‘Renegade’ MILF withdraws from North Cotabato villages

(Updated 2:03 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has pulled out its forces from a number of villages in North Cotabato province and have retreated to nearby Maguindanao province, a police official said Tuesday. A GMA Flash report quoted Director Leopoldo Bataoil, the chief of the PNP Police Community Relations, as saying that the group is currently seeking refuge in Datu Piang and Kabuntalan towns in Maguindanao. Authorities have branded the group of MILF leader Umbra Kato as "renegades" for ignoring calls for the group to withdraw from the villages it occupied. On the other hand, the MILF said Kato's group - the 105th Base Command - is still recognized as a legitimate organization. Data from the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command showed that a total of seven villages have been cleared of MILF forces in North Cotabato. Among these were: Upper Labas, Lagumbingan and Baliki in Midsayap town; Sitio Tubak in Dunguan village in Aleosan; Cabpangi in Pigkawayan; and Gumaga in Libungan town. Officials have said that 15 villages need to be cleared. Remain vigilant Despite the reported retreat, North Cotabato Governor Jesus Sacdalan said the government should remain on guard. Sacdalan said the MILF renegade group continues to be a threat in the province because the former’s next movements still remain unknown to government forces. Military and police forces in Manila, meanwhile, seemed to share the views aired by Sacdalan. In a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Brig. Gen. Jorge Segovia, the military's acting chief of the AFP Command Center, said additional troops could be poured into North Cotabato in case the MILF sends augmentation forces. "So far, there is no indication of actually reinforcing (by the rebels) but we are prepared for that. There are assets in place in the area on standby and there are follow-on force in other parts of the country that are ready to be deployed. Right now, we are preparing the movement of these (men)," Segovia said. Segovia said field commanders have yet to request for reinforcements. "But we are ready to reinforce them if necessary." In the same press briefing, PNP spokesman Chief Supertintendent Nicanor Bartolome said additional police forces have been deployed Monday to secure North Cotabato and its neighboring towns. "The MILF usually crisscrosses boundaries in North Cotabato and there are municipalities that may be included in the collateral damage later on... in particular they may use other routes and in the process other barangays of other municipalities may get involved," Bartolome said. "As such, we are strengthening the defense of the neighboring municipalities which may be affected. This is to deny them (MILF) access in the neighboring municipalities of the affected areas," he added. In addition, GMA News' Chino Gaston quoted Sacdalan as saying that the local government has not yet instructed the displaced residents to return to their homes for fear that the retreating renegade group might have left landmines before abandoning the villages. Sacdalan added that affected families will only be allowed to return to their respective homes once authorities complete their clearing operations in the area. Government forces said they would ensure that atrocities would not spill over to neighboring provinces in Mindanao, GMA News’ Mariz Umali said in a separate television report. The report also quoted the military as stressing that the government’s clearing operations are still part of their mandate on law enforcement. The military reiterated it has no plans of attacking “legitimate" MILF camps. In fact, the military said it was asking MILF officials to “control" its “renegade" group, even as the government hopes the armed clashes will not dampen the peace process in the region. Casualties Based on its latest records, the local government of North Cotabato has recorded eight fatalities so far in the armed encounter between government forces and the MILF in the province. The people who died included seven civilians and one soldier. The Philippine Army said that based on their records, two soldiers have already been killed while 15 others had been hurt, including a Scout Ranger hit by a landmine in Pagangan village in Aleosan. A report from the National Disaster Coordinating Council, meanwhile, indicated that two MILF rebels have so far been killed in the firefight. The NDCC said that at least 138 houses have already been burned down in the days-long encounter: 56 houses in Midsayap and 82 in Aleosan, both in North Cotabato. The total number of affected civilians from North Cotabato has already climbed to 160,000. But since the firefight died down, the government noted the drop in the number of evacuees from 56 evacuation centers in the province’s six towns. The television report added that the around 2,200 of the 20,000 evacuees have already left the evacuation centers. The MILF, in a statement on its website, blamed North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol for triggering the latest atrocities in the province. Piñol was a key player in the opposition of the ancestral domain pact between the government and the MILF, whose signing the Supreme Court stopped two weeks ago. The rebel group said that 57 casualties from the government side had already been reported and almost 130,000 people had been internally displaced in the last four days. Criminal raps The report also said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are mulling to file criminal charges against the people responsible for the atrocities in the province. Among the charges considered to be filed are arson, murder, looting, and robbery, the report added. The AFP, in a separate radio report, also said that it would be filing separate charges against MILF rebels in Tipo-Tipo in Basilan for violating the peace agreement between the government and the MILF. Lieutenant General Nelson Allaga, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, however said they have yet to verify if the MILF was indeed behind the attacks. Allaga said that they are also looking into the possibility that local politicians could have directed their men to trigger the clashes to sow fear in Basilan. "We have to establish first the identities of the group in particular that attacked Tipo-Tipo," Allaga said. "We will of course file criminal charges against them, in coordination with the PNP in Basilan. The rule of law still remains," he added. - GMANews.TV