ILIGAN CITY - Five top Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) officials were killed in the latest fighting to clear the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway of rebel checkpoints.
Maj. Johnny Macanas, Army 4th Infantry Division spokesman, identified the slain rebel commanders as Samer Salamat, Omar Untong, Edor Carip Elias Ismael, brigade commander Kamlon Macader and one Commander Tiger.
Macanas said soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division have dismantled at least 15 MILF checkpoints and barricades on the Narciso Ramos Highway since the start of the military operation.
Troops also overran the camp of the Bangsa Moro Islamic Women's Auxiliary Corps and the Abdul Rahman Dedis Memorial Military Academy, he added.
Macanas said the Army is continuing clearing operations in the remaining stretches of the highway in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes said the MILF blockade of the highway was an important part of the rebels' fund-raising activities, which included extortion.
"Looking at the long term, we can't allow a situation where you have an armed force that is openly declaring its intention to pursue independence," he said. "We can't allow that challenge to pass without response."
Reyes said troops clearing the highway have met stiff resistance from heavily armed MILF guerrillas who are entrenched in 14 bunkers straddling the highway's eastern side from Matanog, Maguindanao to Kapatagan, Lanao del Sur.
"The MILF has done a good job in concreting their positions," he said. "They are all heavily fortified."
Reyes said the guerrillas have covered the bunkers with soil and camouflaged them with crops like corn to avoid being spotted by government troops.
"Our surveillance planes were not able to detect them (bunkers)," he said. "Even our soldiers who were already there were surprised."
He said the bunkers, which are on top of government irrigation projects, were built during peace negotiations with the government between 1995 and this year.
"This is the reason why the objective is to clear the highway," he said. "We cannot allow them to grow or else we'll have a bigger problem."
In Talayan, Maguindanao, a soldier was killed and two others were wounded after they tried to break through a critical stretch of the Cotabato-General Santos Highway.
In a show of force, hundreds of MILF guerrillas harassed two Marine battalions which had been sent to guard the area against rebel encroachment.
The dead soldier, Sgt. Autencio Alivio of the Army's 15th Infantry Battalion, belonged to a contingent that was sent to Talayan from their headquarters in Ampatuan town.
The two wounded soldiers are Pfc. Roger Golez of the 25th Infantry Division, and M/Sgt. Cirilo Ponce of the 15th Infantry Battalion. They were taken to the dispensary of the 6th Infantry Division.
Maj. Julieto Ando, 6th Infantry Division civil-military relations chief, said the rebels opened fire at the troops who had been occupying for hours a portion of the Cotabato-General Santos Highway.
The military closed the Isulan-Cotabato Highway following fierce fighting between government troops and MILF guerrillas.
Capt. Noel Detonato, 6th Infantry Division spokesman, said the hostilities started after MILF fighters fired rockets and M-79 grenades at the detachments of the 6th Marine Battalion Landing Team in Barangays Bagan and Pansol.
Ando said the rebels tried to surround the Marine detachments, but regrouped on a higher ground, which the highway traverses, after being repulsed by the Marines.
"They (rebels) have not ceased from attacking military positions in vulnerable places," he said. "Our men are holding the line everytime they are attacked and often driving away the rebels carrying their dead and wounded companions."
Detonato said most of the stranded commuters, who were not allowed to pass through the highway, have returned to Cotabato City.
"The highway has to be closed temporarily until our units there have driven the rebels away," he said.
Reports said MILF guerrillas seized the highway yesterday, stranding thousands of commuters. The highway links the town of Isulan in South Cotabato with Cotabato City.
However, the military said vehicles were allowed to pass through the highway after government troops have cleared the route of MILF guerrillas.
The Isulan-Cotabato Highway is the only remaining interlink road for vehicles coming from Davao City on their way to Cotabato City because the highway that traverses Pikit and Aleosan towns in North Cotabato has been declared unsafe.
In Davao City, Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva denied the MILF's claim that 80 soldiers were killed in fighting along the Narciso Ramos Highway.
"We do not have that much casualty in the area," he told The STAR. "We only had two soldiers who were killed in action. That I can confirm."
A reliable source within the MILF said the soldiers, who are mostly Marines, were trapped in portions of the highway which are under rebel control.
"The soldiers find it hard to penetrate that portion of the highway in Kapatagan because we have been in control of the area for a long time already," the source said. "Our forces know the area better than the soldiers."
Reyes said the missing 12 Marines and nine Army Scout Rangers could have gone beyond their area of operations in Matanog and penetrated deeper behind MILF lines.
"What we heard is that they have moved faster," he said.
Reyes said the military is still uncertain as to the whereabouts and condition of the 21 soldiers who last reported to their units on May 3.
Brig. Gen. Roy Cimatu, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, said government troops have already regained control of the Kapatagan portion of the Narciso Ramos Highway.
"We have already deployed two battalions in that stretch of the highway," he said. "We even overran the MILF camps along the highway where two of their commanders were killed. We recovered a lot of machine guns and a lot of armaments."
He said Army troops are now getting closer to Camp Abubakar, the MILF's main camp, and that they have already taken over the rebels' training camp along the highway's Kapatagan portion.
"Right now, we are taking another two-kilometer stretch going to Camp Abubakar," he said.
Cimatu said the Army is set to clear the Narciso Ramos Highway of MILF checkpoints and barricades and drive away the guerrillas within three to four days.
