Moro rebels torch 80 houses of Bilaan natives

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Secessionist Moro rebels set on fire 80 houses of Bilaan natives as they retreated after a daring raid Sunday at the banana plantation of North Cotabato Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol where they killed three and wounded five others.

The rebels, led by Kagui Bayam and Hadji Abbas, leaders of the 108th and 109th Base Commands of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, respectively, were also reported to have burned costly road-building equipment at a government project site near the farm of Piñol in Barangay Kanibong in Tulunan, North Cotabato.

Chief Inspector Sofronio Cornelio, chief of the Tulunan municipal police, said the rebels first surrounded Barangay Kanibong at about 7 a.m. Sunday and, without warning, attacked outposts manned by civilian volunteers and militiamen and the bunkhouses at the center of Piñol’s plantation. One of the three fatalities in the MILF attack was Tanoh Kuradah, a watchman in the vice governor’s farm, who fought the rebels with his 12-gauge shotgun, and was killed eventually when he ran out of ammunition.

Cornelio said two barangay tanods, Richard Della and Tito Arguelles, a pregnant woman named Jane Tongkua, nine-year-old Mary Jane Langote, and farmer Albert Insisco, were wounded.

“The attack was done in total disregard of public safety,” said Tulunan’s acting mayor, Jomar Cerebo. Cerebo said the attack also forced hundreds of Bilaans and Visayan villagers to evacuate to neutral grounds.

Lt. Col, Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the pursuing soldiers found not far from Barangay Kanibong the body of a Moro guerilla who was killed by responding militiamen from nearby areas. The slain guerilla was initially identified as Andit, based on the name patch on his fatigue uniform that also has MILF insignia.

Ancestral domain

“We have been receiving persistent feedback from our informants in the nearby Maguindanao province that the groups of Kagui Bayam and Hadji Abbas also suffered casualties,” Ponce said.

Ponce said their intelligence units are certain the attack on Piñol’s banana plantation was in retaliation for the vice governor’s having sought the prompt intervention by the Supreme Court on the supposed signing by the government and the MILF’s peace panels of the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain. The MOA-AD, which the High Tribunal also subsequently declared as “unconstitutional,” was the supposed basis for the setting up of a Muslim homeland in the South.

The Aug. 5, 2008  aborted final crafting by both sides of the MOA-AD in Malaysia triggered bloody attacks on hapless communities in Mindanao by indignant MILF forces led by Ameril Ombra Kato and Abdullah Macaapar, atrocities that led to the collapse of the peace talks.

In related developments, gunmen suspected to be members of the MILF attacked past midnight Sunday a civilian village in remote Naga town, Zamboanga Sibugay province, police said yesterday. One of the civilians was hit and wounded from the hails of bullets and shrapnel fired by the rebels at the civilians who were in their slumber at Sitio Kinner, barangay La Paz, Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, spokesman of the Western Mindanao police regional office said.

Two of the houses were initially hit by the volley of fires as alerted villagers woke up and retaliated towards the rebels attacking position. “The villagers, who were armed civilian volunteers, fired back at the suspects, that prompted them to withdraw toward unknown direction,” Gucela said.

Police forces responded and launched pursuit operation against the rebels that immediately fled on foot. The police personnel recovered from the attack site empty shells of M16 Armalite rifle, M14 rifle, and M79 rifle grenade ammunition. Police authorities were looking at the motive of the attack and harassment on the civilians in the area.

However, the police could not determine if the attackers were part of the rebel group that abducted three public school teachers on March 13 while on their way home from Bangkaw-Bangkaw Elementary School.

The kidnappers identified as Kamsa Asdanal and his two unidentified sons a certain Ging-ging Kamlon; and Mohammad Arani alias Gigi were tagged as members of the rogue MILF group operating in Naga town, demanded P10-million for the release of the three female captive teachers.

The victims Noemi Mandi, 38; Jocelyn Inion, 39; and Jocelyn Enriquez, 43, were believed to be kept still in the mainland of Sibugay province.