NEWS: MILF’s “dormant” Pantukan camp also watched- police

aug 25

Text messages on MILF attacks to Boringot false

Madaum not likely an MILF entry point- Chiongkee

Although the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s camp in Pantukan is described by the military as “dormant’ but nevertheless it is also being watched just in case.

Regional police spokesperson Chief Inspector Querubin Manalang Jr., in one news report over the weekend, bared that ”there are also MILF units in Madaum, Tagum and in some parts of Davao Oriental” but he discounted that the possibility that nearby MILF units could launch attack to Davao City.

Earlier, AFP vice chief of staff Lieutenant General Cardoso Luna said that the other MILF camps being watched, especially those in the Davao Region, which are considered as dormant besides the one in Pantukan are located in Tarragona in Davao Oriental and Sarangani in Davao del Sur.

He identified the MILF areas in the Cotabato-Maguindanao area as well as those in Lanao provinces as the most active these days.

But Compostela Valley Governor Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy defused talk that the Madaum could be an entry point for MILF attack saying that it is mostly populated by Kalagan Muslims whom he long knew to be peace-loving and “mababait” (good) people.

Madaum is where the Uy family hailed from since when the father of the governor and City Mayor Rey Chiong Uy arrived in the city and had his residence and trading business there with a lot of Muslim sukis until they moved in to the city proper in 1980.

Gov. Uy said that the Kalagan Muslims at Madaum had in effect adopted his father as one of their own while the latter stayed long in the place and as they cared for his father, who first arrived as a stranger Chinese merchant in the place populated by Muslims. “Palangga nila si Papa”.

He added he grew up there until when he was twenty something and had learned of the good ways of the Muslims which he said allowed to even speak the Kalagan dialect.

As this developed, Sidlak’s police sources said as “false and untrue” the text messages the circulated last Friday about armed attacks being carried out by MILF in Comval like the gold mining area in Boringot, Compostela.

Chief Inspector Manalang also said that in their 24-hour monitoring they have not yet seen any MILF troop movements and sightings in the region.

Manalang described the likelihood of MILF attack to Davao City as “very slim” adding that the MILF could not match yet the superior firepower and number of personnel of the police and military.

Aside from the round-the-clock monitoring, the police has also increased its number of mobile checkpoints.

Earlier, Tagum City Police Superintendent Dario Gunabe said that the city’s 100-strong police have been doing their best to ensure the safety and security of the city populace and are always ready to counter terrorist threats in the wake of the MILF attacks in Lanao, Cotabato and Sarangani provinces.

Meanwhile, listed in the annexes to the aborted Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain ((MOA-AD) between the Government of the Philippines and the MILF are all the 13 barangays of Pantukan including the poblacion that are subject to territorial ancestral domain claims by the MILF and are subject for inclusion to the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) through a plebiscite, 25 years after the signing of a Comprehensive Agreement with the MILF.

Pantukan’s 13 barangays are Araibo, Bongabong, Bongbong, Kingking (poblacion), Las Arenas, Magnaga, Matiao, Napnapan, P. Fuentes, Tagdangua, Tag-Ugpo, Tambongon, and Tibagon.

These are under Category B or the ” Special Intervention Areas which refer to conflict affected areas outside the BJE which shall be the subject of special socio-economic and cultural affirmative action implemented by the Central Government pending the conduct of a plebiscite not earlier than twenty-five (25) years from the signing of the Comprehensive Compact to determine the question of their accession to the BJE.” These are subject to further negotiations by the two parties.

In all, Davao Region has 32 barangays subject for inclusion in JBE thru a plebiscite, but it has none in Davao del Norte.

Gov. Uy opposed the inclusion of the entire Pantukan saying that it was a “foolish idea” made without consultations with the Pantukan people (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News with various reports)

Filed under: comval, madaum, MILF, pantukan, tagum, gov. chiongkee uy, mayor rey uy, tagum sev scandal

The froth in Pinol’s mouth

Blogista

By Cha Monforte

It appears that this North Cotabato Vice Governor Manny Pinol is stoking himself the fire in the continuing insurgency staged by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Trying to be historical twister, it was this Pinol, who was then the governor, who cursed and slammed the people’s power in Manila as nothing but a mob rule in power grab conspiracy against the present President who was then embroiled in a crisis for calling Garci.

It was Pinol who thundered at the Marco Polo Hotel in the city before Mindanao local executives that a federal republic was all needed that time while he wanted Mindanao to separate if Manila’s people power would succeed in throwing out Gloria from her present seat.

Reminiscing those thunderous town-crying rhetorics in the way Pinol, Zubiri and other Mindanao pro-administration politicians have not moved things to advance federalism now, would only unmask Pinol’s rhetorics then as a diversionary propaganda job with a spin of downgrading and belittling people power as past phenomenon and true only in Metro Manila and never for the entire Luzon, much more in Visayas and Mindanao.

But the report was- such gathering of Mindanao leaders strapped in Pinol’s own mob rule of local executives was made and funded by Malacanang to save what the militants dubbed as an illegitimate President.

In Pinol’s recent pique and tirade he blamed the government for MILF’s recouping of its strength after they were supposed to be made a spent force after the government seized the rebels’ main camp in Buliok Complex in Liguasan Marsh in 2003. He said it was a mistake that the government gave the Buliok Complex back to the rebels as a confidence-building measure in the current peace talks. Which explains, he said, why the MILF rebels are again disturbing and creating havoc in his province.