"We will do our best to finish this by the end of the week," he said. "Maybe by Sunday, we can already link up with forces of the 6th Infantry Division."
Villanueva said the military objective is to clear the highway and nearby roads of checkpoints and barricades which the MILF had set up.
"We are not attacking any MILF camp," he said. "What we are doing is only to make sure that all the roads and highways are free from any harassment and control, including that of the MILF."
In Pikit town, a soldier was killed by a sniper while he was guarding a portion of the Davao-Cotabato Highway in Barangay Nalaapaan yesterday morning. Two infantrymen were also wounded during the attack.
The nearly 100 MILF raiders were able to flee to the jungles of Pikit before reinforcements from a nearby Army detachment arrived at the scene.
Ando said the MILF guerrillas abandoned six dead comrades on the border of Pikit and Aleosan towns.
"After creating trouble in the highway, they (MILF guerrillas) attacked at least three barangays in Pikit and raked villagers with assault rifles," he said.
Pikit Mayor Martin Malingco said 45,320 evacuees have fled to his town and that most of them are from interior areas where government troops and MILF guerrillas are at a standoff.
He said the refugees are from 10 barangays along the Davao-Cotabato Highway near the MILF's Camp Rajah Muda, which is located on the border of Pikit and Papalungan in Maguindanao.
Two battalions from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division were sent to Mindanao last Tuesday to increase the strength of government troops fighting the MILF.
The 6th and 7th Infantry battalions, which are based in Calinog, Iloilo, will join the 47th, 78th, and 15th Infantry Battalions, which are also part of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Army officials are expected to meet with Western Visayas police director Chief Superintendent Jose Ayap following the deployment to Mindanao of the 6th and 7th Infantry Battalions.
In Lanao del Norte, a Christian farmer and his two daughters were killed at dawn yesterday by heavily armed men, who are believed to be MILF guerrillas.
Police said the armed men barged into the hut of Antonio de los Reyes, 49, killing him and his two daughters, Maritess, 8, and Margie, 7 months old, and seriously wounding his wife, Evangeline, and son, Antonio Jr.
Evangeline and Antonio Jr. were taken to the Iligan City Hospital, where they are now fighting for their lives, police added.
Police recovered from the scene 34 empty shells from an Armalite rifle and two empty shells from a Garand rifle.
Army troops and militiamen from the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units are in hot pursuit of the killers, police said.
In Cotabato City, the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) urged President Estrada yesterday to soften his stance towards the MILF.
In an emergency meeting the other day, SPCPD members said the clashes between troops and the MILF had displaced thousands of residents and imperiled foreign-funded projects in the region.
The SPCPD was set up under the Ramos administration to be a transitory mechanism for expanded autonomy following the peace agreement between the government and the Moro National liberation Front on Sept. 2, 1996.
It covers 10 cities and 14 provinces, including Maguindanao and North Cotabato, which are now the scene of hostilities between government forces and MILF guerrillas.
"It is important for the President to order a ceasefire and stop the ongoing military offensives to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks," according to a resolution issued by the SPCPD.
In Cotabato City, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said yesterday he favors a government-initiated ceasefire in Mindanao that could curtail the MILF's capacity to launch military offensives.
"A ceasefire should always be the objective," he said. "Besides it was the MILF that withdrew from the peace talks."
He said he was not satisfied with the defense department's six-hour briefing the other day for the Senate on the worsening situation in Mindanao.
"There were lots of questions about the problems that were not answered," he said. "Some were answered vaguely but we need to dig deeper into the issues and concerns about the problem in Mindanao."
Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday the people should support the government's peace efforts in Mindanao to ensure their protection.
"Once police or military operations are underway, we must give full material and moral support for lives are at stake," she said during her regular press conference at the Philippine International Convention Center.
However, she said the objective of military operation should be explained in detail to the public so they will rally behind the Armed Forces in the war against the rebels.
"When the use of police or military force becomes necessary, there must clear objectives, which the population can understand and therefore rally around."
The Vice President also said that the government should not allow foreign diplomats to intervene in the peaceful settlement of the problem in Mindanao.
"The involvement of the international community must be based on the principle that authority remains with the Philippine government," she said.
Javier Solana, top defense adviser of the European Union, arrived in Manila Tuesday to help free the 21 hostages being held by the Abu Sayyaf. Seven of the hostages are Europeans.
Quezon Rep. Wigberto Tañada urged the government and the MILF yesterday to "cease all military offensives and exhaust all peaceful means" to resolve the armed conflict.
"There is no glory, no real victory in an all-out war that does not distinguish between military objectives and the civilian populations," he said.
"Trying to defeat a rebellion primarily through military means will only generate greater human rights violations and spur resistance from those who feel crushed by the weight of the military foot."
Tañada spoke at the First Regional Consultation on the Philippine Human Rights Draft Declaration in Baguio City. He is chairman of the Philippine Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism.
Tañada said the strategy of "total war (against the MILF) has not proved successful in stomping out insurgency under the past administrations."
"It would be dreadfully wrong for the government to apply the military solution to the conflict in Mindanao to the exclusion of the political options," he said.
On the Abu Sayyaf, he said: "There can be no justification, no excuse ever for the barbarity of the Abu Sayyaf which has proven itself as a bandit gang masquerading as a political rebel group." -