MILF factions ignore appeals to end hostilities

MANILA, Philippines - Warring factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have ignored appeals for them to stop fighting to enable the MILF central committee to resolve the conflict.

Meanwhile, the MILF leadership gave assurance that efforts to resolve the dispute between the groups of Commander Adzmie of the MILF 106th Base Command and Commander Abunawas of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) are underway.

Musib Tan, municipal administrator of Cotabato City, said renegade commander Ameril Umbra Kato, who leads the BIFF, was non-committal when they asked him to restrain his men.

“All he said was that as long as Adzmi and his followers will not attack the group of Abunawas, there will be no encounter between them,” Tan said.

Government peace panel chairman Marvic Leonen earlier expressed concern over MILF infighting and called on the MILF leadership to assert discipline among its troops.

Tan, along with Brig. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, and Naguib Sinarimbo, executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) held an emergency meeting in Cotabato City yesterday to discuss how to convince the leaders of the two groups to avoid any movement that could again spark a bloody encounter.

Tan said there are now 482 families, or roughly about 3,000 people, who have been displaced by the clashes between the two groups.

Eight MILF rebels were killed in the fighting; five from the 106th Base Command and three from BIFF, whose group also seized an M60 machine gun and three M14 rifles from Adzmie’s men.

Von Al-Haq, spokesman for the MILF, said the fighting has nothing to do with the recent developments in the peace process.

“This fighting was purely because of land conflict… We are confident that the peace process will not be affected,” he said.

Bernardo said he also remains optimistic that the two groups would agree to a peaceful settlement of their dispute.

“Since this is a conflict between two groups in the MILF, this is a domestic problem and is an internal dispute involving two groups within the organization,” he said.

Col. Prudencio Asto, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said their commander, Brig. Gen. Rey Ardo, also asked the ceasefire committee to work out possible solutions to stave off more confrontations in the three affected barangays.

Brig. Gen. Resty Aguilar, senior military adviser to the government peace panel, said they are monitoring the situation and verifying reports of new casualties.

The hostilities started when BIFF members took over a six-hectare land owned by Adzmi, who has dozens of armed followers in the area.

Kato reportedly ordered Abunawas to drive away MILF rebels in the affected villages for them to establish their enclaves there.

Former House speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. meanwhile said the International Conference of Asia Political Parties (ICAPP) supported President Aquino’s recent meeting with MILF leaders in Japan.

De Venecia, founding chairman and chair of the standing committee of the ICAPP, also justified the President’s meeting with the MILF, saying “heads of government must intervene when negotiations (for peace) are floundering and not moving.”

“We are endorsing, with the Asian political parties, more than 300 of us in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Western Asia and the Arab world are supporting the historic reaching out by President Aquino (to the MILF),” he said. – With Ding Cervantes