COTABATO CITY - At least 32 Muslim rebels and a soldier were killed as government troops advanced on Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) camps in Maguindanao last Thursday.
Army brigade chief Col. Hermogenes Esperon said five soldiers were also wounded in the fighting in the villages of Limbalod and Dungguan in Maguindanao.
At Malacañang, President Estrada declared the liberated MILF camps as "zones of peace."
Thursday's fighting came as negotiators from the go-vernment and the secessionist Muslim group concluded three days of peace talks in this city, about 80 kilometers from the scene of the clashes.
The Army used rocket-firing MG-520 attack helicopters and artillery to soften up MILF defenses on a rebel base, Camp Usman, as ground troops advanced.
Gunbattles continued early yesterday around the camp, on the boundary of North Cotabato and Ma-guindanao, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
"We will continue our push to the site where they had set up their own government," Esperon said. "There is no other government in the Philippines, not in accordance with the Constitution."
The lone government casualty was identified as Cpl. Salvador Baria of the 39th Infantry Battalion, who died of several gunshot wounds.
Maj. Julieto Ando, civil-military relations chief of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said Baria was killed when heavily armed rebels opened fire at his group in Barangay Limbalud, Pagagawan town.
Baria's group was dispatched to the town to verify reports that some 200 Muslim guerrillas had converged in the area for an attack on a strategic stretch of the Davao-Cotabato Highway.
"Probably they were planning to block the highway again," Ando said.
The clashes immediately spilled over to nearby Barangay Dungguan, forcing hundreds of villagers to flee.
Rosalinda Caballero, an evacuee, said six mortar shells landed on their yard as opposing forces pounded on each other's position.
"We don't know why the mortars are landing on our houses. We don't have anything to do with their fighting," she said.
A fisherman was killed while six other civilians were wounded when mortar shells fired from a military position on viollages along the Davao-Cotabato Highway.
For the MILF, rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said they are expecting soldiers to attack Camp Rajah Muda, one of their biggest enclaves, since the government has not agreed to call a ceasefire during the three-day talks in this city.
The President has rejected rebel demands for a ceasefire, urging them to accept the government's offer of a peace agreement by the end of June or face a further onslaught.
Last Thursday, the MILF agreed to consider the government's offer for limited self-rule, a major shift from its struggle for an independent Muslim state in Mindanao.
After a month-long assault on MILF territories, government forces earlier this week captured Camp Bushra, the rebels' second-largest training base. They also pushed the guerrillas back from a major highway outside their main bastion of Camp Abubakar.
MILF leaders, however, vowed to defend to the last man Camp Sarmiento, the last perimeter of defense for Camp Abubakar.
MILF spokesman Kabalu said they would do everything to defend the camp, but the military merely laughed off his claim.
"What Camp Sarmiento is he talking about?" asked Capt. Noel Detoyato, spokesman of the Army's 6th Infantry Division.
"We already captured it since Thursday noon."
Detoyato noted that government troops have occupied the camp, including the house of Al Haj Murad, the MILF's military affairs chief.
He said soldiers approaching the camp were initially met with intense fire from the rebels who later withdrew, enabling government forces to easily overrun the camp.
"But I have to admit that we have yet to take complete control of the camp," he said.
Meanwhile, two senators yesterday expressed their views on the ongoing conflict in Mindanao, noting that the disunity among Muslims remains the biggest obstacle for peace in the region.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said Misuari's alleged attempt to block a peace settlement between the government and the MILF only proved that he (Misuari) did not want to share his power with other Muslim leaders.
He explained that Misuari's position as governor of the four-province ARMM would be threatened should the government grant a similar concession to the MILF.
"This (ARMM) is a very small pie to be shared, and Misuari would not want his powers to be reduced by having to share this with MILF chairman Hashim Salamat," Biazon said.
He added that a bigger share of the "pie" for both Misuari and Salamat would hinge on the expansion of the ARMM to include 10 more provinces and 10 cities. He, however, said that the expansion is certain to be rejected by the people of Mindanao.
"This problem (war) would be solved if all Muslims, including Salamat and Misuari, would unite and together work for a meaningful autonomy of the ARMM without their individual struggle for power," he said.
Sen. Raul Roco, on the other hand, said that granting more autonomy to Muslims in Mindanao would further divide rather than unite the nation.
"When two mothers went to King Solomon, the one who was willing to divide the baby was not the mother. Those who are willing to divide the country should not be favored," he said.
Several lawmakers have proposed federalism as a possible solution to the decades-old Mindanao conflict and the growing poverty in various regions. They noted that under the present setup of government, decisions affecting the welfare of people in the provinces are being made by those in Manila who rarely know the real condition in the countryside.
Sen. John Osmeña, for one, said that even the acquisition of paper or paper clips in remote towns in the Visayas and Mindanao still have to be decided on by authorities in Manila.
Osmeña is among those endorsing a federal system of government. On his side are senators Francisco Tatad and Aquilino Pimentel who all believe that federalism would satisfy the demands of Muslim separatists without dismembering the country. - With reports from Paolo Romero, Olive Sudaria, Marichu Villanueva, Efren Danao, AFP