Team finds no trace of Al-Qaeda, JI in Maguindanao-Lanao border

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - A joint verification team dispatched last week did not find even a single member of either the Al-Qaeda or its Asian cell, the Jemaah Islamiya, in the hinterland borders of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, the military said.

The team, comprised of representatives from the Army, the police, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, returned Sunday to Camp Iranun of the Army’s 603nd Brigade in Barira, Maguindanao and reported that there was no truth to allegations there were foreign terrorists in forested areas at the border of the two provinces.

Col. Manolito Orense, commanding officer of the Army’s 603rd Brigade, said the brigade’s rank-and-file were elated with the findings of the joint verification team.

“We were elated. We felt a relief with the findings of the team and we are glad that the verification mission was accomplished to the benefit of the two ceasefire committees – that of the MILF and the Philippine government,” Orense told reporters.

The team departed for its fact-finding mission last August 26 after a brief kickoff rite officiated by Orense and his subordinate officers at Camp Iranun.

Orense said what was fascinating with the joint mission was the cooperation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the MILF in validating stories about the alleged presence of foreign terrorists in areas inside the territory of the 603rd Brigade.

“These organizations that were hostile to each other in decades past are now helping each other address security problems in Central Mindanao. This is a very clear `dividend’ of President Aquino’s Mindanao peace process,” Orense said.

The verification mission was jointly supervised by Army Gen. Cesar Dionisio Sedillo, Jr., chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, and a senior MILF official, Benjie Midtimbang.

Sedillo and Midtimbang both confirmed that the team did not find even a single JI or Al-Qaeda member in the hinterland border of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

They also both told reporters that the team has not found either any lair of foreign or local terrorists in the areas its combined AFP, PNP and MILF members scoured for six days.

The MILF and the government, under the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, are to mutually cooperate in the interdiction of criminals and terrorists in flashpoint areas in Southern Mindanao.