Fire breaks out in Sta. Barbara, one of the areas where pitched battles continued at the weekend between State forces and the MNLF. ERWIN MASCARINAS, INTERAKSYON.COM
As members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) torched more houses and buildings while retreating from advancing security forces in Zamboanga City, Mayor Isabelle Climaco Salazar said the perpetrators of the crisis are fully accountable for the lives lost and the city's destruction, and hoped the "full force of the law" would fall on their heads.
She urged residents to keep praying "our nightmare would end."
At a briefing called by the local crisis committee Sunday afternoon, representatives of a Muslim association in Zamboanga also denied having called a jihad, and stressed that the Muslim residents are in complete harmony with the local government and with Christians.
Officials also appealed to parties spreading rumors about supply shortages, saying they should not fan people's fears, or lay down the pretext for hoarding or profiteering.
Commerce was reported to have normalized in several key areas of the bustling city by weekend, especially for traders of basic supplies.
Casualty count rising
As of Sunday afternoon, the military said the MNLF has already suffered 51 dead and 19 of them were either captured or surrendered. On the government side, the number of fatalities remained at 6 and 59 wounded.
Relatedly, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Loreta Ann Rosales praised government forces for giving paramount consideration to the safety of hostages in the conduct of “calibrated operations.”
Rosales said in her Twitter account: “We congratulate [our] brave policemen and soldiers in containing [the] MNLF rampage under International Humanitarian Laws (IHL)/Human Rights (HR) guidelines. You make us proud!”
Mayor Climaco-Salazar described the situation as “heartbreaking and upsetting” because of the destruction brought about by the “war for independence” being waged by Misuari and his loyalists. Pitched battles broke out anew over the weekend after a short-lived cease-fire brokered by Vice President Binay that took effect Saturday midnight was broken by fresh fighting.
The mayor called on Zamboanga residents to "keep praying" so that "our nightmare" would end.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said hundreds of houses, buildings and structures were being torched by the rebels in Sta. Catalina and Sta. Barbara.
3 bodies found
On Sunday morning, authorities recovered two dead MNLF rebels – a man and a woman – and another dead MNLF male fighter was also recovered in Sta. Barbara after government forces flushed out the rebels in several minutes of firefight at the Sta. Barbara Elementary School.
Four MNLF members – two men and two women – were also captured in Sta. Catalina. “Our operations are continuous and we’re gaining ground. We’re pushing forward to some areas they held and hopefully we will retake them soon,” Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, head of the military’s public affairs office, said.
Zagala added they were “looking [at] a speedy conclusion, but again we don’t want to use speed as our basis. It must be calibrated because there are hostages. Hindi tayo nagmamadali [We are not rushing]. Our focus is really for the hostages not to be hurt, ‘yun ang importante [that is important],” he added.
According to the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) led by Climaco-Salazar, four more hostages, including two children, were able to escape Sunday morning from their MNLF captors.
President Benigno Aquino III was still in the city to personally supervise the military operations against the MNLF.
Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II said the President is giving orders to ground commanders.
Also with him are Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Emmanuel Bautista, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Alan Purisima, among others.
The CMC said close to 70,000 evacuees continue to cram evacuation centers, and DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said there are enough supplies for food, water and other basic things for the evacuees.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/70756/nightmare-goes-on--more-dead-more-houses-burned-in-zambo
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