Seven wounded in MILF attack
By BUTCH D. ENERIO
TODAY Correspondent
The wounded were Rosie Jenon, 34; Jonwen Jenon, 17; Jonalyn
Jenon, Vencio Fuentes, Junie Ceno and Jocelyn Culita. Jimmy Lumulho, who was in
critical condition, was brought to a hospital here.
The victims were sleeping in their respective houses near the
patrol base when about 50 heavily armed rebels attacked around
Army troops from the 28th Infantry Battalion and members of the
police Regional Mobile Group responded to the attack and engaged the
secessionist rebels in a running gun battle that reached up to the national
highway, prompting the authorities to stop the flow of traffic for almost four
hours.
The rebels, under the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces’ 501st
Brigade, led by Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo, withdrew to the
mountains when more government soldiers arrived.
The MILF attack came as the people in this town are preparing for
their annual fiesta celebration next week and the
Col. Francisco Simbajon, chief of the Civil Affairs Unit of the
4th Infantry Division, said, “There are scores wounded in the enemy side” and
that “there was no casualty in the military side.”
Simbajon also said that because of the many Muslim civilians who
were killed, wounded and displaced because of Bravo’s atrocities in the past,
the Maranaos and even his relatives have denounced him as their own. Bravo is a
native of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the attack was “still a
continuation of the MILF’s active defense” of its territories. He said that
such attacks will continue because “there is a war now going in [some parts of]
In another development at least three communist rebels were
killed and two government soldiers were wounded in an almost four-hour gun
battle when 80 New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas attacked an Army patrol base
in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, Tuesday dawn, the 4th Infantry Division said
Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Johnny Macanas said the rebels, under certain Commander
Masayod and Commander Oscar of the Front 21B of the Northern Mindanao Regional
Committee, attacked the patrol base of the Bravo Company of the 36th Infantry Battalion,
under Lt. Col. Maximo Caro, in barangay
The soldiers engaged the rebels in a gun battle that lasted until
past
After the battle, three rebels lay dead while two soldiers were
wounded, but not critically. The military believed many rebels were wounded or
killed based on the trail of blood found in the rebels’ escape route.
Recovered from the scene were an M-16 rifle, M-14 rifle, 33
magazines of M-16 rifle, two rifle grenades, 1 chainsaw and a hand-held radio.
Col. Juanito Cabayao, commander of the 403rd Infantry Brigade,
said that the attack was part the NPA’s “nationwide game plan.”
“I think it was part of their nationwide game plan and effort to
conduct harassment and atrocities against government troops and installations,”
Cabayao said. He also said the attack could be part of the NPA’s “rearming” in
preparation for a major attack against the government.
Earlier the military said the NPA were gearing up for “major
attacks” against government agencies and installations and as preparations, it
is stocking up of arms and ammunition in preparation for its “show of force.”
This was disclosed after NPA guerrillas raided the police station
in Carmen, Agusan del Norte, on March 16 and the Picop Resources Inc. in Bislig
City, Surigao del Sur, on March 21 and carted away hundreds of assorted
firearms, ammunition and communication devices.
“The way they [communist rebels] are collecting arms at this time
signifies that they are set for a major attack,” said Col. Rainer Cruz,
commander of the Army’s 9th Infantry Battalion.