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By Julmunir I. Jannaral, Correspondent
COTABATO CITY: The Army’s 601st Brigade under the 6th Infantry
Division (ID) on Monday finally hoisted a Philippine flag at the
former 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
that the military finally subdued and seized on Sunday at Barangay
Muti, Guindulungan town
in Maguindanao.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of Army’s
6ID on Monday said the flag that was placed right in the middle of
the captured camp was signifying the government’s success in
restoring law and order in the area.
But Ponce was quick to clarify that the military
operation they have launched since August of last year was not meant
as an all-out war against the entire MILF forces, but rather on the
105th MILF Base Command under renegade Commander Ustadz Ameril Umbra
Kato.
He said the military has already declared all
MILF forces under Kato as lawless elements after they were tagged as
those responsible for attacking civilian communities in Cotabato
last year after the failed signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on
Ancestral Domain.
“Our target is only the lawless base command
of the MILF like this 105th Base Command and not the other base
commands of the MILF because we are adhering to the peace
process,” Ponce emphasized.
Ponce also admitted that it took two days for
the military to subdue Camp Badre of the MILF which was actually the
one referred to as the 105th MILF Base Command.
He said Col. Menardo Geslani, 601st brigade
commander had painstakingly ordered his 75th Battalion not to
withdraw unless they were able to capture Camp Badre, which was well
entrenched with 20 bunkers that can accommodate more or less 200
rebels, in addition to the running trenches within the camp.
Ponce said the Army recovered from the captured
camp at least 30 rounds of 60 mm mortar and rebel uniforms with the
insignia “Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.”
He also confirmed the recovery of some 16 dead
MILF combatants as well as other dead bodies found in the bunkers
built around the vicinity of the camp.
“In fairness, these were the Moro rebels who
defended the camp and gallantly fought the government troops until
they perished in the battle,” Ponce said.
Ponce said that with the Army’s adherence to
the laws of armed conflict, as well as respect towards the religion
of Islam, they had given decent burials to all the of the remains of
the Moro rebels that were recovered from the war zone.
Somehow, according to the Army spokesman,
hostilities in the towns of Talayan, Guindulungan and surrounding
towns have waned as a consequence of the military’s take over of
Camp Bader on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary Datu Ali Sangki,
executive director of the Office on Muslim Affairs was fuming mad
after receiving reports that a mosque in Barangay Muti in
Guindulungan
was totally destroyed when it was hit by the rocket fire from the
OV-10 Bomber of the Philippine Air Force based in Awang, Maguindanao.
“We are condemning the bombing of this mosque
by the military plane,” Sangki said.
“This barbaric act of the Army troops is a
grave violation of the Geneva Articles of War and human rights
abuses against the Muslims who are themselves Filipinos,” Sangki
said.
However, the regional Army spokesman immediately
denied the accusation hurled by the Muslim Affairs chief and said
that in every military operation launched in Maguindanao against the
renegade members of the MILF, they were so careful not to target
mosques, which are sacred being a house of worship.
“We don’t target mosques and any house of
worship for that matter because this is one of the many exceptions
in the laws of war that should be respected and not destroyed even
in times of war due to its sanctity being the House of Almighty
God,” Ponce further said.
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