Military offensive vs Moro separatist rebs resumes

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Armed Forces’ offensive against Muslim separatist rebels resumes as the suspension of military operations (SOMO) ceased yesterday with the end of Ramadan, the Muslims’ fasting season.

"We will continue to run after the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) which has been terrorizing innocent civilians," said Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes after a briefing at the Southern Command headquarters here.

In other developments:

• Suspected Moro rebels freed last Monday a Sarangani trader, whom they abducted last Dec. 18, after finding out that he was not wealthy at all, police said.

• The military tagged the MILF for the bomb explosion outside the house of an imam (Muslim religious leader) in Cotabato City last Monday night. At least six people were injured in the explosion.

The military alerted its field units all over Mindanao about the lapse of the SOMO with the MILF. Senior Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia, Davao City police chief, said the Southcom relayed the order in radio messages to the various military and police units.

Reyes, meanwhile, said the military will not withdraw its forces from MILF camps which were overrun since President Estrada suspended peace talks with the separatist group and ordered a major offensive early this year.

The MILF has demanded that the military pull out government troops from its camps as one of its conditions for the resumption of peace negotiations with the Estrada government.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Cesar Daquil, Sarangani police chief, said storeowner Danny Saavedra was released by his abductors to local negotiators led by Maitum Mayor George Yabes somewhere in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat late Monday.

Daquil said the kidnappers agreed to release Saavedra after they were convinced that his family could never pay them any amount for his freedom, a fact attested to by the negotiators and local officials.

However, Daquil said the kidnappers agreed to release Saavedra after payment of P20,000 as "board and lodging" for his one-week captivity.
In Cotabato City, two witnesses surfaced yesterday and claimed that two Maguindanaoan men were behind the bomb blast in front of the house of imam Ustadz Mohammad Suib Abedin in Barangay Calumpang.– With Allen Estabillo