Map of Lanao del Sur.
DAVAO CITY — One of the strongholds of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) now houses hundreds of families affected by the government military operations against a breakaway unit of the MILF in Lanao del Sur.
An armed clash erupted last February 20 when a group described by Army officials as “an amalgam of foreign and local terrorist” organizations harassed a military camp belonging to the AFP’s 51st Infantry Battalion in Barangay Bayabao, Butig in Lanao del Sur. The attack spilled over to a nearby village in Barangay Poktan in the same municipality.
In a press release from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, MILF spokesperson Von Al Haq said they “received reports that the group that harassed the military in Butig called themselves members of the ISIS.” The ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
While reports vary as to the number of families affected and displaced from the ongoing conflict, Ameruddin Usman, member of the MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) designated in the Lanao region said that “around 500 families were evacuated and secured in Barangay Sandab. Others went to their respective relatives in the other barangays away from the encounter site.”
Usman said Barangay Sandab has been declared as an evacuation area.
The mechanisms involved in securing Barangay Sandab as an evacuation center and in preventing the clash from affecting other areas are the GPH and MILF joint CCCH, Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), International Monitoring Team (IMT), Local Monitoring Team (LMT) of Lanao del Sur and the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Post (JCMP) in Barangay Nanagon, Lumbayanagi, Lanao del Sur.
The head of the GPH-CCCH Secretariat Carlos Sol, Jr. said that the barangay was equipped to ensure the safety and comfort of the evacuees. “There are facilities. There are schools, and other houses where the evacuees could go for temporary shelters.”
Sol said that through the ceasefire arrangement with the MILF, members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF-MILF) in the area were immediately informed and repositioned to prevent a misencounter between the military and the MILF.
“Because of the intervention of the ceasefire mechanisms, members of the MILF in and around the encounter site repositioned. They repositioned to give the government forces the freedom to pursue operations against the lawless group.” (davaotoday.com)
