Terror tag for MILF?

As two more bombs exploded yesterday in Cotabato, the government threatened to push for the inclusion of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the United States’ terror blacklist.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that while the government is ready to ask the US to pin the terrorist tag on the MILF, it is also ready to sit down and negotiate for peace – just as the government is in the midst of informal peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been classified by the US as a terrorist organization.

"The long-term goal of this government is to have peace in Mindanao," Bunye said. "And we will walk the extra mile to attain that peace."

"The ball is in the MILF’s hands. It should not lose this opportunity to show that it is also seeking peace," Bunye added.

This, as President Arroyo summoned to a meeting today at Malacañang local government officials led by North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol to discuss the government’s next course of action in areas affected by MILF bomb and raid attacks.

As of yesterday, Bunye said, Piñol’s proposal that the government declare the MILF a terrorist group had not yet been elevated to the President for her consideration.

"This has not been officially taken, but, if (the MILF) persist in attacking civilians, this option might just be considered," Bunye told Palace reporters.

Bunye added that this does not mean the government will wait for another MILF attack on civilian non-combatants before making a decision on the matter.

Bombs by MILF

Army intelligence sources in Maguindanao said the bomb attack in Cotabato Thursday that killed at least three people and wounded 20 others was carried out by foreign-trained MILF bomb experts.

The car bomb at the Awang Airport within Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Cotabato City was the most powerful and most daring in the history of Maguindanao province.

The attack, the sources said, was carried out by members of the MILF’s special group composed of young men trained in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Army 6th Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said a car bomb exploded near a row of restaurants adjacent to the airport terminal building.

The bomb, Ando said, "was meant for Defense Secretary (Angelo) Reyes... There are initial feedback (from) patriotic Muslim religious leaders that the bombing was aimed at neutralizing Secretary Reyes."

Department of National Defense (DND) public affairs chief Lt. Col. Danilo Servando said the possible attempt to kill Reyes "is one of the angles being looked into by investigators because of the timing and the manner by which (the attack) was executed."

According to Servando, Reyes was supposed to attend the launching of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) convergence program in Barira, Maguindanao, but the event was postponed due to the recent military offensive in Pikit, North Cotabato. Reyes’ invitation from the ARMM local officials was sent on Jan. 24, Servando said.

During a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, Reyes refused to comment on the bombing. The Awang Airport was closed due to the bomb attack.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the involvement of the MILF in the airport bombing. Kabalu said the MILF are under direct and strict orders not to harm civilians. The MILF, however, may still hit police and military targets.

But Ando blamed the MILF for the attack on Awang Airport. "There is no other organization which does this kind of thing. It was done out of anger because we captured their headquarters in Buliok."

Last week, the military overran the MILF’s 2,000-hectare Buliok complex in Liguasan Marsh, Pikit, killing nearly 200 people, mostly MILF rebels.

The fighting in Pikit spurred the evacuation of thousands of villagers from their homes.

The MILF has also been blamed for an attack on the farming community of Barangay Tubod in Kalawit town, Zamboanga del Norte just hours before the Cotabato airport bombing.

Some 20 to 50 heavily armed men rounded up some of the villagers and shot them, killing 14 – six of them women and children. The gunmen also torched six houses in Kalawit.

Armed Forces Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said the military has proof that MILF rebels were responsible for the massacre, following the arrest of two MILF rebels who admitted to participating in the Kalawit raid.

"We have good reasons to believe the MILF were involved in the (Kalawit) massacre. The attackers of the miners in Siocon and Kalawit were the same forces of rebels operating in the area," Abaya said.

He said the MILF have their former division base along the boundaries of Zamboanga del Norte, which they converted into a guerrilla command base after the fall of Camp Abubakar.

"(The MILF) spokesman has been denying involvement, but the proof showed otherwise," Abaya said.

Kalawit villagers were so traumatized by the massacre that they have refused to return to their homes for fear the MILF will return to the area despite increased military and police patrols there.

More bombings

Two 60 mm mortar rounds rigged with timing devices and attached to the tailpipes of two cars exploded at 5:25 p.m. Friday in front of the Koronadal Commercial Center in the business district of Marbel town in Koronadal, South Cotabato, wounding three people.

Injured in the blast were a 32-year-old woman, a bus conductor and the suspected bomber, whose arm was blown off by the explosion, police said.

The blast triggered panic among civilians in the area, military area commander Col. Alexander Yano said.

