KAPATAGAN, Lanao del Sur, 29 November 2002 — The 15 members fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who surrendered to the government yesterday are “fugitives from Islamic justice,” the Front’s spokesman.
Eid Kabalu admitted that the surrenderers, unlike the previous ones he had branded as “impostors,” belonged to the MILF’s 101st Base Command.
But Kabalu said the new surrenderers were facing charges before an MILF court for criminal acts they have allegedly committed in the towns of Balabagan and Kapatagan in Lanao del Sur province.
The 15, led by a certain Danny Senda, formally themselves up yesterday morning to the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, in Maguindanao province.
They brought with them six RPG-2 anti-tank weapons; six M-16 rifles, one M-60 machinegun, one M-79 grenade launcher and a Garand rifle.
Sendo’s group, according to Kabalu, were charged with:
• Stealing an M-16 rifle owned by Takabor Hadji Abdullah, the chief of Barangay Bomba in Kapatagan and concurrently president of the town’s Association of Barangay Captains (ABC);
• Stealing another rifle owned by certain lawyer Kabili Sampiano, a government paramilitary leader and a brother to Kapatagan town Mayor Sampiano;
• Robbing civilians of a chainsaw, a shotgun and a hand-held radio;
• Robbing a dry goods store also in Kapatagan, taking away a radio cassette, cash 1,800 pesos, a Levi’s jeans, surplus jackets and other consumable items.
“Realizing probably that the evidence against them is strong enough and sufficient for the group’s conviction, they decided to surrender to the military,” Kabalu said.
Kabalu had earlier said that while rotten elements are bound to find their way into expanding organizations such as the MILF, the Front has a mechanism of continually weeding itself of such bad eggs.
The MILF, the biggest Muslim separatist groups in the Philippines, is currently engaged in peace talks with the government to find a political solution to the so-called Mindanao conflict.
