'BIFM not behind university attack in Marawi'
NATION PAGE, philSTAR (www.philstar.com) August 09, 2012 04:09 PM 0 comment to this post
COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Authorities on Thursday said the Wednesday night ambush in Marawi City which left three dead and 10 others was unrelated to the continuing strife in certain towns in Maguindanao.
Soldiers have been fighting since Monday dawn marauding bandits belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement.
Radio reports from Marawi City said 13 were wounded in the ambush, who are now confined in different hospitals.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police, in an emailed statement, said the incident is now being investigated and that leaders in the area are now helping identify the attackers.
Col. Daniel Lucero, commander of the Army-led Task Force Ranao in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, said the soldiers were on their way to the MSU campus for a regular security tour when gunmen, positioned at one side of the road, opened fire with assault rifles.
“Three of our men were killed while 10 others were wounded,” Lucero said.
Lucero said they are convinced that a group affected by their continuing anti-crime operations is behind the ambush.
Lucero said the military was present inside the MSU campus to protect dozens of students who were forced by owners of boarding houses in the campus to register using fictitious names in different Lanao del Sur towns during the July 9-18 registration of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Lucero said they are also considering the possibility that illegal loggers were behind the attack as Army units in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur seized about 40 truckloads of logs and flitches, called “tablon” in the vernacular, from January to May this year in compliance with a directive from ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman.
The seized forest products were smuggled from the rainforests and supposedly protected watersheds around Lake Lanao, whose downstream flow propel hydro-electric plants that supply three-fourths of Mindanao’s power requirements.
Lucero said the ambush incident was preceded by the murders in Marawi City of two soldiers in two recent separate attacks.
“The latest[incident] happened last July, where a soldier was gunned down cold-bloodedly,” Lucero said.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said officials of the regional and local government departments are now helping investigate the incident.
Hataman said he is certain the incident in unrelated to the on-going hostilities in Maguindanao.
“Let’s give investigators enough time to identify the ambushers and file criminal charges against them,” Hataman said.
The director of the ARMM police, Chief Supt. Mario Avenido, said he has directed the Marawi City police to investigate the ambush that triggered panic in the surroundings of MSU.
Avenido said more policemen have been deployed around the MSU campus to prevent a repeat of the attack. - John Unson

From: John Felix Miciano Unson journjohn@gmail.com