Maguindanao residents still face security woes
KORONADAL CITY, Philippines -Thousands of evacuees dislocated by recent attacks by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao are reluctant to return to their villages due to threats of retaliations following the Army’s takeover of BIFF camps last week.
Public officials said they would rely on security assessments by the Maguindanao police, the provincial peace and order council, and the local government units (LGUs) of the five troubled towns, to determine when to start returning evacuees to their residences.
The apprehensions of the evacuees languishing in squalid evacuation centers escalated Saturday with the BIFF’s bombing of a detachment of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Barangay Labo-Labo in Maguindanao’s restive Datu Hoffer town.
Riding in separate motorcycles, one of four BIFF bandits that launched the attack casually pulled over near the detachment and lobbed a fragmentation grenade to the CAFGUS inside, wounding five of them - Suiti Salik, Tata Salik, Kamad Guialudin, Dante Ali, and Tautin Upaw.
The incident came following the Army’s closure for about four hours of a stretch of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos City Highway in Datu Unsay town Friday after bandits came close and fired at nearby Army detachments.
The acting governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Mujiv Hataman, said the ARMM’s peace and order council has to build consensus first with Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on how to return displaced villagers to their conflict-stricken barangays.
The violent incursions by the BIFF, which started midnight of August 5 with its simultaneous attacks on military positions along stretches of the highway straddling through five towns forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate to safer areas for fear of their lives.
Mangudadatu already ordered last week the LGUs of the affected municipalities to convene their respective disaster mitigation councils to formulate measures for the return of the evacuees and ensure their protection from the BIFF’s continuing attacks.
BIFF gunmen plundered farming enclaves, carted away farm animals and water buffaloes of fleeing peasants, and burned down abandoned houses as they escaped from pursuing soldiers in their weeklong attacks early this month.
Hataman and Mangudadatu both said the newly-installed provincial police director, Senior Supt. Jaime Pido, the ARMM’s social welfare department, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (RDDMC), and Army units on the ground would be recommending security measures to prevent any recurrence of the BIFF attacks.
Mangudadatu acknowledges the “complexity” of the security situation in areas the BIFF subjected to violent attacks owing to the group’s being not covered by the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The MILF has disowned the BIFF and declared it an “open game” for the police and military, after trying thrice to convince its chieftain, the ailing Ameril Umra Kato, to disband his gang and rejoin his former organization.
Kato, a cleric trained in Saudi Arabia, started as chief of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, but was booted out two years ago for various offenses, including insubordination. His ouster from the MILF prompted him to launch his own group, comprised largely of rogue Moro guerillas.
Kato’s spokesman, Abu Misry Mama, told ABS-CBN in Cotabato City last week they will stage more retaliatory attacks, warning residents in barangays where there are military detachments and camps to start evacuating to prevent from getting caught in the cross-fire.
Public officials said they would rely on security assessments by the Maguindanao police, the provincial peace and order council, and the local government units (LGUs) of the five troubled towns, to determine when to start returning evacuees to their residences.
The apprehensions of the evacuees languishing in squalid evacuation centers escalated Saturday with the BIFF’s bombing of a detachment of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Barangay Labo-Labo in Maguindanao’s restive Datu Hoffer town.
Riding in separate motorcycles, one of four BIFF bandits that launched the attack casually pulled over near the detachment and lobbed a fragmentation grenade to the CAFGUS inside, wounding five of them - Suiti Salik, Tata Salik, Kamad Guialudin, Dante Ali, and Tautin Upaw.
The incident came following the Army’s closure for about four hours of a stretch of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos City Highway in Datu Unsay town Friday after bandits came close and fired at nearby Army detachments.
The acting governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Mujiv Hataman, said the ARMM’s peace and order council has to build consensus first with Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on how to return displaced villagers to their conflict-stricken barangays.
The violent incursions by the BIFF, which started midnight of August 5 with its simultaneous attacks on military positions along stretches of the highway straddling through five towns forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate to safer areas for fear of their lives.
Mangudadatu already ordered last week the LGUs of the affected municipalities to convene their respective disaster mitigation councils to formulate measures for the return of the evacuees and ensure their protection from the BIFF’s continuing attacks.
BIFF gunmen plundered farming enclaves, carted away farm animals and water buffaloes of fleeing peasants, and burned down abandoned houses as they escaped from pursuing soldiers in their weeklong attacks early this month.
Hataman and Mangudadatu both said the newly-installed provincial police director, Senior Supt. Jaime Pido, the ARMM’s social welfare department, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (RDDMC), and Army units on the ground would be recommending security measures to prevent any recurrence of the BIFF attacks.
Mangudadatu acknowledges the “complexity” of the security situation in areas the BIFF subjected to violent attacks owing to the group’s being not covered by the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The MILF has disowned the BIFF and declared it an “open game” for the police and military, after trying thrice to convince its chieftain, the ailing Ameril Umra Kato, to disband his gang and rejoin his former organization.
Kato, a cleric trained in Saudi Arabia, started as chief of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, but was booted out two years ago for various offenses, including insubordination. His ouster from the MILF prompted him to launch his own group, comprised largely of rogue Moro guerillas.
Kato’s spokesman, Abu Misry Mama, told ABS-CBN in Cotabato City last week they will stage more retaliatory attacks, warning residents in barangays where there are military detachments and camps to start evacuating to prevent from getting caught in the cross-fire.
by: John Felix Miciano Unson journjohn@gmail.com
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