RP to probe claims of MILF buildup
RP to probe claims of MILF buildup
Agencies, Manila
The Philippines is looking into claims that the country's largest Moro separatist group is regrouping in the troubled south despite ongoing peace talks, officials said on Thursday.
A senior member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Wednesday claimed the group was training some 50,000 recruits in secret camps in southern Mindanao island and that they were stocking up and manufacturing anti-tank weapons.
The claim, made by MILF senior leader Shariff Jullabi, went against a cease-fire pact signed between Manila and the MILF leadership last year.
"The government will investigate if there is actually a really massive buildup of troops which do not appear in the intelligence reports at this point in time," presidential palace spokesman Silvestre Afable told reporters.
Afable noted that Jullabi, who heads the MILF's command in southwestern Mindanao, is not part of the MILF's peace negotiating panel.
He also downplayed the MILF's capability to regroup, three years after a massive military offensive flushed them out from their camps in Mindanao.
"It takes a very big facility to manufacture that amount of ammunitions and I don't think the MILF at this stage (has that facility) when they are scattered in several areas," Afable said.
"At this stage, they have no production bases so I would not think that they are able to manufacture that kind of ammunition," he added, referring to Jullabi's claim that the rebels had managed to manufacture some 10,000 anti-tank rocket launchers.
Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, the military's southern command chief, and his officials "are in the area at the moment and they are doing their assessments" of the claim, added defense department spokesman Melchor Rosales.
The MILF has waging a rebellion for an independent Islamic state in the south since 1978, but has signed a cease-fire pact with Manila to pave the way for ongoing peace negotiations.
Meanwhile, Abu Sayyaf rebels have dispersed into small groups and melted into the Philippine jungle after a shootout last week to rescue three hostages, leaving soldiers chasing shadows, government officials said.
"The Abu Sayyaf has broken up into smaller groups so it is more difficult to get them now. They're probably mixed with the population, blended with the crowd," Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said on Manila's ANC television.
"So, this will have to be a house-to-house, community-by- community search. It's going to be difficult."