Maguindanaoans hurt by reports of JI presence in province

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Peace activists, local officials and members of the business community in the province are griping over insinuations that Malaysian Jemaah Islamiya member Zulkifli bin HIr, also known as Marwan, is hiding somewhere in the province.

A recent published report had quoted both National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia and the spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Von-Al-Haq, as saying that they have information that Marwan is being coddled presently by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in one of its its lairs in the province's second district.

Muslim traders in Maguindanao’s adjoining Datu Piang and Shariff Aguak towns were saddened by the report, something for them so “unrealistic” and detrimental to what they describe as now “improving economy” in their municipalities.

“The spokesman of the MILF seemed to have forgotten that under their ceasefire agreement with the government, they are to help find criminals and terrorists and pluck them out of the areas covered by the ceasefire accord,” said a Moro rice and corn grains trader.

The trader who asked not to be identified said the Visayan buyers of his merchandise in General Santos City have stopped providing him with cash advances for the procurement of grains after reading the report on the alleged presence in Maguindanao of Marwan.

Marwan was said to have trained in fabrication of home-made bombs in Peshawar, Pakistan and in Kandahar Afganistan.

A senior official of the League of Mayors in Maguindanao said such scenario is not just preposterous, but unfounded as well.

“It is impossible for our constituent-barangay officials not to detect the presence of any foreign terrorist in any part of the province. No one from them will ever allow the peace process to be derailed by any presence of foreign terrorists in their communities,” the league official said.

Against BIFF policies

The spokesman of BIFF, Abu Misry Mama, told reporters that coddling a terrorist like Marwan, is against the revolutionary policies of their organization.

“We in the BIFF only bomb military positions. We don’t do bombings to kill innocent people,” Mama said in halting Filipino.

A vice-mayor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that what is so saddening for them is that it is government officials based in Metro Manila, not from Central Mindanao, who are painting a “bad picture” of the province with their assertions that Marwan is in the area.

Intelligence units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police command could not confirm the presence of the Malaysian bomb-maker in the province.

The MILF’s vice chairman, Ghadzali Jaafar, told reporters Thursday that the new threat group Khilafah Islamiya Mindanao (KIM) had indeed emerged recently, borne out of dissatisfaction by its organizers with the Mindanao peace process.

Jaafar, an ethnic Maguindanaon, emphasized, however, that the new group "KIM" is based in Lanao del Sur, not in Maguindanao.

“This group is led by Maranaws,” he said.

Jaafar said they remain committed to the 1997 government-MILF Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, which obliges them to help, through the joint ceasefire committee, in the interdiction of criminals and terrorists in flashpoint areas to prevent security problems that can affect the cordiality of the peace talks.