ZAMBOANGA CITY, 15 November 2003 — Suspected separatist rebels slaughtered a 40-year-old mother and her seven children in the southern Philippines, and one of the gunmen was killed in a subsequent clash with army soldiers, the military said yesterday.
A military report, quoting villagers of central Kalawit town, Zamboanga del Norte province, said the gunmen hacked to death on Thursday morning Evangeline Balios and her children, aged from 1 to 13.
Troops responding to the massacre caught up with the rebels yesterday and after a gunbattle, one of the gunmen named Dandong Yusop was killed. Soldiers also captured one gunman named Paam Laidan.
The military’s Southern Command earlier described the attackers as “lawless elements” but later said Yusop and Laidan turned out to be members of a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) unit led by Salludin Sumingal.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said he has not received any report of fighting between guerrillas and government troops in the area where other armed groups also operate. He said the rebels were strictly observing a cease-fire agreement with the government.
“Many armed groups are operating in Zamboanga Peninsula and the MILF is strictly observing a truce with the Philippine government and there is no reason our fighters would be involved in hostilities or fighting with troops unless military forces attacked our positions,” Kabalu told reporters by phone from his hideout in Central Mindanao.
The military said the gunmen had been extorting money and food from villagers in the town for some time. In February, suspected separatist rebels attacked Kalawit, rounded up some villagers and shot them, killing 14 and injuring nine.
Some 150 MILF guerrillas early this year also raided the neighboring town of Siocon and killed and wounded dozens of civilians in what the military said was one of the worst attack in Zamboanga Peninsula since 1995 when about 300 Moro gunmen pillaged Ipil town, torched its business district and killed 53 people before fleeing to the hills.
The MILF is the country’s largest separatist Muslim rebel group fighting for independence in the southern Philippines. Manila has re-opened peace negotiations with rebel leaders in 2001 in an effort to forge a political solution.
to the more than three decades of fighting in the mineral-rich, but strife-torn region.
