MILF waylays Cotabato farmers

COTABATO CITY — Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels ambushed yesterday a convoy of vehicles transporting farm products to the town proper of Carmen town in North Cotabato, killing a farmer and wounding two others.

The attacks came a week after the Army’s 602nd Brigade, which has jurisdiction over the area, launched a local peace program aimed at fostering Muslim and Christian solidarity in Carmen and nearby towns.

Major Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, identified the slain farmer as Rolito Oyaman, who died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds in different parts of the body.

Two other farmers, Valentino Cañeteb and Mando Dulce, who were wounded in the attack, were rushed to a hospital here for treatment.

The victims were on their way to the town proper of Carmen when the rebels, positioned on one side of the road in Barangay Rancho of the same town, opened fire with B-40 rockets and automatic rifles.

Col. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., commander of the 602nd Brigade, said the attack was another attempt to embarrass the military in North Cotabato, which has recently embarked on low-level humanitarian projects designed to promote reconciliation of the Muslims and Christians in Carmen.

Just last week, the brigade opened to the public a newly built mosque inside near its parade ground, built through the efforts of Muslims and Christian soldiers assigned in the area.

Meanwhile, 600 more members of the MILF are set to surrender to President Estrada and pledge allegiance to the government this month, key military sources said yesterday.

Major Johnny Macanas, spokesman of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said final negotiations are now underway for the date of the surrender rites, to take place at the 4th ID’s headquarters in Cagayan de Oro City.

More than a thousand MILF fighters from Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte had earlier yielded to the 4th ID, after the fall of 20 rebel enclaves in the two provinces which soldiers overrun in offensives that lasted from March to August this year.

According to Macanas, the next batch of MILF rebels to surrender to President Estrada were enticed to return to the fold of law after the government had addressed the needs of their comrades who had earlier pledged allegiance to the government.