Alano Bansawan, chairman of the MNLF’s Central Kutawato State Committee, said the soldiers rounded up their members in the area, confiscated their firearms and took three of them for interrogation.
"We have had a sad experience with the military’s bombardment last June of our camp in Datu Piang (also in Maguindanao) on the pretext that the soldiers were running after kidnappers there. Now, here’s a similar incident in Sultan sa Barongis," he said.
Nine MNLF combatants, one of them an 18-year-old son of Abdurahman Basco Totin, were killed in the hostilities in Datu Piang.
The clash reportedly erupted when MNLF members opened fire on soldiers running after two suspected kidnap-for-ransom gang leaders seeking refuge there.
Bansawan said the MNLF will ask the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process to investigate the military intrusion in Sultan sa Barongis.
Army Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, however, said soldiers conducted the raid on the behest of civilians who reported seeing armed men in the area.
"And it was election day. Our soldiers merely performed their peacekeeping job there in close coordination with local officials and the Commission on Elections," he said.
Ando admitted that three armed men, said to be MNLF members, were, indeed, invited for questioning and released after several hours.
Villagers, he said, suspected the three men — identified as Johnny and Konse Dimasangkay and Gabby Sabdulah — of having links with the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang.