PNP will do assessment on the illegally occupied areas in North Cotabato if MILF compiled with 24-hour ultimatum

Miami
August 8, 2008
Story: PNP will do assessment on the illegally occupied areas in North Cotabato if MILF compiled with 24-hour ultimatum

The Philippine National Police (PNP) will conduct an assessment in North Cotabato especially in the towns that were allegedly illegally occupied by the Moro Islamic liberation Front (MILF)

On their first press briefing, August 7, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno announced that there are three towns with nine barangays on it that were already occupied by the MILF.

But on the latest record of the PNP there are 14 barangays from five towns that were forcibly occupied by the MILF. These are the barangays of Bago-Libas, Dunggawan, Dualing, and Pagangan of Aleosan. Barangays Cabpangi, Gumaga of Libungan. Barangays Central labas, Patindeguen, Upper labas, Lagumbingan, Rangaban and Baliki of Midsayap. Barangay Cabpangi in Pagkawyan. Barangay Gayonga of Northern Kabuntalan.

On all of the mentioned 14 barangays, only six barangays that were not yet cleared according to Director Silverio Alarcio Jr., chief PNP Directorate for Operations. The six barangays are Dualing, Dunggawan, Gumaga, Central labas, Rangaban and Baliki.

Alarcio said that they are not pampering the MILF because after the 24-hour ultimatum which ended 10:00 am of August 8, after he admitted that their troops deployed in the area have no control yet of the place.

“As of now our troops according to our regional director are within the vicinity then our negotiators are in Aleosan,” Alarcio said.

He also added the reason why they are not yet taking more actions is because of the negotiations, “It's a process of law enforcement there’s a negotiations right now and we do not want that to be interrupted. Final option as far as the use of force is after everything as been done, if there is no hope anymore then we have to use force to enforce the law.”

The negotiation is for the members of MILF who do not want to leave the places they occupied. The PNP believed that everything will be in order within the day. The PNP also is not seeing any reason for the negotiation to be down.

After all the MILF leave the forcibly occupied places, the PNP will conduct assessment on those areas to be lead by Region 12 Police Regional Director Felizardo Serapio, Jr. The PNP will come in the areas after the MILF leave the places to escort the real occupants of the lands.

"I have asked the PNP to escort villagers back to their homes in areas where MILF forces on the ground had already left the occupied communities," Puno said. "In other villages, the PNP will first determine if it is safe for the residents to return and clear these areas if they find out that there are still armed MILF forces occupying them," he added.
Meanwhile, the PNP has been under full alert since August 7, around 7:00 pm as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo left for China for the opening of Beijing Olympics and in the anticipation of spill over of violence of the conflict in Mindanao to other parts of the country like Metro Manila.
“It is our SOP (Standard Operations Procedure) whenever the President left the country we go on full alert,” Alarcio said.

He added, “We have alerted our regional directors even outside metro manila, outside Mindanao to target harden possible targets of terroristic activities. We are anticipating possible violence on the urban centers, because these are usually their targets.”