ZAMBOANGA CITY, 14 July 2006 — The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has put its forces on high alert following a bloody clash between soldiers and guerillas in the southern island of Basilan.
MILF leaders said the alert was a precautionary measure in view of possible retaliation by government forces, who have suffered 14 deaths during an ambush in Al Barka town on Tuesday. Ten of the fatalities, all of the Marine Corps, were beheaded and their sex organs severed.
Acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales yesterday said the MILF should answer for the attack.
“We have a peace process and then they attack the soldiers. We saw (on television reports and news videos) what really happened and we are not going to allow those responsible in the killings to go unpunished,” he said in an interview with DZRH radio in Manila.
“If they want to pull out (from the peace talks) then go ahead,” Gonzales said after being told in the interview that the MILF may threaten to pull out from the peace negotiations if Manila insists on blaming the rebel for violating a six-year old cease-fire accord.
Military commanders earlier blamed the ambush on the Jemaah-Islamiyah linked extremist Abu Sayyaf group, but MILF leaders owned up to the attack, saying their fighters were only defending their stronghold.
Mohagher Iqbal, the chief MILF peace negotiator, accused the military of violating the truce after some 100 Marines encroached inside a clearly designated MILF area in the guise of searching for kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi. The priest was kidnapped on June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay province in mainland Mindanao by rogue MILF members and was believed to have been taken to Basilan.
‘They Did Not Listen’
Basilan Rep. Wahab Akhbar said the deadly clash could have been avoided had the military listened to local officials.
“The local officials, especially the mayor of Al Barka, told the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) many times that Bossi was never sighted in any municipality in the province. But it seems the information directly coming from the local officials are not respected and not honored by the military, that’s why this incident happened,” Akhbar said.
Al Barka Mayor Jakilan Karam said he had also received reports that Bossi and his kidnappers were hiding in his town.
“I had already spent so much dispatching my people but they did not see Bossi here,” he said.
But Brig. Gen. Ramiro Alivio, commander of the 1st Marine Brigade based in Basilan, said he was optimistic that Bossi was being held somewhere in the province. He cited several informants who had brought photos and an audio recording made by the victim.
One of those who had the photos, taken with a mobile phone, was former Tuburan Mayor Hajarun Jamiri, an uncle of Nurhassan Jamiri who was considered a “possible link” to the kidnapped priest, Alivio said.
Asked to comment on the beheading of the fallen soldiers, Mayor Karam said the guerrillas were probably provoked by the gruesome killing of an imam (religious leader) in the village of Ginanta.
Ustadz Matarul Hakim Alkanul, who was partially blind, was found dead near his house in the morning of July 10 in Ginanta, Karam told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The imam’s body was riddled with bullets, his hands and feet tied with rope, Karam said.
Hours after Alkanul’s body was discovered, Marines searching for Bossi were ambushed in the same village.
“Because of what happened to the only imam here, the people were angry,” Karam said in Filipino.
Even so, Karam and police officials could not say who were behind the imam’s killing.
Alivio, the military commander, denied any involvement by his men in the death of the imam.
“They just concocted that story. If indeed there was an imam killed or wounded, he might have been caught in the crossfire. But as far as we are concerned, we don’t execute people,” Alivio said.
The Marines were on their way back to their headquarters in Campo Uno in Lamitan City when they were ambushed, he said.
Karam could not say who was behind the beheading of the 10 soldiers. “But you could see the deep hatred,” he said.
Senior Supt. Salik Macapantar, Basilan police chief, confirmed the killing of Alkanul, “but we are still investigating if the mutilation (of the Marines) had something to do with the killing of the imam.”
Ginanta is now considered a no-man’s land. Some 2,000 residents had abandoned their homes since Tuesday, Karam said.
Three neighboring villages - Linungan, Magtawa and Makalang — had also been deserted by their residents who fled to Tuburan and Lamitan towns. “We don’t have an evacuation center here,” Karam said. (With input from Inquirer News Service)
