Another Kato aide surrenders

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Apparently tired of hiding, another suspected loyal lieutenant of wanted Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commander Ameril Ombra Kato surrendered to the military yesterday.

Abdulbualan Nasser, alias Commander Pulvoh, gave himself up together with four of his followers, and turned in assault rifles, B-40 anti-tank rockets, ammunition for M60 machinegun, and fragmentation grenades to Army officials and local leaders in a clandestine meeting at a remote village in Pandag, Maguindanao.

Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Nasser and his men decided to avail themselves of the government’s reconciliation program for secessionist guerrillas through the efforts of Col. Medardo Jeslani of the 601st Infantry Brigade and Gen. Fred Cayton, commander of the 6th ID.

Ponce said Nasser and his men admitted taking part in the raids on dozens of farming villages in North Cotabato and Maguindanao after the aborted signing of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the MILF in August last year.

The agreement was supposed to be the basis for the setting up of a Moro homeland, which the MILF was to govern through its proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.