"Troops and police forces are still determining the perpetrators of this latest bombing," Yano said, adding that the initial findings of the Explosives and Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit was that the explosive was an improvised bomb wired to the exhaust pipe of a car parked outside the mall.

South Cotabato Police chief Superintendent Romeo Rufino said Koronadal City police received an anonymous call claiming a bomb would explode in "a few minutes."

Rufino said police were deployed around the city, including inside and outside the KCC mall, but they failed to find explosives. The mortars exploded 30 minutes after the call.

Provincial Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes said the bombings could be related to the recent hostilities between the MILF and government troops.

Bomb experts recovered the injured suspect’s wallet, which had been damaged by the blast and contained a diagram for making a bomb, Fuentes said.

The military could not immediately say whether the Marbel bombing was related to a spate of bomb attacks blamed on the MILF.

Another bomb attack by suspected MILF rebels felled another National Power Corp. (Napocor) transmission pylon in Carmen, North Cotabato, bringing to eight the number of such towers sabotaged by bombers.

No one was hurt in the bombing of the transmission tower in Carmen, but electricity has been cut off in more areas in Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces already suffering from a power outage from earlier pylon bombings, Ando said.

"We believe the MILF is behind this (bombing) because they want to retaliate," Ando said. "They have been knocked out in the boxing match and so they are trying to get back at us through the bombings and assassinations, which are terrorist acts."

Abaya said the military spotted another bomb planted at the base of another power transmission tower in Central Mindanao.

Abaya said the bomb was safely removed and defused by an ordnance disposal unit.

The Southcom chief said the latest pylon bombing attacks were "a desperate move of the MILF, since the capture of their camp in Buliok."

Show of force

Police investigators said a white Toyota Corolla sedan laden with explosives fashioned from incendiary chemicals with a battery-operated, remote controlled blasting mechanism, was driven into the airport by a lone bomber, who was wearing a light colored shirt and denim pants.

Case investigators initially said the driver tried to park the car near the gate of the 6th Infantry Division’s camp, but may have changed his mind and parked the car bomb near a row of eateries just meters away from the airport’s terminal building. It went off at 2:30 p.m. Thursday

The investigators believe the presence of soldiers and an armored military vehicle near the entrance of the Army base could have made the bomber change his mind.

"It was fortunate that the bomber did not notice that there was a small roadside fuel depot owned by Philippine Airlines (PAL) near the spot where the car bomb exploded. He could have parked the car there to inflict bigger damage," Ando said.

The car bomb exploded while Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita were inspecting government relief work in the towns of Pikit and Pagalungan in Maguindanao. Dureza heads the government panel for the peace talks with the MILF.

Muslim religious leaders, including Islamic preachers trained in Egypt, said the timing of the attack was deliberate and meant to be a show of force by the MILF.

"There can be no other purpose for that bombing," an imam trained in Cairo, Egypt said. "That was to create the impression that the MILF is not a spent force and that civilians must brace for more retaliatory attacks."

The imam, who requested anonymity, said the MILF has also been targeting the bombings of public terminals, bridges and communications facilities in Central Mindanao.

No suicide bomber

Meanwhile, Central Mindanao police chief Senior Superintendent Nestor Sanares disputed reports that a bomb attack on Kabacan, North Cotabato was perpetrated by a suicide bomber. "The explosion was accidental, as the improvised bomb the suspect was carrying prematurely exploded."

Earlier reports said 17-year-old Emaran Mamalugi became the first Filipino "suicide bomber" when he detonated a bomb strapped to his belly and injured 10 other people in Kabacan.

Sanares said the fact Mamalugi was the only one killed by the bomb strapped to his belly indicates that he was not a suicide bomber. "How come the bomber was the lone fatality, when he was supposed to kill many people? He’s not a suicide bomber, but a stupid bomber for killing himself violently."

Mamalugi was a resident of Simuay, Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao. The blast destroyed his abdominal area, severed his hands and mangled most of his body. He had concealed the bomb under a jacket.

Nine people, including a mother holding her one-year-old baby, were wounded by the explosion that happened at 9:45 Thursday morning and was blamed on the MILF.

"The bombing in Kabacan is the handiwork of the MILF," 602nd Infantry Brigade chief Col. Cardoso Luna said, "because the bomb Mamalugi used was the same bomb we have recovered (from) the MILF camps that we captured in Pikit."

Joint police and military units in Kabacan have stepped up security in the area by increasing the number of checkpoints and increasing the number of foot and mobile patrols there.

