GEN YANO
AFP unsure over end of Mindanao campaign
By Katherine Evangelista
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 16:50:00 11/25/2008
Filed Under: The Southern Campaign
MANILA, Philippines -- The Armed forces of the Philippines (AFP) is uncertain when military operations in Central Mindanao against wanted Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commanders accused of attacking civilian communities last August will end, chief of staff General Alexander Yano said Tuesday.
“We cannot really be sure of the timetable. Our operations will have to be dependent on some developments, not only in the military field but in the political realm as well, because our operations are dictated by policies, political policies, and related to whatever developments in the peace process are concerned,” Yano said in an interview during the 58th foundation anniversary of the First Scout Ranger Regimen in Camp Tecson, San Miguel, Bulacan.
However, Yano said he has not coordinated with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process on updates on stalled peace negotiations with the MILF.
Earlier, MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said they would return to the negotiating table only if the government agrees to sign the memorandum of agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
Yano said military operations continue in Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur and Cotabato province, but the intensity of fighting has gone down as the military claims to have “substantially degraded” the MILF’s manpower and firepower.
He said the MILF units targeted by the operations “have resorted to small unit guerilla actions in the form of harassment, in the form of limited attacks against soft targets, particularly our small detachments and small outposts in the area, and we do not see any big force attacks or atrocities that they can commit,” Yano said.
The current hostilities were triggered by the aborted signing of the MOA-AD in August.
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