Gov’t-MILF ceasefire foils misencounter in Lanao del Sur

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY—Ceasefire officials of the government and erstwhile rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) defused a tension and prevented what could have been a misencounter between Army soldiers and Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) fighters in Lanao del Sur province.

On Tuesday afternoon, 38 soldiers of the Army’s 1st Special Forces Battalion under the 403rd Infantry Brigade strayed into a BIAF camp at Barangay Dilimbayan in Maguing town without prior coordination.

This prompted members of the BIAF’s 103rd Base Command to hold them inside the camp.

“The situation involving a platoon of the Army’s Special Forces in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, has been resolved by the parties following the intervention of the joint peace mechanisms, specifically the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities in the area on Wednesday,” said a statement of the government’s peace implementing panel.

‘Safe space’

“It was a simple case of miscommunication between a platoon of Army Special Forces under the 4th Infantry Division passing through the area of [the] MILF-BIAF during an operation against the communist New People’s Army,” the panel added.

“To ensure the safety of the [Army] troops, the MILF-BIAF provided the troopers a safe space to spend the night on Feb. 7 and to effect the established procedures with the joint ceasefire mechanisms,” the panel said.

The soldiers were released on Wednesday night, after ceasefire officials on both sides threshed out the issues.

Col. Michele Anayron Jr., commander of the 403rd Infantry Brigade, said the negotiation for the soldiers’ release was “based on established peace protocols covering situations arising like this.”

Butch Malang, chair of the MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, said cooler heads prevailed.

“It is now settled, just a little misunderstanding, there was no disarming of soldiers,” Malang said. “The MILF commanders just asked the Army to voluntarily put aside their firearms while the matter was being discussed.”

The MILF fighters are scheduled for decommissioning, in keeping with the 2014 peace deal it inked with the government.

To prevent unprovoked armed encounters, the government and the MILF had agreed on a ceasefire mechanism. This included the necessity of prior coordination for the movement of government troops within rebel strongholds and for the movement of MILF forces outside of their recognized camps.

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