Classes resume in war areas

COTABATO CITY—After days of being disrupted, classes had resumed in 34 schools in Maguindanao, which were near the sites of clashes between the military and renegade Moro rebels, according to officials.

Jamar Kulayan, secretary of the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said among the schools where classes had resumed were nine that served as evacuation centers.

Kulayan said to allow classes to resume, evacuees would leave schools that had become evacuation centers during the day and return at night.

In the 11 towns near the clashes, Kulayan said at least 19,000 pupils and students had been displaced.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the resumption of classes would prevent the students from being collateral damage in the all-out offensive against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which started on Feb. 27.

He said despite reports of clashes in interior areas, the situation in most of the 11 towns had normalized.

The military said at least nine soldiers had been wounded on Friday as ground assaults continued against the BIFF in separate areas in Datu Piang and Datu Saudi-Ampatuan towns.

Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the military’s 6th Infantry Division, however, said soldiers under the Joint Task Force Central captured four suspected BIFF members and took over a BIFF camp.

Petinglay said the offensive started in the villages of Dabunayan and Liab in Datu Piang around 2:50 a.m., sparking clashes that lasted until late afternoon.

She said the wounded soldiers were immediately evacuated.

A group of huts that the BIFF occupied and transformed into a small encampment in the vicinity of Barangay (village) Liab had been taken over and four suspected BIFF members—Aladin Panaydan, 22; Daud Balogat, 23; Ebrahim Oraw, 40; and Abdul Madalidaw, 33—had been taken into custody, Petinglay said.

She said soldiers also seized several firearms, ammunition, materials for bomb-making, mobile phones and documents.

Petinglay said the discovery of the camp proved that the BIFF “is involved in the manufactures of IEDs (improvised explosive devices” commonly associated with terrorism.

Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, Task Force Central commander, said that rules of engagement were strictly observed by soldiers during the entire operation to ensure that no civilians were harmed.

Pangilinan added that the soldiers were also “upholding the human rights of the captured rebels even if they are enemies of the state.”

The arrested BIFF men were immediately given medical attention while coordination with the local police force had been established for the filing of cases against them. Edwin Fernandez, Jeoffrey Maitem, Karlos Manlupig and Charlie Senase, Inquirer Mindanao