AFP bares MILF, NPA tactical alliance

Bayan hit over pull-out demand

By ROGER M. BALANZA

If we pull out of Central Mindanao, can Bayan protect the people from the rampaging Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)?

This question was asked of the militant group by a military official in Davao City as Bayan and other progressive groups held rallies demanding a stop to military operations in Central Mindanao, citing violations of human rights.

The military has launched fresh offensives against MILF renegade commander Ameril Umbra Kato whose band has resumed attacking villages in Central Mindanao after the Supreme Court declared last week the Memorandum Of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the Philippine government and the MILF as not in tune with the Constitution.

In August, Kato led his renegade band in a siege of Central Mindnanao and Saragani province, after the High Court initially stopped the signing of the agreement, killing 60 civilians and triggering the evacuation of more than 400,000 people as the military launched massive operations against the rebel commander who has now a P10 million prize on his head.

Major Medel Aguilar, speaking on ABC/CBN’s DXAB radio on Sunday, said Bayan and other militant groups are holding rallies in General Santos City demanding the pull-out of military forces hunting down Kato and his band.

We are in Central Mindanao to maintain peace. Does Bayan have an army to fight the MILF? asked Aguilar, the group commander of the 5^th AFP Civil Relations Group operating in Southern Mindanao.

Aguilar, who tagged Bayan as a legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army (CPP/NPA), told DXAB that he was not however surprised at Bayan’s demand.

This is part of the tactical alliance between the CPP/NPA and the MILF, he said, recalling documents obtained by military years ago about the communists and the Moro secessionist group linking arms in the fight against the government.

He said the documents, signed by Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, the Southern Mindanao spokesman of the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the CPP/NPA and MILF leaders whom he did not mention, primarily involved mutual provision to provide sanctuary for forces of the two groups when under attack by government forces.

But Aguilar warned the tactical alliance could not last and would be catastrophic if they are allowed to win over government efforts to bring peace to Mindanao.

These two groups have different agenda: the NPA to topple the government and the secessionist MILF to carve out an independent Moro homeland in Mindanao, he said. Eventually, if they gain a headway, they would be fighting each other and this would be catastrophic for the nation, said Aguilar in the DXAB radio program on military and police affairs in the Davao Region hosted by broadcaster James Galay.