TACURONG CITY, Sultan Kudarat -- Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels have abandoned the village they occupied in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat earlier in the week, a military official said Saturday.

Colonel Danilo Garcia, commander of the Army's 601st Infantry Brigade based here, told the Inquirer that Akmad Usman Moro, also known as Boyet, a field commander of the MILF, agreed to pull out his 300 followers from Barangay (village) Sangay on Thursday after a meeting with a mediation team organized by the Sultan Kudarat provincial government. The guerrillas occupied the place on Tuesday.

Garcia said that as soon as the rebels had withdrawn, some 200 families displaced by the takeover immediately returned to the village.

He said during the mediation, Moro claimed that the land being occupied and tilled by Sangay residents belonged to their forefathers.

"It's all about land conflict. He (Moro) is claiming that the land is owned by their forefathers," he said.

Garcia said the mediation team asked Moro's group to back up their claim by presenting the necessary documents.

Kalamansig Mayor Rolando Garcia also said the residents possessed titles to the lands.

The MILF has been demanding the declaration of at least 1000 villages as part of the Moro ancestral domain.

The demand has alarmed officials in Christian-dominated areas because they viewed it as a threat to non-Muslim communities.

Both government and rebel negotiators have declined to identify the villages.

But the government has said it can only grant the demand if it is approved by residents in a plebiscite called for the purpose.

The MILF has frowned on the use of the plebiscite or any constitutional process as the deciding factor in its quest for territory and pulled out of the negotiations last year.

The peace talks, backed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), have not moved since.