5 soldiers hurt in clash with NPA rebels

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – Five soldiers were wounded in two days of hostilities which started Monday between government forces and communist rebels in North Cotabato’s restive Makilala town.

The latest encounter between New People’s Army guerrillas and soldiers, which erupted early Tuesday in Barangay New Israel, Makilala left two soldiers, initially identified only as Cpls. Pantasan and Soria, badly wounded.

The wounded soldiers, who both belong to the 6th ID’s elite 62nd Division Reconnaissance Company, and several companions were on their way to a hinterland area in Barangay New Israel on board an Army truck when NPAs, positioned at one side of the road, shot them with assault rifles.

The companions of Pantasan and Soria managed to jump out of their vehicle and engage their attackers, preventing the rebels from closing in on the soldiers. 
   
The attackers scampered away after sensing that responding soldiers from a nearby Army base, backed by militiamen, have started arriving at the scene.

Inspector Rizal Alolod, the acting Makilala municipal police chief, said the soldiers the NPAs ambushed were on their way to check on complaints of farmers on the extortion by rebels of “revolutionary tax” in Barangay New Israel.

NPA rebels have been frequenting the secluded barangay, where they force farmers to give them money and food at gunpoint.

The latest NPA attack in Barangay New Israel came less than 24 hours after rebels opened fire on another group of soldiers searching for landmines and roadside bombs in an open field in another area not far from the scene of the ambush.

They wounded soldiers, Cpls. Antonio Grafil Jr., Allan Lauria, and Jonathan Santos, who are now undergoing medication at the Makilala Medical Specialist Center at the town proper of Makilala.

Local officials said the NPAs in North Cotabato’s adjoining Magpet, Makilala, Arakan and Antipas towns have been counter-attacking combatants of the 6th ID and its component-unit, the 602nd Brigade, for having liberated more than 20 guerilla enclaves in the four towns the past five months.

Col. Ademar Tomaro, commander of the 602nd Brigade, said NPAs in North Cotabato have also been trying to return to their former camps, which they intend to use as “springboards” for their extortion activities that would target politicians that would campaign  in far-flung areas. 
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John Unson | The Philippine Star | February 12, 2013 | Article Link 

Philippine Army captures Maguindanao BIFM camp, hospital

Government troops seized two more Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement camps, one of which was a hospital where the ailing BIFM leader Ameril Umbra Kato was reportedly previously taken.

 

According to Col. Prudencio Asto, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, the hospital is located in Maguindanao province’s Datu Hoffer town.

 

The first BIFM camp was captured Saturday morning by troops from the 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion after a heavy military bombardment. The camp could accommodate 100 people and has 10 bunkers with overhead protection, said Army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc.

 

“Several war materials and personal belongings were left behind by the rebels who hastily fled with numerous casualties when the artillery bombardments began,” said Cabunoc, quoting 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion commander Lt. Col. Ignatius Patrimonio.

 

Meanwhile, Asto said the camp, which also serves as a training ground for BIFM fighters, was seized with minor enemy resistance. The Rangers recovered Korans in a lecture room.

 

Sunday morning, Asto said the soldiers seized the second satellite camp which he said had bunkers and running trenches.

 

“It’s their camp where their hospital is located,” said Asto.  The troops seized medicines and a wheelchair believed to have been used by Kato, who suffered a stroke last December.

 

Citing an intelligence report, Asto said Kato, a former leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was brought to the hospital last Aug. 6 and left a day later. He said intelligence agents are tracking Kato.

 

“He was not in the area; he was not in the camp. He is probably in the communities,” said Asto of Kato, who established the BIFM last year due to differences with the MILF leadership.

 

Including this latest capture of the two camps, the military has seized five rebel lairs since they mounted an offensive against the BIFM August 5.

 

The offensive began after the rebels attacked 10 military installations in Maguindanao, including the headquarters of the 1st Mechanized Brigade.

 

Military officials claimed that at least 50 BIFM fighters have been killed since the fighting broke out. On the other hand, four soldiers and a policeman died and several soldiers were wounded in the skirmishes.

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GMA News Online | August 20, 2012 | Article Link

Bomb explodes near Cafgu detachment

DATU UNSAY, Maguindanao -- Another improvised explosive device (IED) blew up near the detachment of a Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) in sitio Kiamco, Barangay Maitumaig on Sunday afternoon.

According to Army's 6th Infantry Division Public Affairs chief Colonel Prudencio Asto, the bomb that was made from an 81mm mortar shell and planted near the road exploded around 4:20 p.m.

No one died or injured in the explosion.

Responding police and military, including the 66th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, found fragments of an 81mm mortar shell in the crime scene.

Asto believes that the bomb was intended to hurt a military convoy or local officials in Maguindanao.

Immediately before the explosion, residents saw men onboard a motorcycle stop near the area where the explosion occurred.

Authorities are still conducting investigations on the incident.

