The show of force was made just as Malaysian peace monitors were passing by to inspect MILF strongholds in Maguindanao.
Meanwhile, two militiamen working as guards for a logging company were killed while four soldiers were wounded in an ambush staged by MILF rebels in a remote village in Tungawan, Zamboanga Sibugay province Sunday, military officials reported yesterday.
Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko said the two men, members of the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit detailed as security guards at the David Consunji logging company, were walking home when they were attacked by the rebels.
"We heard that the MILF claimed they were attacked. But how could that happen when the victims who were on their way home were ambushed?" Kyamko asked.
Responding troops from the 102nd Army Brigade were also ambushed by the rebels, leaving four troopers wounded.
It was not clear how the ambush will affect the peace talks or whether the Malaysian monitoring team, which arrived in the country last Wednesday, was aware of the incident.
The ambush is the first reported incident during the nine-day mission of the Malaysian team, which is scheduled to visit either Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte or Tungawa, Zamboanga Sibugay as its last consultation with members of the MILF before returning to Malaysia.
Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the Army’s 604th Brigade, said the MILF’s movements in several Maguindanao towns traversed by the highway triggered panic among local residents.
"There was an internal arrangement for them to be allowed to cross certain stretches of the highway on their way to designated areas where they would be seen by our Malaysian visitors, but the deal was for them to do it at nighttime, prior to the inspection of their camps," Dema-ala said.
Sources from Maguindanao’s provincial peace and order council said they have been receiving persistent feedback since Sunday that the display of MILF forces along the Cotabato-Isulan Highway was aimed at projecting to the Malaysian advance survey team that the rebel group still poses a serious threat to local security.
The council said that a group of MILF rebels even flagged down the vehicle of a re-electionist mayor at a portion of the highway in Barangay Taviran in Datu Odin Sinsuat, also in Maguindanao.
"These maneuvers were flagrant violations of the ongoing ceasefire. We will file a formal complaint before the government and MILF’s peace panel. It was just fortunate that the display by MILF forces along the highway did not precipitate any hostility," Dema-ala said.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said in a radio interview yesterday that their fighters had indeed made a show of force along the highway.
"It was something we cannot avoid because our forces from different areas have to gather in designated spots where the Malaysian advance survey team will meet them for an inspection," he said.
About a dozen Malaysian military officials visited a number of MILF camps to pave the way for an international contingent, composed of military representatives from countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Conference, which will uphold a ceasefire and foster peace talks between the government and the rebels.
The MILF has been fighting for self-rule in Mindanao, home to a Muslim minority, for more than two decades, and has rejected government offers of limited autonomy.
Malaysia has been brokering the talks, which are expected to resume next month after being stalled by fierce fighting.
"We must open a new chapter. The world is looking at this peace process," Malaysian delegation chief Brig. Gen. Dato Zulkifeli Mohammad bin Zain told hundreds of rebels, gathered at an Islamic compound tucked deep in a coconut grove near Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.
"It is important for you to try hard," he said.
The rebels broke into yells of "Allahu Akbar (God is great)," and held up their rifles.
A guerrilla leader and peace negotiator, Benji Midtimbang, said the rebels also yearn for peace.
"We can’t go on living under the bushes, leaving behind our wives and children unattended," he told the Malaysians.
The Islamic compound where the Malaysians and the rebels met was a former guerrilla-held area captured by government troops last year during an offensive aimed at suspected terrorists and kidnap gangs allegedly being protected by the MILF.
Just after the Malaysians left, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad made a rare public appearance, sending rebel soldiers scurrying into defensive positions.
"It is a development in the peace process and we hope the progress will continue," he said.
Zain’s team had been briefed last Saturday by Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan on security concerns in the province.
"The Malaysian government is very much willing to help in the ongoing peace talks between the MILF and the government," Zain told Ampatuan during their dialogue.
Heavy fighting scuttled a planned resumption of talks in neighboring Malaysia, and forced thousands of villagers to flee their homes.
