Soldiers arrest MILF leader, escorts at checkpoint

COTABATO CITY—Police regional authorities on Monday confirmed the arrest of a top Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader on arson and other criminal charges.

Wahid Tundok, head of the MILF’s 108th Base Command and a Muslim cleric, was arrested on Sunday by policemen and soldiers at a checkpoint near the Matampay Bridge here, said Supt. Jovit Culaway, chief of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“He was arrested along with his armed followers while on board a pickup truck at the police-military checkpoint along Quezon Avenue,” Culaway, who led the arresting team, told reporters.

The MILF, which concluded peace negotiations with the government in January to end the decades-long Moro insurgency in Mindanao, criticized authorities for the arrest of Tundok who it considers to be one of its trusted commanders. It, however, called sobriety among his followers.

In a radio statement, Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, described the incident as lamentable but said this should not affect the gains of the talks.

“The MILF Central Committee is doing everything to resolve the problem. Let us continue to work for the attainment of peace and harmony in our native land,” Jaafar said.

Asked for her comment in Manila, President Benigno Aquino’s peace adviser Teresita Deles told reporters on Monday that talks were ongoing between the government and the MILF, describing Tundok’s arrest as a “gray area” because of his status.

“We have already been discussing it since last night. It’s just that we need to get all the people together, and some of the people, as you know, are in Cotabato,” Deles said.

Culaway said Tundok had long been sought by authorities, with warrants for his arrest issued by several judges in Maguindanao province.

“We are just doing our job,” the police official said when asked why an MILF leader supposedly covered by immunity guarantees had to be arrested.

He said Tundok had been considered a high-value target and a security risk. He and his escorts have been taken into custody at the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.

Tundok is considered among the seasoned and battle-hardened MILF pioneers. He had been locked with a bitter rivalry and feud with Ameril Umra Kato, another MILF commander who broke away in 2009 to form the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

In June 2009, Tundok was credited for the downing of an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with surveillance equipment in North Cotabato province. His group also figured in several attacks against the military in Shariff Aguak town and he has repeatedly been rumored to have died in one of the clashes.

“We are doing something to facilitate the release of our men through the joint government-MILF ceasefire mechanism, because we know that this [case] is covered by the immunity clause in the [ceasefire] agreement,” Jaafar said.

“Let’s keep our heads cool and allow our ceasefire protocol mechanism to work,” he added. Reports from Charlie Señase and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao; and Nikko Dizon in Manila