Orders from Salamat

Officials in Camp Crame, meanwhile, also blamed the bombings in Central Mindanao and the Kalawit massacre on the MILF, particularly on MILF chairman Hashim Salamat.

"We are not discounting these kind of MILF atrocities in Central Mindanao and Zamboanga to escalate to other regions, including Metro Manila," a police official said.

Quoting reports reaching Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters, police sources said Salamat has reportedly ordered all MILF field commanders to launch all-out attacks on the government to avenge the heavy losses government troops inflicted on the MILF last week in Pikit.

"The twin explosions in Kabacan, North Cotabato and near Awang Airport... last Thursday was in line with Salamat’s directives to his field commanders to place incendiary devices on places of convergence and in urban centers," they said.

According to them, Salamat also ordered his field commanders to use all means by which they can inflict heavy casualties against civilian and government targets.

PNP sources said they monitored the sudden disappearance of able-bodied male Muslims in the so-called MILF controlled areas, possibly in response to Salamat’s order.

A top MILF commander identified as Cosalin Soso, who is based in Pikit, was also spotted by police intelligence operatives in Tarragona, Davao Oriental to personally relay Salamat’s orders as coursed through MILF chairman for political affairs Al Haj Murad. "They are now planning an all-out offensive in Davao Oriental should the military continue its attack in Liguasan Marsh."

Sources said Salamat is also conducting consultations with Muslim religious leaders who are opposed to the MILF’s plans for an all-out war on the government.

"What we are experiencing now is the terroristic side of Salamat’s orders to get even with the government after they suffered heavy losses in the past weeks," the sources said.

Tightened security

As a result of the escalated threat, security has been doubly tightened in the various ports, airports, transport terminals and other public places in Southern Mindanao, as well as at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Metro Manila.

The spate of terrorist-type attacks in Maguindanao and North Cotabato has spurred the NAIA to increase police and military security, to "triple red alert," Col. Efren Labiang of the 1st Regional Assistance Security Office of the Aviation Security Group (ASG) said.

The alert at Metro Manila’s international airport, Labiang said, had been raised as early as two or three weeks ago due to the increasing tension between the United States and Iraq. "There is no letup (in the security). We have always maintained the tight security."

Labiang said at least three checkpoints have been set up, adding that they have increased the rounds of police within the airport.

Region XI police commander Chief Superintendent Isidro Lapeña, meanwhile, told The STAR yesterday that extra security measures have been taken to safeguard Southern Mindanao’s various transport facilities and installations.

"We are working on beefing up our security and implementing other measures that would ensure the safety of our commuters in those seaports, airports and terminals," Lapeña said.

Air commuters using the Awang Airport in Cotabato City are expected to pass through the Davao City airport after PAL and other carriers suspended their operations in Cotabato after Awang was closed.

"We are expecting a higher volume of passengers and flights to Davao City after what happened in the Cotabato airport," Lapeña said. "It really needs extra work, this time attending to more people."

He added that the Davao City Overland Terminal is also an area of concern, since all land vehicles setting out for Cotabato City and the nearby provinces leave this area.

Davao City’s two main wharves are also among the busiest in the region, servicing commuters traveling by sea from nearby provinces and Metro Manila.

Special security details have been deployed to safeguard these areas and other areas of concern, Lapeña said. Checkpoints have also been established in strategic areas in Southern Mindanao for added security.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Jose de Venecia called for a ceasefire between government troops and the MILF during a radio interview yesterday.

De Venecia and leaders of Congress and members of the Cabinet agreed in a meeting that a legislative-executive strategy must be implemented to rebuild the peace process with the MILF with the help of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad.

"I think we should move now for a ceasefire in Mindanao to put to an end the killing," De Venecia said, adding that Presidential Adviser on Special Concerns Norberto Gonzales said Mahathir is ready to help with the peace process.

According to the Speaker, it is "very possible" that a peace agreement between the government and the MILF could be signed within three to six months.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, meanwhile, blamed the "militarists" in the Cabinet for the outbreak of hostilities in Mindanao.

"President Arroyo was overwhelmed by militarists in her Cabinet," Marcos said at the weekly Balitaan sa Rembrandt Hotel forum, though she declined to identify these militarists. – With Edith Regalado, Perseus Echeminada, Sandy Araneta, Mike Frialde, John Paul Jubelag, Jaime Laude Roel Pareño, Paolo Romero