‘Censure MILF for show of force in Maguindanao’

COTABATO CITY — Religious and political leaders in Central Mindanao urged the government’s peace panel to censure the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for last week’s maneuvers of its fighters that triggered hostilities in the second district of Maguindanao.

Officials of the towns of Mamasapano, Ampatuan and Datu Unsay said they are worried that without such a censure, the Moro rebels may again violate the existing ceasefire.

Sources in the provincial peace and order council said the show of force by hundreds of MILF rebels to stop the construction of a farm-to-market road in Datu Unsay town was a serious violation of the ceasefire.

The MILF rebels were apprehensive that the road, when completed, would make their camp accessible to the police and the military.

"The disruption of the project by the rebels was a serious violation of the ceasefire and therefore, the MILF must be censured for such a serious provocation," said Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan.

Men of the Army’s 604th Infantry Brigade drove away Moro rebels occupying the farm-to-market road site last Friday.

Religious leaders in Mamasapano, where another band of MILF rebels occupied for three days a village supposedly covered by the ceasefire, said the joint ceasefire committee must impose sanctions on the marauding guerillas.

Provincial relief workers said the massing of MILF rebels in Mamasapano forced some 3,000 villagers to flee their homes.

The rebels, led by Ustadz Wahid Tandok, a preacher alleged to have links with foreign terrorists, have long been squabbling with armed villagers for the control of arable lands at the Mamasapano-Ampatuan boundary.

Four MILF guerrillas were reportedly killed in skirmishes between the rebels and policemen and armed villagers

Col. Franklin del Prado, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and military representative to the government-MILF’s Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, said the ceasefire committee and the Malaysian-led international monitoring team were able to peacefully disperse the rebels, numbering about 300, away from Mamasapano and Ampatuan towns last Friday. — John Unson