2 slain in new fighting between MILF and gov’t troops in Lanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY—Fighting erupted anew on Friday between soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, this time in Lanao del Sur province.

A soldier and an MILF field commander were killed in the latest clash that took place in the border of Marantao and Balindong towns around 4 p.m., Capt. Frank Suelto, spokesperson of the military’s 1st Division, told the Inquirer on the phone on Saturday.

He identified the slain rebel sub-leader as Habier Macagaan, an aide to MILF commander Abdullah Macapaar, alias Commander Bravo, but did not name the soldier killed in the hourlong clash.

He said soldiers were waiting for a TV crew, whom they would be securing, when they were attacked by Macagaan’s group.

“We did not fire the first shot. I think there was a misunderstanding. They might have thought that our soldiers were in the area to serve a warrant on Macagaan,” Suelto said.

The Lanao del Sur incident was the second violence involving soldiers and MILF rebels this week.

On Thursday, a clash also took place in Matalam, North Cotabato province.

Lt. Leonard Lopez, speaking for the 7th Infantry Battalion, faulted MILF rebels for the clash that took place in Malamote village in Matalam.

Lopez said some 50 MILF rebels, belonging to the 108th Base Command, harassed a military detachment in Sitio Maligaya.

The harassment forced government forces to return fire, triggering a sporadic exchange of bullets for about three hours, he said.

“Our forces were deployed there to serve as a peacekeeping force in a land conflict involving MILF and some farmers,” Lopez said.

The MILF and the government have been pushing for peace in the south.

But the rebel group has also decried what it said was a dilution of the draft Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), the proposed law that would govern the envisioned Moro entity by Malacañang.

The MILF’s complaint was the subject of several days of talks in Kuala Lumpur between the government and the rebel group’s peace panels.

At the end of talks aimed at discussing the revisions by the government of the draft BBL on Thursday, there was no significant achievement as the MILF maintained a no-renegotiation stance.

The two panels, however, agreed “to continue working together to come up with a mutually acceptable draft Bangsamoro basic law,” according to a news release issued by the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process.

“They (the panels) agreed to continue discussions on specific concerns in Manila within the next few days. They recognize the importance of these discussions to ensure that the draft law would be submitted to Congress the soonest possible time,” the news release added. Jeoffrey Maitem, with reports from Nash Maulana and Ryan Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao