Feuding Moro groups irk Maguindanao residents

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Maguindanao villagers called on Muslim clerics to issue a fatwah (edict) against a village chief and his followers after they repeatedly attempted to drive away members of Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Rajah Buayan town.

The incident resulted to the displacement of thousands of residents in the area.

The military has already reported to the ceasefire committee the "misbehavior" of Jerry Macalay, chairman of Barangay Tabungao in Rajah Buayan, who is at odds with local MILF forces led by Commander Adzmi Tagadaya.

“His actuations are bad for the on-going peace process between the government and the MILF. He should be censured," Mohammad Gapur, a father of six, told reporters.

Members of Rajah Buayan's municipal peace and order council said many evacuees wanted the Islamic Darul Iftah (House of Opinions) to issue a fatwah declaring Macalay and his men as bughaat, which Arabic term that can either mean stubborn or abusive.

More than 3,000 people were displaced in last week's fierce encounters between Tagadaya and Macalay's group.

The chief of the MILF’s 106th Base Command, Adan Abdullah, and the local government of Rajah Buayan tried to formulate local security measures meant to stave off escalation of hostilities between the groups of Macalay and Tagadaya.

The mayor of Raja Buayan municipality, Yacob Ampatuan, said the hostilities erupted when Macalay and his men raided the territory of Tagadaya.

Macalay and his men have long been trying to evict the group of Tagadaya, who belong to the MILF’s 106th Base Command.

“The government’s ceasefire committee should immediately intervene and do something about the wrongdoings of this barangay chairman who does not respect the ceasefire between the government and the MILF,” Ampatuan said.

Ampatuan said barangay officials confirmed that the firefights figured by Macalay’s group and local MILF guerillas last week left several fighters dead on both sides.

“Some fighters from both sides have also been wounded since they used heavy firepower to overcome each other,” Ampatuan said.

The local police said Macalay’s men looted houses and carted farm animals of the MILF rebels.

Major Gen. Rey Ardo, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said soldiers in Rajah Buayan are to coordinate their efforts to pacify the feuding groups with the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities.

“This is delicate situation because this involves MILF forces. There are agreed protocols, crafted by the MILF and the government on how to address this kind of security problems,” Ardo said. 

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John Unson | The Philippine Star | March 06, 2012 01:32 PM | Article Link

Blast rocks Cotabato anew

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- The military said an explosion rocked anew Cotabato City Saturday morning, just few meters away from the regional headquarters of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).

A bomb expert from the 7th Marine Battalion Landing Team who refused to be identified said another improvised explosive device (IED) was discovered just few meters away from the blast site.

But while they were on the process of defusing the bomb, he said they found a firing pin attached to the explosive.
     
No was hurt in the blast.
   
The two bombs were made from an 81-milimeter mortar round, authorities said.
     
The explosion in Cotabato City came some 10 hours after two motorcycle-riding men lobbed an explosive in front of heavy equipment owned by a Chinese-owned construction firm doing road rehabilitation projects along Pigcawayan-Pikit highway in North Cotabato.

Pigcawayan police identified the injured persons as Dave Potenciano, 35, and James Barte, 19.
     
Extortion is likely the motive behind the blast, Pigcawayan town police chief Donald Cabigas.
     
Cabigas said the construction firm received an extortion letter two weeks ago demanding from them protection money worth P5 million.
     
The firm, however, refused to heed to their demands, Cabigas said.

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By Malu Cadeliña Manar | Sunday, March 4, 2012 | SunStar.Com.Ph | Article Link

Woman hurt in Cotabato City blast

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—A 27-year old woman was slightly injured when an improvised bomb went off near the Cotabato Barter Trade Center, just outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao regional government compound, here around at 7:30 p.m.

Superintendent Danny Reyes, city police chief, said the remotely-detonated improvised explosive device was fashioned out from a mortar shell but its exact make was still being determined.

He said it was fortunate that the bomb exploded when there was less activity in the area.

The Barter Trade Center is also near the Central Mindanao office of the Government Service Insurance System.

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By Edwin Fernandez
Inquirer Mindanao

8:32 pm | Thursday, March 1st, 2012

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3 dead, 12 injured in Kidapawan jail attack

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines – Three persons were killed while 12 others were injured following an attack on the city jail here around 10 p.m. Sunday, February 19.

This after more or less 50 heavily unidentified armed men fired a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) to the wall of the city jail in an attempt to rescue Datukan Samad alias Lastikman.

The attack began with the rebels firing B-40 anti-tank rockets at the entrance of the city jail.  Personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology  (BJMP) who were  on duty returned fire, forcing the attackers to retreat.

Jail Officer 2 Joel Litada and 15 others were wounded in the ensuing shootout. They are now confined at different hospitals here.