The villagers returned after the conflict eased last year. But dozens hurriedly abandoned their homes Saturday, wrongly assuming the swarm of rebels emerging from the woods meant new fighting was on the way, witnesses said.
"You can’t blame the people. They have been through so many wars," said peace activist Rexall Kaalim.
Southcom chief Kyamko denied television reports that Barangay Darapanan, where the Malaysian advance survey team visited over the weekend, is the newest and largest camp of the MILF.
"Under the agreement, the Malaysian team is not allowed to visit MILF camps but only areas of temporary stay where the MILF rebels could converge during the consultation," he said.
The Malaysian team was accompanied by Midtimbang and AFP vice chief Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, both in charge of overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire, and the MILF’s chief of staff Gen. Samuel Al-Mansoor.
Kyamko said under the agreement, MILF rebels are allowed to converge in designated areas of temporary stay two days prior to the consultation and two days after meeting with the Malaysian team.
"Beyond that is another question. Masama na iyon (That’s bad). We will not hesitate to evict them," he said.
But the President’s chief adviser on the peace process said the government remained open to all suggestions, on condition they did not violate the Constitution, before planned formal peace talks in Kuala Lumpur next month.
"There is no set package, no set document as far as the government is concerned," Teresita Deles said.
"What he may have seen are study documents, working documents and none of that is cast in stone. We are really anxious to start formal negotiations so we can see their agenda and see what common ground we can work on," she added.
Mohaqher Iqbal, a member of the MILF central committee and head of the negotiating team, said on Friday a government document he had seen was unacceptable because it required the MILF to disarm and the five million Muslims in Mindanao to assimilate with the Roman Catholic majority.
With $30 million in United States development aid promised to MILF areas once a settlement is agreed, hopes are at their highest in three years that the two sides can make progress in ending a three-decade conflict that has killed 120,000 people and strangled resource-rich Mindanao’s potential.
Skeptics question whether the MILF’s demand for a self-determination referendum for Mindanao’s five million Muslims can ever be squared with the government’s refusal to consider any threat to the majority Catholic nation’s sovereignty.
A member of the small military team that accompanied the Malaysians said both sides were "behaving well" since a ceasefire was reimposed on July 19 last year after renewed fighting left hundreds dead and tens of thousands homeless.
A total of 499 major and minor engagements were recorded from January 2003 until the ceasefire in July, but only 44 incidents occurred after the truce until December last year, said Maj. Dickson Hermoso, a member of the government’s ceasefire committee.
The 12,500-strong MILF has been waging a guerrilla campaign since 1978 to set up an Islamic state in the southern part of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines.
Col. Melchor Dilodilo, commander of the Army’s 503rd Brigade based in Abra, reported that his men recovered one M-16 and one M-14 armalite rifle, both with two magazine assemblies containing live ammunition; one caliber .22 rifle, and hundreds of bullet shells filled with pulverized marijuana leaves.
Soldiers also allegedly recovered subversive documents, personal belongings, one guitar and some songbooks.
Dilodilo said the encounter, which resulted in a 30-minute gunbattle, occurred in Barangay Bugnay at 6 a.m.
He added that the 15 NPA guerrillas were spotted in the village after a three-day military operation that was initiated when the Army received information from residents of Bannayoyo and Lidlidda towns as well as Candon City that NPA men were roaming the area.
The rebels were led by Rowena Antalan, head of the Party Group Sol of the Kilusang Larangang Guerrilla reportedly operating in Ilocos under the command of Renato Amulot.
Dilodilo said the presence of the NPA rebels in southern Ilocos Sur was part of the rebel group’s celebration of the NPA’s 35th founding anniversary yesterday.
Government troops scoured the area where the gunbattle happened, looking for the bodies of the rebels who were killed and were allegedly hidden by their retreating comrades.
There were no casualties reported among government troops. — With Roel Pareño, Teddy Molina, AP, AFP, Reuters