5 hurt in govt-MILF clashes in North Cotabato - report

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Five people, three of them Army troopers, were injured when government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels traded bullets and mortars in Pikit, North Cotabato. This was according to an Oblate missionary assigned in the area who said that the major clashes between military troops and MILF forces started at about around 5:30 a.m., Sunday. At least 12,000 individuals from the villages in Pagangan, Dualing, Tapudok, and Dungguan in Aleosan, and Culambog in Pikit, evacuated to nearby villages in Ginatilan and Poblacion in Pikit, according to priest Eduardo Vasquez, director of the Inter-Religious Dialogue (IRD) of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Vasquez said the wounded troopers were first treated at the Cruzado Medical Hospital in Pikit and later sent to the division headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Shariff Kabungsuan, some two hours travel north of this city. The casualties identified as Private Salman Bantas, Corporal Jennes Freinella and private first class Carvelo Tavares, all from the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion of the 602nd Brigade sent to the remotest villages in Aleosan town to secure villagers while the MILF rebels were withdrawing from the area, Vasquez said. A 10-year old girl identified as Naima Lakim, one of the many evacuees from Barangay Tapudok in Aleosan, was hit by a military truck while fleeing from the area at the height of the mortar shelling. According to Vasquez, the vehicle was carrying wounded soldiers and was on its way to Cotabato City when it hit the girl. A19-year old student identified as Robert Malagia dela Pena was hit on his left foot by a stray bullet, Vasquez said. At least five mortars landed in Barangay (village) Culambog and nearby areas since 530 a.m., the priest said. “We felt the ground moved after each mortar shelling," he said. Vasquez said the evacuees were temporarily housed at the parish gym of the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral in Pikit. Some were in schools, but most of them had set up camps along the highway. “They have no food, no extra clothes to wear, beddings, and others. They just carried themselves and fled on foot from their village to Pikit," said Vasquez. Also, some 200 families from Barangays Pupuyon and Dungus in Tulunan fled to Barangay Sibsib and Poblacion, fearing that clashes might erupt after armed MILF rebels were sighted in the area, reports from Tulunan Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office said. The AFP-MILF clashes broke out a day before the holding of the automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Pikit and Aleosan towns are next to Datu Montawal and Pagalungan towns in the northern part of Maguindanao, while Tulunan is adjacent to Buldon and Datu Paglas towns, on Maguindanao’s eastern side. Despite the fighting, election officials in Maguindanao said the automated polls would go on as scheduled. - GMANews.TV