Army gives 'green light' for North Cotabato, Maguindanao IDPs to return home

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 23): Army gives 'green light' for North Cotabato, Maguindanao IDPs to return home

PIKIT, North Cotabato -- Police and military authorities have recommended the return of civilians displaced by atrocities between Moro armed groups in communities in the borders of Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

Capt. Joanne Petinglay, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said elements of the 7th Infantry Battalion were also deployed in the villages of Kabasalan, Bulol, Buliok and Barongis, all in Pikit town to secure the civilians and prevent the entry of outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) from the Liguasan marshland.

"Our troops will protect the civilians when they return home, our Army field officials are now coordinating with the local officials to help the displaced families return home," Petinglay said, adding that Army bomb experts have cleared the villages, occupied by BIFF for about a week, from unexploded ordnance.

According to Tahira Kalatongan, Pikit municipal disaster risk reduction and management council officer, some internally displaced persons (IDPs) have already returned home but some said they were greeted by torched houses in Barangay Kabasalan.

Lt. Colonel Audie Edralin, 7th IB commander, has offered the local government of Pikit, Army vehicles to transport the civilians back to their communities.

"Many have started to return home while others prefer to wait a day or two before moving back home," Kalantongan said, adding that there's no "forced return" of evacuees.

"We wait until they decide to return home, maybe tomorrow or next day they will move back to their communities," she said in Filipino.

Meanwhile, police authorities in North Cotabato remained on alert amid pronouncement by BIFF spokesperson it is plotting to attack the provincial capitol or Kidapawan City.

According to Senior Supt. Danilo Peralta, North Cotabato police provincial director, said the BIFF, a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is the leading threat to the people of North Cotabato because of its brutality and violent tendencies by attacking non-combatants and by setting off bombs against civilians.

Peralta said police and Army intelligence operatives said the BIFF members were monitored redeploying their forces, re-building firearms and logistics and showing of force.

It was also working as mercenaries of huge Muslim clan locked in family feud with other Moro families in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

The group, Army and police intelligence information showed, was believed to be coddling international terrorists, including Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias "Marwan" and other Indonesian terrorists who belonged to Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

It has about 1,000 armed followers.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=738204