the MILF takeover of the Sibuco school with the government panel of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH).
“It is not for us to decide whether it’s a violation, but the CCCH will determine it,” he said.
Caringal said the police would continue to monitor the situation in Sibuco town.
Efforts to get the reaction of MILF military-civil affairs chief Eid Kabalu were futile as he could not be reached via his mobile phone.
However, reports said the MILF guerrillas consider Barangay Lakiki as one of the areas under their “ancestral domain.”
Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, chief of the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command, said the MILF rebels could have taken advantage of the impasse in the peace talks with the government over the issue of ancestral domain.
Similar tension was also reported in Kauswagan town in Lanao del Norte after supporters and followers of the MILF staged a rally, Allaga said.