February 20, 2010 - A direct report from the MILF in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte has revealed that intelligence elements of the AFP deployed in Lanao del Sur have been attempting to stir up clashes between MILF ground forces and the AFP in Lanao del Sur.

The report was directly made to Luwaran field reporters by the 102nd Base Command of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) of the MILF under Commander Bravo Macapaar whose operational command covers Lanao del Norte and parts of Lanao del Sur.

According to the report, military intelligence elements attached to the 64th and 65th Infantry Battalions of the Philippine Army, which are currently deployed in the boundaries of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, have been using civilian assets to approach mujahideen fighters of the MILF 102nd Base Command with offers to provide rice supplies and ammunition provided that the latter launches attacks on AFP positions in barangays Tawaan, Bago-a-Inged and Odalo in the Municipality of Piagapo.

MILF Base Commander Bravo, who became highly suspicious of this strange offer by the Philippine military for the MILF to attack their own AFP camps, have strictly instructed the fighters under his command not fall for this ruse. Orders have been issued to all MILF fighting units in the areas mentioned to stay put and not to succumb to any strange offers or provocations that would jeopardize the ceasefire.

This development comes at a time when a ceasefire between the BIAF and the AFP is in place and the Advance Reconnaissance Team of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) has been conducting a site inspection visit in Mindanao in preparation for the redeployment of the IMT. The IMT, which Malaysia heads, had been withdrawn in 2008 due to the outbreak of widespread fighting following the aborted signing of the MOA-AD.

Meanwhile, a member of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel, who was recently invited by MILF fighting units in the Ranao area for an on-site visit, said that this strange offer by AFP intelligence elements to have their own camps subjected to attack by MILF ground forces indicates that some “sinister hands in the Philippine military and government” are out to provoke another war to implement a “larger hidden agenda” and/or sabotage the redeployment of the IMT this February 2010. This should also be seen, he said, in the context of the looming likelihood that the comprehensive political compact will not be signed between the MILF and the GRP under the exiting Arroyo regime.

The same MILF Peace Panel member strongly suggests that government and the AFP should seriously investigate this matter if they are really sincere in maintaining the ceasefire. It’s either some elements of the AFP opposed to the ceasefire are acting on their own or they could be part of a clandestine conspiracy in the higher circles of government. In either case, he further said, the “MILF will be made to appear as the villain and aggressor, thus, creating a bad impression with the international community. Those people running the Philippine regime, whether in its civilian or military components, never run out of dirty tricks. They can even sacrifice some of their people to justify their sinister ends. But what we cannot allow is for them to use the Bangsamoro people or the MILF. Enough is enough.