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Edgardo Fuerzas | SunStar.Com.Ph | March 12,2012 | Article Link

3 leftist rebels killed in clash in Cotabato

COTABATO, Philippines (Xinhua) - Soldiers have killed at least three leftist rebels and wounded seven others during a clash in the country's restive south, an army official said today.

The soldiers under the 68th Infantry Battalion were patrolling yesterday afternoon when they encountered some 50 New Peoples Army rebels in Batang village, North Cotabato province, said Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the army's 6th Division.

A three-hour firefight ensued, leaving three guerrillas dead and seven others wounded, according to Asto.

"Hundreds of families have fled for fear of their safety. The rebels only withdrew when we used howitzers," Asto said, adding there were no reported casualties on the government side.

The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging a guerrilla campaign in the countryside for four decades. Military estimates the NPA strength at more than 4,000 men scattered in more than 60 guerrilla fronts throughout the country.

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The Philippine Star | March 11,2012 | Article Link

Police, Army units recover explosive devices in Sultan Kudarat

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao, March 11 (PNA) - Alert police and military authorities prevented what could have been another bombing incident in Region 12 with the recovery of two high-powered explosive devices in Sultan Kudarat on Saturday, the military here reported Sunday.


Maj. Gen. Rey Ardo, chief of the military's 6th Infantry Division, said joint elements of the Joint Task Force Kutawato (JTFK), led by Director Felicisimu Khu, chief of Directorate Integrated Police Operations, recovered one 90-mm ammunition and one 60-mm mortar wrapped in a sack and left along the provincial road in Barangay Midtapok, Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat province.


The recovered items are now in the custody of the JTFK for proper disposition.


Ardo also received reports from the Army's 1st Mechanized Brigade that an improvised explosive device exploded in Hill Detachment, Sitio Kyamko, Barangay Maitumaig, Datu Unsay, Maguindanao at about 4 p.m. Saturday.


Ardo directed the 45th Infantry Battalion to conduct an investigation.
Nobody was hurt in the blast since it was planted and set off in an unpopulated area in Datu Unsay.


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NYP/EOF | Philippine News Agency | March 11,2012 | Article Link 

Soldiers hope lasting peace in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Battle-hardened soldiers in flashpoint areas in Central Mindanao were so overt in manifesting support to President Aquino’s peace overture with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The soldiers were optimistic that a final government-MILF truce would come sooner than the 2016 expiration of the president’s tenure.

As a complementing initiative,  four Army units in North Cotabato – the 7^th, 40^th, 57^th and 68^th  Infantry Battalions – already started training officers on efficient military-media cooperation to bolster the dissemination of their extensive non-tactical activities.

This is to support Malacañang’s confidence-building measures with Moro forces to prevent undue confrontations while the peace talks are underway.

The initial batch of soldiers that underwent the training last week were taught by volunteer journalists how to report their community projects based on the principles of “peace reporting”.

They were also taught how to highlight their press statements with dividends of the peace process particularly in the enforcement of the GPH-MILF ceasefire to generate public volunteerism in monitoring its implementation in far-flung areas.

Fragile peace

Col. Benjamin Hao, commanding officer of the 7th IB, said there were dramatic improvements lately in the security situation in areas under his battalion after they started addressing amicably domestic security problems through backdoor dialogues with leaders of guerilla forces, and other stakeholders.

Hao said the most senior Army officer in North Cotabato, Col. Cesar Sedillo of the 602nd Brigade, and the commander of the 6th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Rey Ardo, both have standing directives to embark on extensive confidence-building maneuvers aimed at addressing domestic security constraints and other humanitarian issues.

People in Central Mindanao felt the cordiality between the 7th IB and the Muslim communities guarded by its combatants when towns under the battalion’s jurisdiction were struck by flashfloods spawned by typhoons last year.

Soldiers and unarmed MILF fighters helped each other evacuate civilians away from their flood-stricken villages in a series of relief and rescue missions monitored by the joint ceasefire committee.

Hao and Lt. Cols. Roy Galido, Marcelino Teofilo, and Noel Dela Cruz, commanding officers of the 40th, 68th and 57th Battalions, respectively, agreed to launch their local military-media peace advocacy thrust, with the permission of Sedillo and Ardo, to hasten the dissemination of the successes of their units.

It will also note the performance of  government-MILF ceasefire committee, the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team and the Philippine National Police, in preserving the fragile peace now in Central Mindanao, based on protocols established jointly by rebel and government peace brokers.

Members of the 7th IB and MILF forces prevented last year three near encounters in the adjoining towns of Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan and Montawal, both in Maguindanao by jointly resolving misunderstandings over control of territories and uncoordinated movements of government combatants and Moro guerillas.

Efficient communication link

“It is only by way of having open lines of communication and cooperation from leaders of local sectors, the police and the religious communities that we have resolved the problems. Very peaceful efforts, far from being bloody and antagonistic,” said Hao.

Galido and his subordinate-officers in the 40th IB managed to broker in recent months internal ceasefire accords between the feuding Moro families Matilac and Maraguiar; and Sugud and Musa in North Cotabato’s adjoining Pigcawayan and Midsayap towns, respectively.

