(1st UPDATE) Brigadier General Eduardo Gubat, the chairman of the government's Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, says the reported disarming of the soldiers is merely a 'procedural gesture'
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – More than three dozen Army soldiers held by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Lanao del Sur for a day were freed following negotiations on late Wednesday afternoon, February 8.
Colonel Michele Anayron Jr., the commander of the Army’s 403rd Brigade, said the soldiers belonging to the 1st Special Forces Battalion were released after members of the government’s and MILF’s coordinating committees on the cessation of hostilities went to Maguing town, Lanao del Sur.
The soldiers were held by the MILF after they strayed close to the Front’s 103 Base Camp in Barangay Delimbayan in Maguing town at around 4:30 pm on Tuesday, February 7.
Officials said the soldiers, in three Special Forces teams, had just raided a nearby rebel camp of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) and were returning to their base when they strayed close to the MILF camp in Delimbayan.
“The soldiers are safe and have gone back to their headquarters. We used the peace mechanisms to effect their release,” Anayron told Rappler on Wednesday night.
He said the soldiers were not released immediately because it took time for members of the coordinating committees to reach Delimbayan.
Anayron said the government team led by Brigadier General Eduardo Gubat arrived before lunch while the MILF committee members led by Butch Malang arrived around 2 pm on Wednesday.
“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 soldiers who were being held in Delimbayan.
“We would like to seek your recommendation with regard with the proper handling of the said 38 soldiers in reference to existing ceasefire protocols,” read Malang’s note to Gubat earlier.
The Lanao del Sur police reported there were 39 soldiers, not 38, who were held for hours by the MILF.
For more than 24 hours since Tuesday afternoon, tension gripped Lanao del Sur because of the incident.
As of 4 pm on Wednesday, negotiations for the release of the soldiers were still ongoing, said Lanao del Sur police spokesperson Major Alvison Mustapha.
Officials said the incident was the result of a lack of coordination between the Army’s Special Forces and the MILF which could have led to a repeat of the bloody Mamasapano encounter in Maguindanao in 2015 had it not been for cooler heads and the ongoing peace process.
Malang, the chairman of the MILF’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, said Bangsamoro parliament member Marjanie Mimbantas-Macasalong and ceasefire mechanism committee personnel had gone to the area to resolve the issue.
Gubat, the chairman of the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, had earlier described the situation and the reported disarming of the soldiers as a “procedural gesture.”
Malang, for his part, said the soldiers were merely “requested” to lay down their firearms, and “not disarmed.”
Gubat said the lack of coordination at the grassroots level, despite efforts at the top level, led to the incident.
He said the soldiers went there because the military was continuously on the move against various threat groups in the Lanao provinces, including communist rebels and terror organizations.
The government and MILF have forged a political settlement, and the peace process has been a work in progress. The agreement ended the decades-old armed conflict that paved the way for the creation of a new entity, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The decommissioning of former rebels has been one of the still unresolved issues.
https://www.luwaran.com/news/article/2541/milf-frees-39-soldiers-in-lanao-del-sur-after-24-hours
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