COTABATO CITY, 6 June 2004 — The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday said its fighters would attack Pentagon gang hideouts if the group doesn’t free its hostages.

MILF chairman Ibrahim Murad, reading a statement on DXMS radio, said the rebels are angered by kidnappings by the Pentagon gang — which is on a US list of terrorist organizations — because the military routinely blames the MILF for the abductions.

Murad issued the warning three days after still unidentified gunmen kidnapped three telecommunications workers in the southern province of Lanao del Sur.

Police yesterday said the still unidentified gunmen have demanded a ten-million-peso ($178,570) ransom for the three hostages.

Regional police chief Senior Supt. Isnaji Bantala said one of the kidnappers, suspected to be a member of the Pentagon kidnap gang, telephoned the families of the workers — two men and a woman — on Thursday, a day after their abduction.

The workers were seized in a remote area near Tubaran town as they were inspecting a site for a cellular telephone transmission tower, Bantala said.

The police earlier reported that the three were employees of Globe Telecom, one of the country’s largest mobile phone operators, but Bantala said they worked for a subcontractor of the company.

The Pentagon gang is known to be holding a nephew of a hardware store owner and a businessman seized separately in December and February.

Authorities say the group was responsible for about 50 kidnappings on the main southern island of Mindanao.

The MILF is in peace talks with the government and has disavowed terrorism. It has denied any links to Muslim extremists despite military claims that it had harbored members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group linked to Al-Qaeda.

War Games

Meanwhile, A provincial governor known for his hard-line stance against Moro separatists has urged the military to cancel its plan to stage war games with American troops in Central Mindanao.

Gov. Emmanuel Pi?ol of North Cotabato, in an interview with Radio Mindanao Network’s DXMY station in Cotabato, said the latest development do not warrant for joint military exercises in the region.

Pi?ol said the war games would only “complicate the already smooth sailing peace and order situation in Central Mindanao.” He referred to the truce signed between the government and MILF in Kuala Lumpur last year, which had continued to hold despite persistent skirmishes between armed fighters from both sides.

Pi?ol admitted that he did backed plans to hold military exercises in the region with the aim of training Philippine soldiers on modern techniques in fighting terrorism and criminality. “But that was way back in year 2002 when many parts of central Mindanao, including my province, specifically in parts of the Liguasan Marsh, were used as sanctuary or exit by armed groups involved in criminal activities,” he said.

Pi?ol expressed apprehension that any joint military exercise would affect or jeopardize the ongoing peace talks between the government and MILF.

He said they are hoping for the success of the peace talks as the region needs peace more than ever.

Pi?ol, however, said he was in favor of joint RP-US activity in the province if it is for a medical mission that would benefit the poor villages.

News about war games about to start in Central Mindanao spread when when residents of Carmen town in North Cotabato reported seeing at least 6 US military personnel doing survey and initial study for the proposed joint military activity.