COTABATO CITY, 28 April 2003 — Separatist guerrillas have promised not to disrupt the Palarong Pambansa, or national games, scheduled in the southern province of Lanao del Norte province on May 4 to 11, a top Philippine Olympic Committee official said yesterday.
POC chairman Robert Aventajado, who worked as emissary to Mindanao rebel groups under former President Joseph Estrada, said the assurance of peace during the national games was made by Ghazali Jaafar, vice chairman for political affairs of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Aventajado, who made the request to the MILF, said leaders of the rebel group are in the process of giving orders to field commanders in the area.
Aventajado said the MILF would issue a statement as soon as these commanders have been informed of the agreement.
“How the military and the government will take this is all up to them,” Aventajado told the Inquirer.
Earlier, Malaca?ang maintained a postponement of the Palaro appeared imminent but Lanao del Norte will remain the host.
“The venue (for the Palaro) will still be the same,” Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in an interview over radio station DZMM.
But due to threats to peace and order caused by recent clashes between government forces and the MILF, Bunye said “there would most likely be a postponement.”
“It would be difficult for us to have our athletes go there,” he explained.
Attacks by the MILF have continued until yesterday, with the rebels claiming to have killed at least two paramilitary men in the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and North Cotabato.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said at least two members of the government’s paramilitary force CAFGU were killed and several others injured when guerrillas attacked their headquarters in Kalawit, Zamboanga del Norte yesterday afternoon.
He claimed that the site of the clash, the barrio of Patalian, is the secret headquarters of armed “Tadtad” cultist militias allegedly organized by town mayor Arnolfo Carloto.
In Midsayap, North Cotabato, a military/CAFGU detachment at Baliki barangay was attacked by MILF forces at about 7 p.m. last night. No casualties were reported on either side but the attackers burned the detachment, the spokesman said.
Rebels also fired rockets at two small navy boats near the wharf in Kalamansig town of Sultan Kudarat, but they missed their targets. The MILF, however, disowned the explosion on Saturday night at barangay Pimbalayan in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat.
The province of Lanao del Norte, the Department of Education and Philippine Sports Commission have yet to submit their formal recommendation to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo whether to postpone the annual athletic competition.
Rep. Monico Puentebella, chairman of the House committee on youth and sports, said canceling the Palaro is out of the question.
“The president must bite the bullet and decide,” he told reporters covering the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) games in Bacolod yesterday.
“The games must go on, but security is paramount, “Senator John Osme?a, who also attended the PBL affair, said.
The Philippine National Police earlier proposed the staging of the Palarong Pambansa outside of Lanao del Norte following the outbreak of clashes between government troops and secessionist rebels in Maigo and Kolambugan, the two towns nearest the capital town of Tubod, the venue of the national games.
The police and the military are scheduled to give their assessment today whether Lanao del Norte is still fit to stage the 2003 Palarong Pambansa.
Lanao del Norte Gov. Imelda Quibranza Dimaporo said they would rely on the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police to give them the real score.
The province had looked at a grim prospect of again losing the Palaro following the outbreak of hostilities in the two towns near Tubod. Lanao del Norte, which made its first hosting bid in 1997, has been denied the honor three times already.
In 1997, it lost to Lingayen, Pangasinan and was forced to withdraw the following year due to the economic crunch that hit the Asian region. In 2000, the province blew it again after then President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against MILF which reduced Kauswagan town to a battle zone.
Last year, Dimaporo and her husband, Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo, agreed to give the hosting to Naga City in the Bicol Region upon the request of then Education Secretary Raul Roco.
The MILF, after launching two attacks on Thursday, reportedly threatened to wreck the long preparations for the Palaro.
But the latest assurance of peace from the MILF could change the whole picture. (With inputs from INS)
