Government and Moro rebels verification team did not find a single foreign terrorist in the hinterland tri-borders of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon, the military here said Monday.
Composed of representatives from the Army, the police, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, the team returned Sunday to the headquarters of the 603rd Army brigade in Barira, Maguindanao with "negative information" about the reported presence of Jemaah Islamiya in
Army Col. Manuelito Orense, commanding officer of the Army’s 603rd Brigade, said the joint team arrived from a five day mission and reported to him that no traces of JI in the thickly forested area.
"We felt a relief with the findings and we are glad that the verification mission was accomplished," he told reporters.
On Aug 26, the team left the Army brigade camp and walked through the heavily forested route to Mt. Cararao, sometimes using horses and at most by foot.
He said he was elated at the cooperation of the miltiary, police and MILF in validating stories about the alleged presence of foreign terrorists in areas inside the territory of the 603rd Brigade.
Orense said police, Army and MILF used to be hostile at each other that they immediately shot at each other in any single encounter.
"This is one of the dividends of the peace overtures of President Aquino in southern
Brig. Gen. Cesar Dionisio Sedillo, Jr., chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, and a senior MILF official, Benjie Midtimbang, supervised the verification mission.
Both Sedillo and Midtimbang have told reporters that the team did not any single JI or Al-Qaeda member in the hinterland border of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.
The alleged presence of JIs or foreign terrorists in
The joint mission was in accordance with the cessation of hostilities agreement between GPH and the MILF.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=561387
Is anyone surprised that nary a JI terrorist was seen by this "fact-finding" mission?
ReplyDeleteJust another propaganda kabuki dance to demonstrate GRP-MILF counterterrorism cooperation and assuage the concerns of local business and political leaders that the region was being characterized as a haven for international terrorists in recent AFP/PNP statements following the bomb attacks in Cagayan de Oro and Cotabato City.
That's bad for business. Hence the necessity for the fact-find mission to declare that the area is free of international terrorists like Marwan and the JI.