Army ‘holds punches against Kato’

COTABATO City—While renegade Moro rebel leader Ameril Umra Kato is now considered open target, the Army couldn’t bypass his former comrades in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to attack him because he and his forces are holed up in MILF areas, a military official said.

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF political affairs chief, on Thursday reiterated that Kato is no longer part of MILF and, as a result, is not covered by protection from military offensives offered by a truce between the MILF and government.

Jaafar, however, said the MILF doesn’t consider Kato an enemy. “Our enemies are the oppressors. And this goes with the government and other groups that exercise tyranny and oppression,” he said.

Brigadier General Ariel Bernardo, chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, said any military action against Kato would have to be coordinated with the MILF because Kato and his forces, now called Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), are holed up in MILF areas.

According to Jaafar, the deadline for Kato, set on September 26, to return to the MILF fold has lapsed without any word from Kato, prompting the guerrilla group to officially drop him from its roster of members.

“We don’t care anymore what his group will do. That’s the implication of this move. We decided that he (Kato) is no longer with us,” Jaafar said.

Abu Misra Mama, speaking for Kato’s Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), said the Saudi-trained cleric has no plans of returning to the MILF fold and that it became clear when Kato formed the BIFM and BIFF last year.

“There is no more possibility of our return to the MILF’s fold. The MILF no longer abides by the principles of Islam,” Mama said in a phone interview. He said Kato’s decision to shun an offer to return to the MILF fold meant “we will continue the Islamic struggle for independence.”

Armed Forces Chief Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. had been quoted earlier in Manila as saying the military would attack Kato as soon as he was officially declared not part of MILF.

Kato is wanted for allegedly leading attacks on civilian communities in North Cotabato and Maguindanao in 2008 following the failed signing of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain expanding Moro autonomous territory but which the Supreme Court has ruled as unconstitutional.

At least 60 people were dead and tens of thousands of residents had been displaced by the attacks.

The mission to get Kato and his men had been put on hold in deference to the truce between the MILF and the government, according to Brig. Gen. Bernardo.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines has to hold its punches against Kato as the government panel negotiating peace with the MILF considered the issue as an internal problem,” said Bernardo.—Edwin Fernandez, Jeoffrey Maitem and Charlie Señase, Inquirer Mindanao