MILF rebels stop road project in Maguindanao

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Hundreds of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas occupied two strategic hills overlooking a stretch of a contested farm-to-market road in Maguindanao’s Datu Unsay town yesterday as they continue to protest the construction of the thoroughfare.

Col. Franklin Del Prado, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the Ad-Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), composed of representatives from the military and the MILF, is now initiating means to disperse the rebels.

Del Prado, who is a member of the AHJAG, said his office is now trying to establish contacts with MILF commanders in Datu Unsay to seek their cooperation in the road project and the joint ceasefire committee to work out the return of the rebels to their enclaves.

The rebels stopped last Saturday the construction of the farm-to-market road that would traverse their camp.

Del Prado said dozens of villagers in the areas where the MILF fighters converged were forced to evacuate to the town proper of Shariff Aguak, worried that the military would use force to drive away the marauding rebels.

Del Prado, citing a report by the 7th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Datu Unsay and nearby towns, said that tension worsened when more than a hundred MILF rebels occupied on Sunday Hills 224 and 590, both overlooking portions of the farm-to-market road being built jointly by the provincial government and the office of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan.

Local officials in Datu Unsay said the rebels are worried that the farm-to-market road will only make their enclaves accessible to the police and the military.

"The 6th ID is doing its best to resolve this security problem amicably. We shall exhaust all means of addressing this problem peacefully for the project to continue. Farmers in the area want the road project fully implemented," Del Prado said.

Major Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, the commander of the 6th ID, confirmed receipt of text messages from farmers threatened by the presence of the rebels.

Dema-ala, however, said the division is relying on the GRP and MILF’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, to work out the pull out of the rebels from the two hills .