CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 8 February)—More than three dozen Special Forces soldiers earlier detained for more than 25 hours in Lanao del Sur by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were released late Wednesday afternoon.
Col. Michele Anayron Jr., commander of the 403rd Infantry Brigade, said the soldiers belonging to the Army’s 1st Special Forces Battalion were released after the arrival of the government and MILF Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) in Maguing town, Lanao del Sur Wednesday.
The MILF earlier “put on hold” the soldiers after they strayed close to the MILF’s 103rd Base Command in Barangay Dilimbayan, also in Maguing town, around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The soldiers—three Special Forces teams—have just raided a nearby camp of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) Sub-regional Committee 5 and were going home when they strayed close to the perimeter of the MILF camp, Anayron said.
Maguing shares borders with the municipalities of Talakag and Kalilangan of Bukidnon, which has a strong NPA presence.
“The soldiers are also safe and have gone back to their headquarters. We used the peace mechanisms to effect their release,” Anayron explained.
The government and the MILF signed a peace agreement in 2014, ending the decades-old insurgency and paved the way for the creation of a new autonomous entity, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
But more than 20 years ago, the government and the MILF already have agreements that resulted in the creation of the GPH-MILF Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), bodies that facilitate coordination to avoid misencounter between government troops and MILF forces.
Anayron said the delayed release of the soldiers was due to the late arrival of the government and MILF CCCH teams in Barangay Dilimbayan.
He said the government CCCH team led by Brig. Gen. Eduardo Gubat arrived at the MILF camp before lunch Wednesday while the MILF team led by its chair, Butch Malang, arrived around 2 p.m.
“After a short talk, the soldiers were released and allowed to leave the MILF camp,” Anayron said.
Malang earlier coordinated with Gubat on what to do with the detained soldiers in barangay Dilimbayan.
“In this regard, we would like to seek your recommendation with regard to the proper handling of the said 39 soldiers in reference to existing ceasefire protocols,” Malang said in his note to Gubat.
Malang also said it was improper to say that MILF troops disarmed the government soldiers, but it was just a request to lay down the firearms as negotiations were being held.
Gubat, on the other hand, said “it was just a procedural gesture” when asked about the case of disarming the government soldiers.
He said the issue was that “coordination has not reached to the very grassroots, though efforts at the top level were coordinated.” (Froilan Gallardo, with reports from Ferdinandh Cabrera / MindaNews)
Maguing, Lanao del Sur. Map courtesy of Google Maps
