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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY : Philippine troops have captured a remote rebel base
of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and a mansion allegedly
owned by a senior leader and commander Ameril Kato who is wanted for
a string of attacks in Mindanao.
The Army’s 6th Infantry Division said
troops from two battalions swooped down on the rebel base on Friday
and seized Ameril Kato’s unfinished three-story mansion. Estimated
to be worth at least P10 million, it is in Maguindanao’s Talitay
town.
“The unfinished mansion is worth P10
million. Conclusion: the leaders of the MILF live in lavish and
extravagant way while their followers and their families remain poor
as they are with no adequate food and medicines to sustain their
living,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, a regional army spokesman, said
in a statement.
He said the mansion has a basement and sits on
more than 1,200-square-meter land that guarded by MILF rebels.
But the MILF denied the military claims and said
the rebel group has no fixed bases and that Kato never owned any
mansion and was not living extravagantly.
“That is clearly a military propaganda. We are
revolutionaries. Kato is a revolutionary leader and he never owned
any mansion or any of our other leaders,” said Eid Kabalu, a
senior MILF leader who is the group’s spokesman in dealing with
the media.
Security forces were tracking down Kato
and two other MILF leaders, Abdurahman Macapaar and Sulayman
Panglian, who were blamed by the military and police for the string
of attacks in Mindanao since last year after the seven-year old
peace talks between the rebels and the government collapsed.
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