PIKIT, North Cotabato, 16 February 2003 — The military yesterday said soldiers captured the entire Buliok Complex, a stronghold of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Central Mindanao, after intense shelling and ground assaults this week that reportedly left almost 200 people dead.
“We are now in control of the complex. We are conducting clearing operations to search for weapons, bodies and booby traps,” said Southern Command chief Gen. Narciso Abaya. The Buliok complex is a sprawling 200-hectare area that extends from the towns of Pikit to Pagalugan in the Liguasan Marsh in North Cotabato province.
Col. Carduzo Luna, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, who calls the complex the “cherry of the ice cream,” said the rebel stronghold fell at about 2.30 p.m. yesterday.
Military spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said the fighting, which began on Tuesday, had largely subsided but the MILF continued to harass military positions.
Occasional gunfire and shelling could be heard about 2 km from Bago Ingid, where the military found abandoned MILF clothing and ammunition in foxholes.
“They have no more food, they have no more ammunition. They are on the run now,” Ando said.
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu scoffed at the military’s claim of victory, saying what the calls Buliok Complex was Barangay Kabasalan which has never hosted an MILF camp. “We also don’t maintain a camp in Pikit. The military assaulted civilian communities,” he said.
He said the MILF no longer maintained big camps since it shifted from a “semi-positional warfare” to “highly-mobile guerilla tactics” after its main headquarters, Camp Abu Bakar in Maguindanao province, was captured in 2000 by government forces.
“We’re no longer talking of camps here, but of communities. So if the military says they are attacking our camps, what they are attacking really are houses of civilians,” he said.
Kabalu also said the raising of the Philippine flag in Kabasalan by Defense Secretary Reyes and military chief of staff Gen. Dionisio Santaigo was ridiculous.
“The Philippine flag was being raised there everyday, there being an elementary school,” he said.
He said MILF fighters in Kabasalan were actually residents there but have since moved out after the guerrillas adopted other tactics.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) tally since Tuesday recorded a total of 157 rebels and three soldiers killed, with 55 government troops and two militiamen injured.
The corpses of only 43 guerrillas had been found, but the death toll made the hostilities the most serious flare-up of the 25-year MILF rebellion since 2000, when the military seized more than 40 MILF camps.
Kabalu admitted to only 40 fighters killed and accused the military of inflating their figures. He said
It was the government side that lost heavily. Citing “reliable sources,” he said 78 regular soldiers were killed and 43 were wounded. In addition, 40 CAFGUs or para-military troops were killed and 43 wounded.
“Wounded soldiers and CAFGUs are now confined in a local hospital at Midsayap, Kabacan, Kidapawan City and Digos City in Davao del Sur. Some of them, particularly those who sustained serious injuries, were already flown to Manila for treatment via General Santos City,” he further said.
More than 41,000 people have fled their homes due to the fighting this week, relief workers said. At least three children have died of illness in the evacuation camps.
More Napocor towers bombed
Amid the tensions, separatists bombed two more transmission towers of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) yesterday, but failed to cut off electricity, an official said.
Rolando Rico, Napocor officer-in-charge, said alleged MILF members bombed the Napocor towers in Barangay (village) Dapitan, Carmen town and in the village of Dilangaoin in Pikit past midnight last night. Paramilitary groups guarding the towers resisted the attacks but were overpowered by the big group of rebels, said Maj. Julito Ando, army spokesman of the 6th Infantry Division.
Rico warned North Cotabato and Maguindanao could be plunged into total darkness if the transmission towers were not fixed immediately.
The blast in Dapitan, Carmen caused the Napocor tower “to lean” although it continued to supply power to parts of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and the cities of Tacurong and Cotabato.
The tower in Dilangaoin, although not a major one, was completely damaged, Rico said.
MILF rebels also bombed two towers near North Cotabato Wednesday, causing a province-wide blackout. Power was restored on the same day that President Arroyo ordered troops to “capture” the MILF lair in the Buliok complex in Pikit.
Malaysian help sought
Government officials yesterday expressed hope for the revival of negotiations with the MILF despite the fighting which shattered a fragile cease-fire that the two sides had agreed on since they began talks in 1997.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that despite the fighting the government wanted peace talks with the IMF completed within six months.
“Our negotiators are ready anytime to meet their (MILF) counterparts,” he said.
Eduardo Ermita, the presidential adviser on the peace process, said the government would again enlist the help of Malaysia which brokered and hosted previous peace negotiations in recent years.
But Kabalu said that before the peace process could proceed, the military must pull back its troops.
In a radio statement yesterday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said her heart “bleeds for the victims of the war in Mindanao,” but also stressed that “we will not stop in our pursuit of the evil men and criminals who hold communities hostage.”
She said earlier this week that the target of the military offensive was not the MILF but the Pentagon kidnap gang whose members had taken shelter in the rebel camp near Pikit.
Not after Salamat
Malacañang on Saturday denied that the MILF chief, Salamat Hashim, was the real target of the military operations .
“Salamat Hashim is not the objective of the operation,’’ Ermita said in a phone interview.
He said that the AFP spokesman, Col. Essel Soriano, who had described Salamat as a “high-value target for the Armed Forces” had been quoted out of context.
Soriano himself yesterday said he had been misquoted.
“We did not ever mention that we are targeting Salamat. We are trying to verify reports if he is in the area. We are not targeting him,” Soriano said.
Luna also confirmed that the operations were directed against the Pentagon and not Salamat Hashim.
“Salamat is not our target. We are not at war with the MILF,” Luna said.
But he said there was no avoiding clashes with the MILF while trying to get the criminals inside its territory.
“The military operation is like a surgical process. If you want to get the cancerous cells, you have to cut out the flesh,” he said.
