MILF ignores demand

By John Unson

COTABATO CITY - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has ignored pleas by local leaders to dismantle its checkpoints along critical stretches of the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway.

Instead, the separatist rebel group has fielded more combatants along the highway, some of them positioned in fortified bunkers, apparently bracing for an offensive by a Marine brigade on standby in a nearby town.

Al-Haj Murad, MILF vice chairman for military affairs, said it is up to the government and MILF peace panels to clear the issue on the checkpoints which, he claimed, have been in some portions of the highway even before the peace talks started.

"Our forces have been there even before that highway was concreted in the early 90s," he said.

Motorists and commuters have complained about the rebels' excessive collection of "protection money" along the highway, and the Army's 6th Infantry Division is planning to intervene, military sources said.

Maguindanao Gov. Zacaria Candao, chairman of the Provincial Peace and Order Council, said he has discussed the complaints with Murad on the behest of residents in the Kapatagan-Matanog stretch of the highway.

Villagers fear that hostilities might break out if government troops would attempt to clear the highway of MILF checkpoints.

Candao said the MILF panel is willing to discuss the issue with government negotiators.

According to Maj. Julieto Ando, civil-military relations chief of the 6th ID, local officials have also confirmed the massing of Moro rebels at the entry and exit points of the MILF's Camp Rajah Muda in Pikit, North Cotabato and in marshlands in the adjoining towns of Kabuntalan and Mid-sayap, some 40 kilometers southeast of this city.

Murad said trouble will erupt in other areas of Central Mindanao if the military would attempt to intrude into MILF territories the highway traverses.

Meanwhile, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed yesterday the disgust of Mindanaoans over what they claimed were the "irresponsible" statements earlier made by four senators about an impending "war" in the island.

"There's a lot of anger, especially in the progressive areas. They really feel bad about the statements of the four senators," Arroyo said, referring to Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Rodolfo Biazon, Aquilino Pimentel and Juan Flavier.

When asked about the real peace and order situation in Mindanao, Arroyo declined to give her own assessment, saying, "I cannot be an expert after a one-day stay there."