THE military on Sunday unleashed its might on Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels who refused to leave 13 barangays in North Cotabato that they had taken by force from Christian residents and have occupied since last month.

The offensive, though still tempered despite the support of armored vehicles, was fired off by a clash in barangay Baliki, in Midsayap town, at past 8 a.m. It was followed by separate firefights in the other barangays of Pikit, Aleosan, Pigkawayan and Libungan.

North Cotabato Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol confirmed that four soldiers were wounded in the clashes in Aleosan and in Pikit. However, the military only confirmed two and said they are members of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

The offensive, termed by the Armed Forces as “clearing operations,” was taken against the more than 800 members of the MILF 105 Base Command under Commander Umbra Kato, two days after the expiration of the government’s 24-hour ultimatum issued on Thursday for them to leave the occupied areas.

“With the defiance of the MILF base command to pull out from illegally occupied areas in North Cotabato, the group has degenerated into a plain bandit group and considered as a lost command. As such, today, the government forces launched clearing operations in certain barangays in North Cotabato as a due course for law enforcement without necessarily being constrained by the cease-fire agreement,” Brig. Jorge Segovia, officer in charge of the Armed Forces command center, told reporters on Sunday.

“The cease-fire agreement cannot be binding on any group outside the MILF organization when such group is committing unlawful acts. The clearing operation that we are undertaking is not directed [at] the MILF as an organization but against a group that defies the rule of law and continues to neglect the decision of the government and the MILF leadership to vacate unlawfully occupied areas in North Cotabato,” he added.

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THE military on Sunday unleashed its might on Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels who refused to leave 13 barangays in North Cotabato that they had taken by force from Christian residents and have occupied since last month.

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