4 wounded after MILF rebels attack barangay

AMPATUAN, Maguindanao, Philippines – A barangay chairman and three of his constituents, among them two children, were wounded after a band of 200 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels attacked their barangay in Datu Hofer town in Maguindanao yesterday.

Maguindanao police director Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses told The STAR barangay chairman Uwang of Sitio Upper Limpongo and the three were wounded in the ensuing shootout when his tribe fought the heavily armed band of Commander Pancho.

“Empty shells of K3 Minimi (light machine gun) and other high-powered firearms were recovered from the crime scene,” he said.

Commander Pancho was a former member of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion, Lineses said.

Earlier, heavily armed men also burned several houses in Sitio Motod in the same barangay.

The same MILF band also looted and burned down a barangay in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town before raiding Sitio Motod.

Meanwhile, Army Maj. Randolph Cabangbang called on MILF commander Jakaria Gumbay to turn over Vice Mayor Datu Kanor Ampatuan of Solibo town and his militiamen to government troops.

“If they (Kanor and his men) really surrendered, in the spirit of justice they (MILF) should turn them over to the government troops,” he said.

Cabangbang said they will ask the intervention of concerned agencies to convince the MILF to surrender Kanor’s band.

“Warrants of arrest have been issued against Kanor and the remaining Ampatuan clan members, and their armed men implicated in the massacre and the rebellion, it is therefore tantamount of coddling criminals if they will not turn them over to proper authorities,” he said. – Rose Tamayo-Tesoro