MILF denies hand in Lanao Norte's power line blast

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has denied any involvement in the other day’s bombing of a power transmission tower in Lanao del Norte, but warned security problems in the South will persist if the government will remain at war with certain guerilla leaders not covered by President Arroyo’s suspension of military offensives against the MILF.

The MILF is apparently referring to Abdullah Macapaar, also known as Commander Bravo, Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato, and Ali Pangalian, all tagged by the military as “renegade commanders” and now carries a P10-million reward each on their heads for leading bloody attacks on Southern towns after the aborted Aug. 5, 2008 crafting of the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD).

The military has blamed renegade MILF rebels for attempting to topple down a transmission tower in Lanao del Norte two days ago using improvised explosives fashioned from live mortar projectiles. The rebels had set off the bombs on the structural columns of the tower, but failed to totally destroy the facility.

The MILF’s website, www.luwaran.net, said guerilla forces in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte have religiously been adhering to their central committee’s July 23 suspension of military actions (SOMA) against the Armed Forces and will not, thus, perpetrate maneuvers that can only disrupt normalcy in areas covered by the ceasefire.

The MILF said with government’s suspension of military offensives, or SOMO, against the Muslim rebels in the South is virtually ineffective due to the exclusion of the three commanders from its coverage.

“Technically, the government has not declared any truce in Mindanao,” the rebel website quoted a senior MILF official as saying.

Sources from the military’s intelligence community said Bravo and his followers were behind the latest attempt to sabotage the operation in Lanao del Norte of the National Grid Corp., which supplies electricity to the province generated by state-owned hydroelectric plants in Lanao del Sur.