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Manila demands MILF withdraw within 24 hours

The Philippine government yesterday gave Muslim rebels 24 hours to vacate several southern villages and return about 6,500 displaced Christians to their homes or face attack at a sensitive time for the country’s peace process.

Top military and police officials denied the deadline was a declaration of war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and appealed to the guerrillas to respect the ongoing truce and pull out their forces.

Christian leaders in the southern province of North Cotabato earlier accused government negotiators of neglecting their pleas for help in dealing with MILF rebels, who allegedly stole cattle and burned homes in at least three townships near the front line.

The tensions come at a delicate moment in the peace effort. The government and the rebels were set to sign a preliminary accord expanding an autonomous Muslim region in exchange for ending the insurgency, but the Supreme Court, acting on a petition by Christian politicians, blocked it on Monday.

“We are giving those individuals that forcibly occupied these areas 24 hours to vacate,” Philippine Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said. “Otherwise they shall be forcibly separated from the area.”

Puno said the rebels, who have largely abided by a 2003 truce with government forces, started encroaching on government-held territory last month.

He said up to 800 guerrillas were occupying an unspecified number of villages and farmlands in five townships.

Similar local incidents of land grabbing and cattle rustling have occasionally threatened the ceasefire, but so far have not escalated into any major fighting.

MILF Vice Chairman Ghazali Jaafar said guerrillas had been in the area “for a long time” and denied any incursion.

He promised, however, to withdraw any rebels who may have occupied new positions.

Meanwhile, a radio broadcaster was killed yesterday in the central Philippines, just three days after his colleague was critically wounded in a similar attack.

Martin Roxas, 32, program director at Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), was shot dead just minutes after leaving the station at around 12pm in Roxas city.

“He was aboard a motorcycle and was just 900m away from the station when a gunman shot him in the back of the neck,” RMN radio station manager Ely Abarra said.

Roxas had been a radio commentator for over a decade. His program tackled local politics and police said it was possible he could have been attacked because of his work.

Roxas is the fourth journalist to be killed in the Philippines this year.

Reporters Without Borders has branded the Philippines the second most dangerous place for working journalists outside Iraq.
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