Police, Army to secure NCotabato town from MILF forces

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  --- A joint police-military task force will secure farming enclaves at Tulunan town in this province where  Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels have established a "mini-camp"  against the will of  Ilonggo and ethnic Bilaan inhabitants.

Tulunan Mayor Lani Candolada, presiding chair of the municipal peace and order council, said the security effort was an apparent response by the national government to appeal of her constituents for the deployment of a security contingent in the area following a recent spate of bloody MILF attacks.

The joint task force (JTF) will secure the periphery of Tulunan’s remote Barangay Maybula, scene of recent clashes between breakaway MILF rebels from a nearby Maguindanao town, and armed villagers and members of a local community militia.

The MILF attacks at strategic, fertile farmlands in the surroundings of Barangay Maybula, which started almost two months ago, dislocated some 300 Ilonggo and Bilaan families.

Candolada said the security forces will be comprised  of  policemen from Region 12’s Regional Mobile Group and the Army’s 1002nd Brigade, which is under the 10th Infantry Division.

Candolada said the inter-agency Regional Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Committee will also oversee the restoration of normalcy at a strategic plateau at the boundary of Tulunan and Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, where MILF forces have established a “mini-camp” against the will of local residents.

MILF rebels from outside of North Cotabato began frequenting Barangay Maybula after last year’s signing of the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro, the basis for the crafting of a final peace deal between the government and the rebel group.

Commanders of rebel forces now occupying Barko-Barko area in Barangay Maybula have been insisting that the area is part of the defense perimeter of the enclave in Datu Paglas which is covered by the government-MILF 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

Candolada said the inter-agency peace committee will also focus attention, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, on  putting up boundary demarcations to determine the borders of Tulunan, Datu Paglas and Columbio, Sultan Kudarat.