Pinol’s myopic view should be straightened out. It was a only a battle that had wrought on a major MILF camp but it did not end MILF’s war. For since when the Moro war was stamped out of existence especially in Moro predominantly populated areas like Basilan, Sulu, Jolo, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur. It’s in these areas where belligerency of sorts exists and a Christian like Pinol’s governance could not really fit in its uniquely different frame. It’s in the true-blue Moro ancestral land where Moro insurgency survives and gets its life.

It would seem Pinol dreams for a day when the MILF will be erased from face of Mindanao. It’s easier said than done. Which is why the government is already talking ancestral lands for the Moro people to once and for all stop this war and bring peace in Moroland. It seems that the froth in Pinol’s mouth showing about his regret over a long existing MILF comes out without remembering that his province alone is sitting in soil originally possessed by the Moros if not with the lumads. Statements like that which prods war than builds peace are reckless and irresponsible – unless he is on the way again of mouthing diversionary propaganda job from Malacanang which a peace grouping labeled as actually not wanting permanent peace to reign in the Moroland. The ancestral land issue for the Moro people by the way is just a seductive hoax in the package after all.

BLOGBITS: The P90-million bond flotation in Nabunturan was not calendared during the Comval SP session last Wednesday. Sorry folks, we’ll wait for next week session… Eyebrows were raised when the van ambulance donated by Councilor Raul Caballero last May 20 was not used when the wounded of the July 3 grenade throwing were rushed to Tagum hospital. The papers (OR, CR) are already complete to make it running, only that the deed of donation is being delayed by the SB majority. Even without the deed, what did Dennis Bugas, reportedly the “little administrator” of the mayor who was out in town traipsing in Palawan during the blast and immediate days after, want to convey in not using the donated ambulance to ferry the wounded? Did he mean he gave more importance to politics, of not wanting that the new ambulance which has words at its side emblazoned with “Donated by Councilor Raul Caballero”, than rescuing fast for the lives of the injured and dying? The deed of donation which the SB majority keeps on delaying could not prevent the donated ambulance from running in times of town emergency. Until now the ambulance donated by the councilor for the people is sadly not yet running. (For online edition, visit my blog at: http://cha4t.wordpress.com)

Filed under: atty dexter lopoz, bond flotation, MILF, pinol, bond flotation, MILF, nabunturan, pinol

Kalinaw di pa makit-an

PANGLANTAW

Duha na lang ka tuig usa moabot ang ginapaningkamotan ug maayo ni Presidente Arroyo nga makahuman sa iyang termino. Kani hangtud 2010. Human sa daghang bahad nga siya mapalagpot sa pwesto sama sa mga pakyas nga kudeta sa mga military adventurists sa Manila ug mga dakong isyu nga ginabato sa opisisyon kaniya, anaa pa gihapon ang atong Presidente hugot nga naglingkod sa iyang pwesto. May bag-o na pod daw nga bahad aron pwersadong palagputon siya, apan kumpyansa ang Malacanang nga kutob lang kani sa hunghong ug balita.

Sa Mindanao, morag wa pa gihapon tay makit-an nga kalinaw sa umaabot nga 24 ka bulan usa mokanaug ang atong Presidente kay partikularmente sa problema tali sa Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) may ganaas na pod nga moabotay ang bag-ong gubat tali sa pwersa sa gobyerno ug sa mga rebeldeng Moro bisag padayon pa gihapon ang upat na ka tuig nga ceasefire.

Gisuspetsahan nga ang MILF ang mibomba sa usa na pod ka electric transmission tower didto sa North Cotabato nga nakapangitngit sa tibuok Norte Cotabato ug niadtong Martes 120 ka mga miyembro sa MILF ang mi-harass sa detachment sa 40th IB sa Army didto sa Aleosan. North Cotabato. Kini human nga 200 ka mga miyembro sa mga rebeldeng Moro ang mihimo ug pormasyon didto sa Midsayap ug Datu Piang, Maguindanao nga nakapabakwit sa liboan nga mga tawo. Nagpunay pod ug pangatake ang mga rebeldeng New People’s Army.

Ang taho nga ang duga sa Value Added Tax (VAT) nga nakolekta sa kagamhanan gamiton aron sa pagpamalit ug mga modernong helicopter ug kagamitan alang sa atong armadong pwersa morag signos na sa pagpangandam nga ilusad ang kusog nga armadong opensiba sa gobyerno batok sa mga rebelde. Morag kani na ang mahitabo sa sunod nga mga adlaw ug bulan labi na nga tumong man sa Presidente nga pahinayon ug di man gani pukanon ang mga armadong bahad batok sa estado labi na niining duha na ka dekadang insurhensya sa NPA sa tuig 2010.

Morag di na pod nato makit-an ang kalinaw sa umaabot. Magaampo gihapon kita nga luyo niining mga preparasyon sa mga rebeldeng Moro ug gobyerno motumaw nga mauna gihapon sa adyenda ang pakigsabot alang sa kalinaw labi na sa Mindanao usa ang adyenda sa armadong pagkigubat nga mosangpot ra sa atong kaalaot. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com

Filed under: MILF, Cotabato, Midsayap, MILF