A breakaway Moro guerrilla group in Central Mindanao said the main bulk of its forces were out of harm’s way of government military artillery shellings and that its forces were divided into engaging in gunbattles or planting and indoctrination of its mass base.
“The Moro question remains to be a complex problem and unless the roots of armed revolution are addressed and the Moro people’s right to self-determination is sincerely and genuinely upheld, it will pose as a gnawing wound in Philippine realpolitik,” said InPeace Mindanao chair Bishop Felixberto Calang IFI
Some 400 Manobos refused an order from Agusan del Sur Governor Edward Plaza to leave the capitol compound and dialog with the Philippine Army’s 26th Infantry Battalion in their villages in Loreto town.
An Agusan Manobo child lets the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Eastern Mindanao Command in Panacan, Davao City know that military operations have affected the schooling of children in five barangays in Loreto, Agusan del Sur since the end of July. Around 1,000 Manobos including 300 children fled their villages for fear of hearing successive gunfire. (davaotoday.com photo by Ace R. Morandante)
