MILF members spring arrested kin in Lanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Moro rebels on Wednesday flagged down at a secluded stretch of the Narciso Ramos Highway in Balindong, Lanao del Sur a police convoy and set free their detained relatives policemen were to bring to the provincial jail in Marawi City.

Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police, has tagged a local band of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas as behind the attack.

The MILF gunmen carted away the firearms of the policemen they took at gunpoint before they escaped, along with their relatives, whom members of the Picong town police were to bring to Marawi City a day after they were arrested for illegal possession of firearms.

“The arrested alleged offenders were caught by our men at a checkpoint in Picong a day before the incident,” Delos Reyes said.

Delos Reyes said he had asked the joint GPH-MILF ceasefire committee to investigate on the incident, and  recover  the government-owned firearms the rebels took away.

“We have put our pursuit operations on hold to enable the ceasefire mechanisms to work freely to resolve this case,” Delos Reyes said.

Delos Reyes appealed to the central leadership of the MILF to censure the guerrillas involved in the incident.

Among those the MILF rebels had set free is a woman. The detainees were caught carrying guns Tuesday while passing through a police checkpoint along a highway in Picong, a coastal town in the second district of Lanao del Sur.

“The `rescue’ happened a day after they were arrested for illegal possession of firearms. It is the work of policemen to arrest people carrying guns without proper authorization from government,” Delos Reyes said.

The incident was the MILF’s second affront against the Lanao del Sur provincial police in less than 12 months.

MILF rebels had sprung last year a detained relative from the Marawi City police office, and even kidnapped the city’s police chief, whom they used as a “shield” to prevent pursuing soldiers and policemen from closing in.

The rebels gunned down for resisting captivity the officer’s civilian brother-in-law, who was at the precinct when they barged in.

The kidnapped police officer was released without any ransom about 10  hours later through the intercession of local officials.