The effort was with the help of local officials, Muslim clerics, and the GPH Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities.

The 40th IB, the MILF, the joint ceasefire committee, the IMT and the local government units of Midsayap and Banisilan, also in North Cotabato, have established a joint ceasefire monitoring post, or JCMP in the two towns to help prevent any outbreak of hostilities that could derail President Aquino’s peace overture with the MILF.

Galido and Hao, who both graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1990, are just as optimistic the government and MILF peace panels can achieve a major breakthrough soon in their effort to reach a negotiated settlement on the so-called Mindanao Moro problem.

Strictly no politics

Ardo, who was chairman of the GPH ceasefire committee before he assumed as 6th ID commander in early 2011, said there is overwhelming support for the peace talks by his division’s rank and file personnel.

“We have various activities complementing the GPH-MILF peace negotiations while awaiting, with hope and confidence, the now very perceivable fruit of the peace talks,” Ardo said.

There has been no major military-MILF encounter in the 6th ID’s area, where the MILF has dozens of big enclaves, since early 2010 and even when there were pockets of hostilities last year in parts of the Zamboanga peninsula and in Al-Barka, Basilan.

Ardo said his standing order for his men, meantime, is to avoid dipping their fingers into politics.

 “A soldier can never be an efficient peace broker if identified with a political camp. We must not forget that the Mindanao conflict is one that has political, socio-economic and racial ramifications,” Ardo said.

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By John Unson 

The Philippine Star

PhilStar.Com

February 23, 2012 11:17 AM

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Army maintains high alert in Rajah Buayan

KIDAPAWAN CITY - The Army will maintain high visibility in Maguindanao’s politically-troubled Rajah Buayan town even as thousands of evacuees already started returning to their homes following last week’s reconciliation of two armed groups that squabbled for control of patches of arable lands in the area.

The director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, said they will continue monitoring the fragile peace in Rajah Buayan through the Maguindanao provincial police office.

Apparently threatened by a military tactical intervention, two feuding Rajah Buayan barangay chairmen, Duma Ugayan and Jerry Macalay, of Barangays Malipodok and Baital, respectively, swore over the Qur’an last week to end their deep-seated animosity for each other, following a series of encounters between their groups that dislocated more than 3,000 innocent villagers.

Major Gen. Rey Ardo, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said officials of a mechanized brigade that has jurisdiction over Rajah Buayan, and the 45th Infantry Battalion will maintain a peacekeeping contingent in the area to prevent any resumption of hostilities between the two groups.

“Soldiers will also help the ARMM’s social welfare department and the Rajah Buayan local government unit in working out the return of the evacuees to their villages,” Ardo said.

Ugayan and Macalay reconciled in a simple rite before Army officials, representatives of the Maguindanao police, and Raja Buayan’s municipal mayor, Yacob Ampatuan, who was at the forefront of negotiating a solution to end hostilities.

The two barangay chairmen and their respective followers clashed repeatedly over control of strategic patches of lands at the border of their respective barangays,  using assault rifles and shoulder-fire grenades as they tried to overcome each other.

Local officials said the reconciliation of Ugayan and Macalay was hastened by the 6th ID’s discovery that neither of them are members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and can be both, thus, be neutralized by the military without even consulting the government-Moro Islamic Liberation Front joint ceasefire committee.

The government and the MILF have a preliminary security pact where domestic conflicts involving members of the rebel group would have to be settled first by the peace keeping committee, under established protocols stated in the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

Ardo said the 6th ID is always for the amicable settlement of family feuds in Central Mindanao, but will not hesitate to use force to protect innocent people that can be caught in the crossfire if peaceful means of addressing security constraints turn fruitless.

“When our combatants come into the picture, we can never tell what will happen next. Our men have a sworn duty to protect people, regardless of religion, faith and tribal identities,” said Ardo, who was chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee before he became 6th ID commander in early 2011.

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By John Unson 

The Philippine Star

February 21, 2012 01:14 P

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Kidnap victim released in Maguindanao — Army

A student seized by suspected Moro rebels in November last year has been released early Thursday morning in Maguindanao, a military statement said. 

The Army's 6th Infantry Division identified the kidnap victim as Romy Cabaya, who was in Aleosan town in North Cotabao by a faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels under Umbra Kato.

Authorities earlier said the victim could have been mistaken for the son of Mayor Lorito Cabaya, Jason.

The kidnappers had also demanded a P2-million ransom in exchange for the victim's freedom.

The military statement said Romy was released around 1:30 a.m. Thursday along Dalican National Highway in Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

About 10 p.m. Wednesday, the same statement said military and police officials, together with Mayor Cabaya, proceeded to Barangay Tamontaka in Cotabato City to negotiate the release of the victim.    

Romy was then taken to the headquarters of the 40th Infantry Battalion in Aleosan for futher debriefing.
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January 19, 2012 4:59pm
 RSJ, GMA News Online
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