ZAMBOANGA CITY: Muslim rebels attacked military and government targets in North Cotabato province as sporadic fighting continue in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters attacked an army post and a power pylon late Tuesday in the hinterlands of Pikit town, scene of fierce clashes between rebel and military forces since last month.
“The rebels attacked military and government targets, but no one was injured or killed. The MILF has been attacking our troops and bombing pylons in Mindanao,” said Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.
But the MILF blamed the military for the hostilities, saying, troops attacked areas controlled by rebels.
“It is the military, not us who should be blamed. Soldiers are firing on us,” Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, said.
He said hundreds of government soldiers have been deployed near MILF camps in the provinces, increasing tension in Mindanao.
Armed Forces chief Alexander Yano has told security forces to use considerable force against MILF attacks. Fighting between soldiers and rebels still continue despite a cease-fire accord.
Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, who was former presidential peace adviser, also said the military should undertake a “calibrated response” against the MILF to preserve the gains of the peace process.
Dureza encouraged the military to use the mechanisms of a four-year old cease-fire agreement with the rebel group to resolve the hostilities in Mindanao.
“We do not want to squander the gains of the peace process so a calibrated response must be adopted by the military. The military has to take appropriate steps to protect civilians from harm amid the resurgence of violence, even as we emphasize the primacy of the peace process,” Dureza said yesterday.
“These are not ordinary incidents. You have the MILF there, and then you also have other groups (who stand to lose if a peace agreement is signed). You have kidnap for ransom groups, you have the Abu Sayyaf, you have groups that are out to sabotage the talks,” he pointed out.
The MILF used a 51-millimeter mortar to bring down a transmission tower in Barangay (village) Dalingaoen in Pikit town. A bomb was also planted in another tower but failed to explode.
On Tuesday, a 30-minute firefight in Aleosan town in North Cotabato broke out between government troops and MILF rebels, the second clash in less than a week.
Over the weekend, at least 200 MILF rebels in full battle gear made their presence felt in the border towns of Midsayap in North Cotabato and Datu Piang in Maguindanao, forcing thousands of villagers to flee to the town centers.
Military and rebel leaders have accused each other of violating the truce.
Peace talks were stalled last year after Manila rejected demands by rebels to grant them ancestral lands that would comprise a separate Muslim homeland in the strife-torn, but mineral-rich Mindanao Island.
President Gloria Arroyo in 2001 opened up peace talks with the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim secessionist rebel group, in an effort to end more than four decades of hostilities in Mindanao.
