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Army commander Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino vowed yesterday that “significant developments” would occur in the military campaign in Sulu before he retires on Aug. 24. “I will see what I can do within 10 days… after that I still have to go back to Manila to prepare for my retirement,” he said. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said the Army headquarters was temporarily moved to Zamboanga City so Tolentino could personally supervise the military operations in Sulu against the Abu Sayyaf, particularly the band of Radullan Sahiron, Albader Parad and Abu Pula. “We would like to assure the family of our comrades who died in Sulu recently that they should not worry, we will not let their sacrifices go to waste, we will continue to pursue the Abu Sayyaf and the rogue MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) bandits so that we can end terrorism,” Torres said. Tolentino, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 on Aug. 24, said the 10-day period is not a self-imposed deadline. “It is not practical to have deadlines in our operations,” he said. “There would be significant results in 10 days."
President Arroyo ordered Tolentino to temporarily move the Army headquarters from Fort Bonifacio in Makati to Zamboanga City. Torres said Mrs. Arroyo ordered the Army to give priority to the logistics, administrative and personnel support to front-line troops in Basilan and Sulu. “There can be slight changes in the normal functions of the Army headquarters,” he said. “As I earlier said, his experience, his knowledge and assets of our commanding general may be used because he has been in the area for a long time so that the solution of the problem against terrorism in the area would be hastened.” Torres said Tolentino and some members of his staff have already flown to Jolo yesterday to supervise operations against the terrorists. Tolentino will oversee the theater of operations in Basilan and Sulu in place of area commanders, he added. Torres said with Tolentino in Mindanao, provisions for the troops would be immediate, instead of having to pass through the usual channels. “It will go direct to the commanding general whatever it is, in terms of personnel, logistics or anything to support the operations there and at the same time because our commanding general has long operated there since he was junior officer, and when he became brigade commander in the province of Sulu, his experience, knowledge and his assets can be used so that we can hasten the solution to the problem and run after the terrorists,” he said. Torres said the Army will focus on field operations to easily identify the enemy. “We know that they are elusive, it’s just like we are fighting a faceless enemy because our enemy here, the face that we only know are their senior leaders referring to the Abu Sayyaf members, but their men in rank, none, we don’t have their faces so they easily blend with the populace, with the community, so now that we have initiated contact, we have to sustain the operations so that there will be an end, we are hoping, we are doing our best to finish off the Abu Sayyaf,” he said. Teodoro, Esperon arrive in Jolo Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon landed in Jolo at dawn yesterday to meet military field commanders to plan a bigger offensive against the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Abu Sayyaf. Speaking to troops upon his arrival, Esperon warned the rebels to surrender or face punitive action. Esperon and Teodoro visited wounded soldiers and attended the funeral of 19 of the 25 slain soldiers under the 33rd Infantry Battalion at Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Camp Don Basilio Navarro, Zamboanga City. Armed Forces public information chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said Teodoro, Esperon and Tolentino later flew to Basilan. Esperon confirmed yesterday that a “rogue MNLF faction” are “colluding” with the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in fighting the military in Sulu. “We have seen some proof that there is collusion (with) the other breakaway elements of the MNLF,” he said. Esperon said the military is looking at the extent of the collaboration between the Abu Sayyaf and the rogue MNLF faction. However, as a whole, the AFP maintains the peace agreement with the MNLF, he added. In a report to Malacañang, Esperon said wanted JI bombers Dulmatin and Umar Patek have been sighted in four clashes with the MNLF in Parang, Indanan and Maimbung towns in Sulu. between Aug. 7 and 9. “The terrorists are in the territory of the MNLF,” he said. “The Abu Sayyaf and Dulmatin and Umar Patek. They were sighted in that area.” MNLF seeks truce As 1,000 more troops arrived in Jolo to reinforce 5,000 on the front, the MNLF called on Malacañang yesterday to suspend all military offensives in Sulu and pursue the long-stalled tripartite meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on security problems besetting the areas covered by the Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement. Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, MNLF secretary-general, said discussing the security issues and concerns in Sulu, MNLF’s birthplace, is less costly and far from being bloody. “The MNLF has never turned its back (on) the GRP-MNLF peace accord, despite the seemingly recurring MNLF-military encounters, so it is sensible to iron out the peace and order problems in Sulu and other parts of Mindanao through peaceful dialogue,” he said. On the other hand, Sulu Rep. Yusoph Jikiri, MNLF military wing chief, appealed to the Armed Forces to exhaust all peaceful means before embarking on extensive tactical maneuvers that could displace thousands of civilians. In an e-mail to media in Central Mindanao, MNLF founder Nur Misuari, who is under house arrest in Quezon City for rebellion, said he is sending a seven-man team to Jakarta, Indonesia to convince Indonesian President Susilo “Bambang” Yudhoyono to help facilitate the tripartite meeting at the Organization of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) headquarters in Jeddah. Indonesia is a member of the OIC’s Ministerial Committee of the Eight, a group of Muslim countries that helped implement the Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement between the Ramos administration and the MNLF. Misuari had earlier asked OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ishanuglo to hold the tripartite meeting in Jeddah and not give in to Indonesia’s offer to host the event in Jakarta. Sema, Jikiri, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Assemblyman Hatimal Hassan have asked the OIC to intervene on the Sulu conflict. The OIC, a pan-Islamic group of 58 countries, including the petroleum-exporting Arab nations in the Middle East, helped broker the government-MNLF peace pact. ‘MNLF, Abu Sayyaf are allies’ Col. Anthony Supnet, Army brigade commander in Jolo, said the MNLF is giving refuge to the Abu Sayyaf. “The terrorists are in the territory of the MNLF: the Abu Sayyaf and Dulmatin and Umar Patek,” he said. “They were sighted in that area.” Supnet said among the rebels hiding with the MNLF forces were Dulmatin —who goes by one name —and Patek “Our troops would continue to hunt the terrorists even though the MNLF and Abu Sayyaf had broken up into smaller groups and scattered into the hinterlands,” he said. Supnet said the military operation would continue despite the deaths of the soldiers. “We have a price to pay and we cannot hide our casualties, unlike the opposition,” he said. “We won’t stop until we get these high value targets.” Dulmatin and Patek are accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. The Abu Sayyaf and the JI have been linked by Philippine and foreign intelligence services to the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Osama bin Laden. The military estimates the Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for some of the country’s worst terrorist attacks, has no more than 400 well armed guerrillas. Some Abu Sayyaf leaders are acting as right-hand men of rogue MNLF commanders while rogue MNLF fighters are acting as henchmen of Abu Sayyaf leaders, Supnet said. Thousands fleeing Jolo More than 10,000 people had fled their homes in the towns of Maimbung, Indanan and Parang in Sulu, for fear of getting caught in the crossfire, said Amilhabar Amilasan, presidential assistant for Sulu. Government evacuation centers had been set up to house those who fled, he added. Jolo, part of the Sulu archipelago, has been the scene of some of the worst fighting in decades between the military and the MNLF. Joker: Stop hitting AFP Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo criticized his colleagues over the weekend for hitting the military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu. “If they want an inquiry, it should not be done now when the operations are ongoing,” he said. “Even in other countries like the United States, they don’t meddle in the middle of the war.” Arroyo said senators should support rather than attack military officials and soldiers who are trying to solve the security problem in Mindanao. He issued the statement a few days after Sen. Francis Pangilinan lashed out at the military operations in Sulu, where 25 soldiers had died in the fighting. Gordon concerned about Sulu fighting On the other hand, Sen. Richard Gordon has expressed concern over the latest developments in Mindanao, particularly after 20 soldiers were killed in fighting the Abu Sayyaf last week. “While we offer our sympathies to the families of the fallen, we have to look more closely into why our troops are suffering this high level of casualties,” he said. “I believe Congress and the public deserve to know more about the real situation in the South so that appropriate adjustments —whether in policy or program or materiel or logistics —can be made, and better support to our troops can be provided. “If I may offer an unsolicited advice, I suggest that the Commander- in-Chief, joined by leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives, call for a top-level briefing on the situation from the AFP high command and commanders in the field.” Gordon said Malacañang officials and members of Congress should be briefed on know how the government’s policy is really faring in Mindanao and Sulu. “This is not a question of assigning blame or pointing fingers,” he said. “This is just a matter of how we can all pull together for the improvement of the situation in the South.” —with Roel Pareño, John Unson, Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, AFP
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