MILF opens camp to Lanao evacuees

ILIGAN CITY—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has opened one of its controlled areas in Lanao del Sur province to evacuees from the weeklong fighting between government troops and a group of armed men known to harbor extremist views.

The arrangement to accommodate the evacuees in Barangay Sandab in Butig town was made through the peace mechanisms set up by the government and the MILF, according to a statement of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp).

Sandab village is a stronghold of the MILF’s armed wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), and hosts a satellite office of its peace negotiating panel.

The Opapp statement quoted Ameruddin Usman, a member of the MILF Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities, as saying the hosting of the evacuees was coordinated with the front commander in the area.

Usman said around 500 families were evacuated and secured in Barangay Sandab. He said more families stayed with their relatives in other villages away from the encounter site.

Maj. Carlos Sol Jr., head of the government contingent in the joint ceasefire committee, said Barangay Sandab has enough facilities, like school buildings, to serve as temporary shelters for evacuees.

Apart from providing sanctuary to evacuees, Sol said the continued cooperation between the government and the MILF was shown by the BIAF’s decision to reposition its troops in Butig to prevent clashing with Philippine Army troopers.

Sol said repositioning BIAF elements was also aimed at giving government forces “the freedom to pursue operations against the lawless group.”

The clashes in Butig, a town in Lanao del Sur’s border with Maguindanao province, started on the night of Feb. 20 when armed men attacked a detachment of government soldiers in Barangay Bayabao. The fighting has spilled over to the nearby village of Poktan.

The gunfights displaced about 4,000 families, military reports said. Army officials said two soldiers died from the clashes. While they claimed that at least 50 members of the armed group were killed, only two bodies were recovered from the clash sites.

On Feb. 23, armed men ambushed soldiers in an area between Tugaya and Balindong towns in what was initially believed as an attack to divert military attention from Butig.

While the military did not name the group behind the Butig attack, it said it is composed of “foreign and local terrorists.”

But in Lanao del Sur, they are called “Isis” as a reference to their harboring of extremist views of jihad similar to what is espoused by the Middle Eastern terrorist network Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

A local commander of the MILF in Lanao del Sur has denied the involvement of his troops in the recent clashes in the province.

In a 59-second video clip circulated on social media by the group called Free the Bangsamoro Movement, Abdullah Macapaar, known as Commander Bravo, said the MILF was not part of the fighting in Butig and Balindong towns.

“The MILF continues to be a party to a peace process with the government, and as such, we in the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces of the Northwestern Mindanao Front, will maintain our defensive posture,” Macapaar said.

He also brushed aside reports linking him to an extremist group in Lanao del Sur.

“I remain loyal to the MILF because its leader, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, is a faithful follower of Allah and the Prophet Mohammad,” Macapaar said.