Thousands flee on third day of Philippine rebel siege

Wednesday, Sep 11, 2013

Zamboanga: Thousands of residents fled as fighting between Philippine troops and Muslim rebels intensified on Wednesday on the third day of a deadly siege in a key southern city.

At least 13,000 people crammed into Zamboanga city sports stadium seeking safety as soldiers battled gunmen and snipers in nearby deserted neighbourhoods.

People began fleeing on Monday when about 180 Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas seeking to derail peace talks poured into six of the port city’s coastal neighbourhoods.

In the Santa Catalina neighbourhood on Wednesday, Philippine marines traded fire with gunmen who appeared to be using 10 residents on a roadside as human shields.

“We’re trying our best to provide decent facilities for them,” government social worker Beth Dy said while adding that the venue only had four portable toilets and no bedding.

About 5,000 residents from the six communities under siege arrived overnight and some had no choice but to pitch makeshift tents on the grass, Dy said.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, who arrived in the city on Wednesday to run the humanitarian operation, said the numbers at the stadium were growing.

The six communities under siege are home to 160,000 mainly Muslim residents.

The pro-autonomy Filipino-Muslim rebel group called for international mediation to end its takeover of the villages.

The call was prompted by the government’s unilateral decision to end a review, with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), of the implementation of a pro-autonomy peace settlement that the MNLF signed with the Philippine government in 1996, sources said.

“They (leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front) say it’s an international problem and no less than the international community, the UN (United Nations) should come in (to negotiate with them),” Zamboanga Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas said that Climaco was assigned to lead a crisis committee to negotiate and end a standoff which killed 11 people, injured 21, displaced 13,000, and immobilised hundreds of Muslim hostages.

Meanwhile, Abasalom Cerveza, spokesman of MNLF founder Nur Misuari, alternately talked about MNLF’s belligerence and openness to peace talks.

“We would like to see that this situation will come to its fruition at the end of the day. We’re still human beings, we are civilised people. There’s always a chance we will listen to what is reasonable, what is beneficial to the best interest of our people,” Cerveza told ANC, a TV station.

Explaining the reason behind MNLF’s action in Zambonaga, Cerveza said, “The committee of 12 (of the OIC) said they can’t do anything (to reverse the Philippine government’s decision not to continue the review of the implementation of the 1996 Philippine government-MNLF pro autonomy peace accord. We were told that) the government’s action was irrevocable, irreversible and final … What does the Philippine government want (in doing that)? We know what we want, which is to become independent.”

“We’ve been negotiating with the Philippine government for the last 35 years,” said Cerveza, adding, (But now), we’ve begun on the river of no return. There is no solution anymore except for us to liberate the whole of Mindanao.”

On August 12, Misuari declared the independence of Mindanao and the establishment of the Bangsamoro Republik, which includes Mindanao, Palawan in southwestern Philippines and Sabah in Malaysia. He brought his campaign to the UN in New York.

When asked for Misuari’s whereabouts, Cerveza said, “He’s a revolutionary leader. He has to be protected. He’s in a safe place.”

Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin had claimed that Misuari was seriously ill.

Denying that the Philippine government had dropped a review of the implementation of the 1996 peace accord, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles said the government, the OIC and the MNLF were scheduled to hold a meeting in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on September 16.

Meanwhile, sources say the number of evacuees could rise since the affected coastal areas have a population of 160,000.

By Barbara Mae Dacanay Bureau Chief