MILF sub-commander, 30 others surrender

MANILA, Philippines – A ranking leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) involved in the deadly attacks in Lanao del Norte surrendered to authorities and tagged Commander Bravo as having ordered the assault.

Alvin Canto, commander of the 2nd Battalion of MILF’s 14th Brigade under the 102nd Base Command, led 30 of his men in the surrender Tuesday and yielded several high-powered firearms and assault rifles.

Canto told Task Force Tabak commander Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido that Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo, the leader of MILF’s 102nd Base Command, ordered them to assault the villages in Lanao del Norte last Monday that led to the killing of more than 30 people, including an Army colonel.

Western Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Eugene Batara said Canto admitted his involvement in the attacks but stressed they were ordered by Bravo.

“During the tactical interrogation, they claimed they cannot stomach what was ordered to them by Commander Bravo to kill anybody on sight and bring havoc in the area,” Batara said.

Batara added the 30 other rebels who surrendered had separately admitted their involvement in pillaging the villages and burning the houses of farmers in Lanao del Norte.

“They claimed that Commander Bravo himself was on the ground and directed the attacks,” Batara said.

“This will firm up the government’s resolve to get (Macapaar),” he added.

Canto and his men were involved in the attacks on the villages of the towns of Tagoloan, Poona-piagapo and upper Linamon, the military said.

Canto had claimed Macapaar even ordered them to prepare for another attack, this time targeting Iligan City, their hometown.

This prompted Canto and his men to refuse the order and surrender since most of them are residents of barangay Rugungon in Iligan, officials said.

Batara said Canto and his men, who surrendered in their camouflage uniforms, took the oath of allegiance to the government before local officials who witnessed the surrender.

He said the rebels were placed under protective custody of the military for further interrogation and debriefing.

Macapaar earlier claimed over a radio interview that those behind the attacks were holy warriors, or “mujahedins” who became dismayed by the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that would have allowed the MILF to rule over an expanded autonomous region in Central Mindanao.

Authorities said they are planning to use Canto and his men as witnesses against Macapaar in the filing of criminal charges.

Philippine National Police–Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management chief Director Jefferson Soriano said they would ask state prosecutors to determine if Canto and his men could qualify as state witnesses.

“They will still be charged and evidence will still be gathered against them. But the prosecutors will determine if they can become state witnesses,” Soriano said.

Another threat

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on has stepped up offensive operations against the forces of Macapaar and Commander Umbra Kato who led the attacks in North Cotabato a week earlier.

Troops have been massively deployed in the two provinces to prevent the rebels from returning.

Regional police operations chief Senior Superintendent Nestor Monton Fajura said police units in the region have been alerted against possible sympathy attacks from the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

“Our intelligence community is now monitoring reports on the alleged MILF-NPA unholy alliance and we are not taking chances on it,” Fajura said.

Fajura said all passenger bus and jeepney terminals, seaports and airports are being guarded and monitored.

The MILF, on the other hand, are massing up elsewhere, particularly in Maguindanao where they are threatening to attack the villages in the province, officials said.

Datu Piang town Mayor Samer Uy said hundreds of MILF rebels have closed down the main highway leading to the province.

Uy said the rebels have occupied the four bridges connecting to the main road of the provinces, cutting off the town proper and triggering the evacuation of some 3,000 villagers.

Uy said the rebels blocked the Pagatin-Dulawan stretch of the main highway to cut off reinforcements and supply route of government troops in barangays Damatulan and Kadigasan in nearby Midsayap, North Cotabato where the soldiers are battling MILF forces.

Four soldiers were wounded during the encounter with the rebels in Damatulan yesterday, officials said.

Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Armando Rico identified two of the soldiers —Cpl. Ronald Ragundon and T/Sgt. Roland Apduhan —who were wounded during a firefight with the rebels belonging to the MILF 105th Base Command of Kato.

Rico said the soldiers encountered the same group of rebels who had attacked and occupied villages in North Cotabato last week.

According to Rico, the rebels led by Zaid Pakiladato and a certain Commander Mesay suffered heavy casualties before retreating to the jungle.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said seven rebels were killed during the six-hour gun battle.

Ando identified two more wounded soldiers as Pfcs. Tito Puerto and Nurhassin Abdurahman.

Ando said troops were able to repulse the MILF rebels simultaneously attacking the military outposts in barangays Ilian, Daplawan and Gawang in Datu Piang.

Ando said several residents saw the rebels dragging the bodies of their slain comrades.

He said local officials reported that as many as 20 rebels were wounded during the gun battle with government troops.

The MILF warned the government against using the vigilante group Ilaga to wage war against them.

MILF committee on information deputy chairman Khaled Musa said the government is using the Ilaga as an excuse to go after the rebel group outside the law.

Musa said Ilaga simply couldn’t exist without the government and the military.

Musa branded the Ilaga as a “gangster group” in government payroll. – With John Unson, Jaime Laude, Lino de la Cruz, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Edith Regalado, Ben Serrano, Jun Elias