The fatalities were identified as Benny Balmediano, Ian Carlos Sevilla and Mark Anthony Morales.

Senior Supt. Chino Mamburam, director of the Kidapawan City police, said the slain Sevilla and Morales were drinking inside Molos Videoke House, about a block away from the city jail.

Another group shot the victims with assault rifles to create a diversion.

Just after the attackers and the BJMP personnel traded shots, another armed group blasted a powerful improvised explosive device at the entrance to the BFP’s headquarters behind the city jail, wounding three firemen, among them Chief Inspector Romeo Tactaquin.

Notorious “Lastikman”

Mamburan said the attackers, some of them overheard by witnesses as conversing with each other in ethnic Maguindanaon dialect, were to rescue Samad.

Samad was implicated in the killings of more than 30 people in Pikit, North Cotabato in recent years.

Samad and his followers were suspects of the more than 50 highway robberies in stretches of the Cotabato-Davao Highway.

Military intelligence sources said the group that attempted to rescue Samad was comprised of rogue rebels from Pikit and nearby Pagalungan and Montawal towns, both in Maguindanao.

“Some of them were the same men that twice attacked the (North Cotabato) provincial jail several years ago,” a senior Army intelligence officer told reporters.

Arrested in Cotabato City

Samad was arrested in Cotabato City about two months ago for carrying guns and grenades while he and his companions Guiamelon Pangako and Eliseo Lamayo were to leave for Pikit on board a motorcycle.

The Cotabato City police committed Samad to a North Cotabato court that issued one of more than two dozens of warrants for his arrest.

The North Cotabato provincial police and the court worked out Samad’s detention at the city jail here in anticipation of his possible rescue by his followers, having seen two attacks by Moro rebels at the North Cotabato provincial jail in the secluded Barangay Amas here, which resulted to the escape of dozens of inmates.

Among those that escaped in one of the incidents was Datu Ali Sultan, a guerilla bomb-maker, who was said to have trained in Kandahar, Afganistan in the late 1980s. 

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By John Unson 

The Philippine Star

February 20, 2012 11:33 AM

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Bomb near posh Cotabato school foiled

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Army bomb experts detonated an M-67 fragmentation grenade found near the entrance of a private school here where children of wealthy families and powerful politicians study.

Investigators of the city’s Police Precinct No.2 said the grenade could still explode anytime since its blasting contraption was still intact.

The grenade could have been accidentally dropped, or deliberately left near the school premises to intimidate someone.

Bomb experts immediately dispose the grenade without causing any commotion.

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By John Unson Home Updated January 05, 2012 12:45 PM

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Explosion mars Shariff Kabunsuan Festival in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY – A powerful improvised explosive device went off Monday night here as the city celebrated the Shariff Kabunsuan Festival, police and military authorities said.

A police official identified only as Superintendent Reyes said investigators suspected it had something to do with the celebration or the change of leadership of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Miindanao.

In August, two IEDs also went off along a road leading to the ARMM complex where a public forum for aspirants of the OIC post was being held.

The OICs were being chosen then as the term of all elected regional officials had expired but elections were not held as scheduled on August 16 after Congress reset it to 2013.

The law resetting the elections was still being questioned before the Supreme Court.

“We are looking at all the angles in these incidents,” he said.

Former Anakbayan partylist Representative Mujib Hataman, appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as OIC-governor, will assume office on Thursday.

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By Edwin Fernandez
Philippine Daily Inquirer

7:50 am | Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

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Grenade explodes, three people injured

MANILA, Philippines—Three people were injured when a grenade lobbed by still unidentified suspect exploded in Cotabato City Monday morning, a Philippine National Police spokesman said.

In text advisory to reporters, Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said that a grenade went off around 10:15 a.m. in front of Old Choakao Warehouse along Quezon Avenue in Cotabao City.

No other information was available as of posting time.

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By Jamie Marie Elona
INQUIRER.net

2:46 pm | Monday, December 19th, 2011

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Troops foil deadly terror attack in Cotabato

(philstar.com) Updated November 16, 2009 09:01 PM

DAVAO, Philippines (Xinhua) - Philippine security forces foiled a deadly terror attack Monday in the volatile southern Philippines.

Troops have recovered and defused an improvised pipe-type bomb attached to a mobile phone which was planted by suspected Muslim separatist rebels in front of bus depot in the southern city of Cotabato at around 09:00 a.m., said city police Chief Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane.

Dangane said witnesses who saw motorcycle-riding men left a blue bag containing the bomb immediately informed police.

No one group claimed for the foiled attack but the Philippine military blamed rouge Muslim rebels in previous incidents.

In July this year, six people were killed and over 50 wounded when a homemade bomb exploded outside a Roman Catholic Church in Cotabato.
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