The military and police on Tuesday, November 2, protested the violation of travel rules by a group of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members in Maguindanao province.

Maguindanao police director Colonel Jibin Bongcayao said they wanted an explanation and would bring the matter to the attention of the MILF-Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities. 

This came a day after soldiers and police officers flagged down the MILF group of 35 heavily armed men in three vehicles at a checkpoint in Barangay Poblacion Dalican, Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao at around 10 pm on Monday, November 1.

Bongcayao said the incident happened as authorities raised the alert level and implemented tighter measures across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) after government troops killed suspected terrorist leader Salahuddin Hassan in Maguindanao, on Friday, October 29.

BARMM police director Brigadier General Eden Ugale said the alert level had to be raised region-wide in anticipation of possible retaliatory attacks by Hassan’s followers.

Bongcayao said the MILF members stopped at the checkpoint were led by Abdul Hamid Datuan who introduced himself as the commander of the 105th Base Command of the MILF.

He said the MILF group came from Mother Kabuntalan town and were supposedly on their way to their main base in Talitay town in Maguindanao.

Boncayao said the group yielded and cooperated. “They showed no resistance when we asked them to disembark and submit themselves for inspection.”

He said the MILF members were brought to the headquarters of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion in an adjacent town of Talayan for proper documentation and were placed under the custody of authorities along with their firearms.

Officials said the government and MILF have agreed that any movement of armed MILF personnel must be properly coordinated with government forces. In the same manner, government forces need to also coordinate with the MILF when they travel within MILF-acknowledged areas. 

“This is to prevent friendly fire,” according to Boncayao.

In the case of the group, Boncayao said, there was no prior coordination with the police or the military about the movement of the 35 MILF men.

He said the MILF group members wore military uniforms and were heavily armed while traveling in a convoy at night.

The MILF has yet to issue an official statement on the matter.

Part of the peace agreement that the government and MILF forged under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro is the decommissioning of around 40,000 MILF combatants.

Only 12,145 MILF combatants have so far been decommissioned.  – Rappler.com

Rommel Rebollido is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship