Arrested MILF member turned over to ceasefire body

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines  --- Authorities turned over Tuesday night to the ceasefire committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front cashiered MILF leader Imam Wahid Tundok, three days after he was arrested by policemen for multiple murder and arson.

Tundok was nabbed  at a checkpoint in Matampay District in Cotabato City Sunday by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, invoking an old warrant for his arrest issued by a local court.

Von Al-Haq, spokesman of the MILF, told reporters government representatives turned over Tundok to their ceasefire committee past 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The government’s chief negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, told Catholic station dxMS in Cotabato City Wednesday morning that the warrant for Tundok’s arrest had been lifted.

Ferrer added that Tundok's arrest will not affect the GPH-MILF talks.

Tundok is chief of the MILF’s 118th Base Command, which operates in Maguindanao’s adjoining Datu Piang, Datu Saudi and Salibo towns.

Tundok, for security reasons, was detained at Camp Siongco, the command center of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, on the behest of the CIDG.

“We followed the necessary process in seeking the release of Wahid Tundok, based on our ceasefire agreement with government,” Al-Haq said.

He said the release of Tundok was authorized by Judge George Jabido of the Regional Trial Court Branch 13 in Cotabato City.

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF’s vice chairman for political affairs, said on Monday that their men with standing cases in courts should enjoy temporary immunity from arrest, and even prosecution, to prevent misunderstandings that could affect the the on-going peace talks with government.

Jaafar has said that the CIDG’s uncoordinated arrest of Tundok will not affect the peace negotiations.

The government and the MILF are to mutually cooperate in addressing security issues in hostile areas in Mindanao according to the provisions of the Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, which representatives from both sides crafted in Cagayan de Oro City in July 1997.

Tundok, an archenemy of Saudi-trained cleric Ameril Ombra Kato, founder of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, was on his way to Datu Saudi town from a meeting with members of the MILF’s central committee in Camp Darapanan in the first district of the province when he was intercepted by CIDG agents.

Tundok and his men were said to have assisted the military in its two-week “police action” last January against the BIFF, which is known for banditry and terror activities.

Local officials and peace activists have criticized the CIDG for initiating the arrest of Tundok amid a ceasefire accord, raising concern over its effect to  the GPH-MILF talks.

Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi town had told reporters that Tundok stayed overnight in his house in Cotabato City after the police and the military turned him over to the MILF.

Tundok, who is an Islamic theologian, is popular for his guerrilla exploits, having led attacks on military installations in 2000, after then President Joseph Estrada declared an all out war against the MILF.

Tundok and his men also figured in fierce clashes with the military in 2003, and in 2008.