33 MILF rebels, three soldiers killed in Lanao fighting

ILIGAN CITY -- Thirty-three rebels and three soldiers have been killed in five days of fierce fighting between government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas for control of Marugong town in Lanao del Sur.

The offensive, involving planes, helicopter gunships, and artillery, came three days before the government and the MILF were to resume peace talks.

MILF rebels have occupied Marugong for the past two months after Vice Mayor Malapandi Cossain, who is an MILF commander, had ousted Mayor Abdulwahid Maruhom.

Brig. Gen. Roy Cimatu, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, said the military offensive will continue while MILF reinforcements from Camp Busrah keep on pouring into the town.

Cimatu has ordered the 402nd Infantry Brigade under Col. Samuel Bagasin and the 1st Marine Brigade under Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio to capture Camp Busrah.

Maj. Johnny Macanas, 4th Infantry Division spokesman, said Camp Busrah is just an eight-hour hike from Camp Abubakar, passing through the dense jungle which separates the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

"Our units have to take time driving away the rebels in Marugong because their reinforcements just keep coming from Busrah so we have to attack Busrah and Marugong simultaneously," he said.

Macanas said 14 Army battalions and a Marine brigade are ready to retake Marugong and Butig towns and reinstall their mayors and duly-constituted governments.

"We expect to recapture Marugong in three days," he said.

Macanas said the MILF had declared Marugong and Butig as "independent states" in Mindanao.

Macanas said more than a thousand government troops in Lumbatan, Lanao del Sur are ready to reinforce military units now inching towards Camp Busrah, which is atop a hill in Butig town.

"We are confident that this offensive will not be too long," he said. "This operation can be likened to parents' joy after a child's birth. It is like a woman giving birth. After the labor pains comes the joy of seeing the child."

Last Thursday morning, three soldiers were killed after MILF guerrillas ambushed troops from the Army's 78th Infantry Battalion near Barangay Purakan in Malabang, Lanao del Sur.

Killed in action were 1st Lt. Hubert Awingan, Cpl. Roy Medrano and Pfc. Rey Suminget.

The troops were on board jeeps on their way to a detachment of the Army's 28th Infantry Battalion when the rebels attacked them and opened fire from different directions.

The rebels burned and destroyed a jeep took and carted off an M14 rifle, an M16 rifle, P10,000 cash, two ponchos, a cellphone, and a military identification card.

The guerrillas fled after troops from the 78th Infantry Battalion arrived.

In Matanog, Maguindanao, government forces attacked again a strategic corridor leading to Camp Abubakar, the MILF's main stronghold in Mindanao.

Capt. Noel Detoyato, spokesman of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said Army troops, supported by a tank column, broke through Barangay Sarmiento and hoisted the Philippine flag on an adjacent hill.

"The rebels have since been sniping at the soldiers from a distance," he said.

He said Barangay Sarmiento is just 3.8 kilometers from the road junction that links the barangay with the Narciso Ramos highway.

"We do not deny that we are now clearing Sarmiento and would not hesitate to penetrate deeper if only to prevent the MILF from using this territory as springboard for harrassment of our men securing the Secretary Narciso Ramos highway," he said.

Earlier, Army artillery and Air Force planes destroyed the office of MILF military chief Al Haj Murad and the rebel's communications facilities, including a satellite disk and a rotating tower antenna in Barangay Sarmiento.

In Cagayan de Oro City, Lanao del Sur Rep. Benasing Macarambon appealed to the military to spare the lives of civilians who are caught in the fighting in Marugong and Butig towns. -