Teams sent to retrieve body of councilor slain by MILF rebels

NORTH COTABATO - The military on Friday dispatched three teams to retrieve the cadaver of a barangay councilor executed by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels at the height of Thursday’s hostilities in Barangays Tonganon and Tupig in Carmen town in the province.

The hostilities involved the groups of Commanders Tarzan and Karim, both of the MILF’s 110th Base Command, and their adversaries, the combined forces of the Moro National Liberation Front, led by Commander Minanimbong, and community watchmen in the two barangays.

Captain Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, said Rudy Camigue, a councilman in Barangay Tonganon, was trapped in the crossfire and was eventually taken and killed by followers of Tarzan and Karim.

The clashes between guerrillas of the MILF and members of the MNLF erupted when the former blocked a stretch of a farm-to-market road connecting the two barangays to the town proper of Carmen after local peasant communities refused to pay “protection money.”

Minanimbong’s group, backed by barangay tanods, tried to convince the MILF rebels to leave, sparking a gun battle.

Bulao said soldiers have been sent to the area to recover the cadaver of Camigue.

Bulao said they have entrusted the resolution of the conflict to the government and the MILF’s joint ceasefire committee in keeping with security protocols stated in the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

The ceasefire accord, crafted in Cagayan de Oro City in July 1997, enjoins the government and the MILF to mutually cooperate in addressing peace and security problems in flashpoint areas in Mindanao.

Bulao said soldiers have also been deployed to the boundary of the two barangays to act as “buffer forces” to prevent the feuding groups from getting close to each other.