MILF helping gov’t track down Sayyaf kidnappers

MANILA, Philippines - Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters are hunting down the Abu Sayyaf to help government troops maintain peace and order in Mindanao.

Speaking to reporters, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the government has partnered with the MILF to attain that objective.

“The partnership is already a given,” he said in Filipino.

“The government and the MILF are hunting down those bandits.”

Coloma said assistance from the MILF is not limited to condemning acts of banditry like kidnapping of foreign nationals or beheading of captives when ransom money is not paid.

“Therefore the government is urging citizens to cooperate,” he said in Filipino.

Speaking to reporters, Armed Forces public affairs chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc said the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers of Germans Stefan Viktor Okonek and Henrike Dielen and a number of others has spread out in the entire province of Sulu.

However, military operation is centered in Patikul, he added.

Cabunoc said the kidnappers have broken up into small groups and are monitored to be moving around in Patikul.

“The military operation is not limited to Patikul,” he said.

“Troops are deployed in all corners of Sulu. We have efforts in different places in Sulu but we cannot reveal them because of the operational security.  But the main efforts are those in Patikul.”

Cabunoc said military intelligence is monitoring the population after receiving reports that the kidnappers have sought refuge among residents in Patikul.

“Once they will merge with the civilian communities, the challenge is how to isolate as to who are the suspects and who are civilians,” he said.

Cabunoc said Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. has instructed troops to ensure that civilians do not become collateral damage.

“We have to ensure their rights will be protected,” he said.

Cabunoc said troops have already talked with barangay and community leaders and former rebels integrated into the Armed Forces.

“We believe if the community will support us we will win this war,” he said.

Bangsamoro police force

The MILF’s military arm would not automatically become the proposed Bangsamoro region’s police force. 

Speaking at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati, government peace panel chairman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the Bangsamoro Bill provides for a process in the hiring of Bangsamoro police officers.

“It is not true that the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed component of the MILF will be the future Bangsamoro police,” she said. “That is a common misconception.”

Ferrer said Article XI, Section 4 of the Bangsamoro Bill states that the proposed Bangsamoro police force would have a structural organization.

“Just as the Philippine National Police has a regional head and command in the ARMM, the PNP will have a counterpart in the future Bangsamoro region which will still remain part of the PNP’s chain of command,” she said. 

Ferrer said a police director would head the proposed Bangsamoro police force with at least two deputies holding the rank of at least police chief superintendent. – With Roel Pareño, Jose Rodel Clapano