President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sending Armed Forces Chief of Staff Efren Abu to Mindanao on Tuesday to determine if she should declare a ceasefire with Moro rebels fighting government troops in Sulu. The President's decision came after persistent calls for a ceasefire between government troops and followers of jailed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader Nur Misuari and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).Arroyo, in a media interaction in Iloilo, said she will give the orders to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr. on Thursday based on Lieutenant General Abu's report. "I am sending General Abu to the area on Tuesday, and (on) Wednesday or Thursday, he will probably give a report to me. So, on Thursday, I will probably be ready to give an instruction to the Secretary of National Defense," she said.
The leaders of the mainstream Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and some officials of Sulu have offered to negotiate in behalf of the rebels. It has been more than two weeks since government launched offensives in Sulu, following the attacks against military outposts by renegades who are demanding the return of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) governor Nur Misuari to Sulu for his trial. Press secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said "the earlier we are able to bring peace to Mindanao, the better for the development of the area." Bunye said there are foreign institutions that are willing to pour development funds into Mindanao but the insurgency situation must be solved first.
The MILF leadership calls for a ceasefire in the ongoing clash between the government forces and the MNLF-breakaway group in Sulu. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said ceasefire should be declared first and talk out their concerns but apparently the government is unwilling. Close to a hundred government forces and rebel groups died in the ongoing clashes while thousands of civilians have also been displaced because of the skirmishes. Kabalu said it has been a long while since government has investigated Misuari's case. If he is guilty then a hearing should have been conducted by now and due process be served, he added. Kabalu said old guards and supporters of the MNLF recently held several secret meetings that could lead to more clashes in Mindanao. Kabalu said they have monitored how several MNLF old leaders have been conducting secret meetings in Lanao, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and General Santos areas these last weeks of February. Though these combatants were out of commission for several years since the peace accord with the government, Kabalu warned that these MNLF cells still possess high-powered firearms and ammunitions. He said the government should not underestimate these groups who might just be regrouping and might sympathize the breakaway group in Sulu.
Soldiers fighting in Sulu scored anew as they captured a major camp of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group Friday. The mountain stronghold of the Muslim extremist group outside Indanan town on southern Jolo island was overrun Thursday by about 400 soldiers from the Army's 53rd Infantry Battalion, said Jolo military chief Brigadier General Agustin Dema-ala. About 100 Abu Sayyaf defenders broke up into small groups as troops, backed by helicopter gun ships firing rockets, assaulted the camp on top of the Budkaha mountain, about 940 kilometers south of Manila, Dema-ala said. He said there were no government casualties. Civilians fleeing the fighting reported seeing some wounded gunmen. The camp "is the symbol of power of the Abu Sayyaf group, which provided sanctuary to lawless elements on Jolo," Dema-ala said. The capture of the base "shows the will of the government to assert itself in imposing the laws of the law and the determination of the government to go after violators of the law," he said. The camp is also a sanctuary for local Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad, whose gunmen killed three soldiers on security patrol in Indanan on February 19.