EMBOLDENED by President Aquino’s kid gloves treatment of their earlier massacre of 19 Army Special Forces troops, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels continued their rampage on Sunday attacking soldiers and civilians in two separate incidents in Lanao del Norte and Basilan, killing a total of eight soldiers and civilians and wounding 11 others.

The spate of attacks on government troops and civilians happened just five days after members of the MILF’s 114th Base Command, headed by fugitive Laksaw Dan Asnawi, and Abu Sayyaf bandits mowed down Special Forces troops in Al-Barka, Basilan, on Tuesday and it came while the military was still in the state of mourning over the loss of its elite members.

Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz, Army commander, said tappers of the Tumahubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Inc. Development Cooperative (TARBIDC) were ambushed by the MILF at about 5:30 a.m. on Sunday at Sitio Along-Along, which is in between Barangays Upper Cabengbeng and Sapah Bulak in Sumisip, Basilan, which resulted in the death of five civilians, including an off-duty militiaman.

Ortiz identified the fatalities as Fernando Tantalo, Renato Aligay, Junrel Langugon, Delord Johnson and Buenavetura Lagamay.

Eight others were wounded during the attack. They were identified as Alfredo Roxas, Danilo Tonghay, Adzar Madjakin, Abdul Mot, Julibert Dingkong, Francisco Taklindo and militiamen Bonifacio Dagodog Jr. and Gilbert Guevarra.

Ortiz said the ambush was perpetrated by more than 40 MILF fighters under Hassan Asnawi, a claim that was confirmed by the National Police through its spokesman, Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr.

More than five hours later, a convoy of soldiers headed by Lt. Col. Bagnus Gaerlan, 51st Infantry Battalion commander, was ambushed at Barangay Payong, Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte, that initially resulted in the death of three soldiers and the wounding of three others.

Gaerlan and his convoy were traversing the Tukuran-Parang Road when they were fired upon by armed men.

Col. Ricardo Visaya, 104th Infantry Brigade commander, who dispatched a platoon of soldiers that was backed by armored vehicles as reinforcements, said Gaerlan was on his way to visit his troops when they were ambushed.

Maj. Harold Cabunoc, acting Army spokesman, said while the MILF has no declared areas of temporary stay in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, its forces are roaming around Barangay Payong and its adjacent barangays.

Meanwhile, Cruz said more than 200 MILF fighters have occupied the elementary school building and compound in Barangay Bolingan, Talusan, Zamboanga Sibugay, as of Sunday following their attack on another barangay in the town a day earlier.

On Saturday afternoon more than 80 MILF members swooped down on Barangay Samonte, Talusan, and although they were engaged by members of the civilian volunteer organization in the area in a gun battle, they managed to overran the small number of volunteers.

Cruz said after the attack, the separatist rebels occupied and destroyed some parts of the elementary school in Barangay Samonte and took two heads of cattle and other properties of the residents.

The attacking forces later moved toward the boundary of Barangay Mual Bual in Talusan and Barangay Maitim in Olutanga.

“Troopers from the RPSB 9 [Regional Public Safety Battalion 9], Talusan police station and troops from the 10th Infantry Battalion are now deployed in the area to address the situation,” Cruz said on Sunday.

The series of attacks committed by the MILF against government forces and civilians in Mindanao came after Mr. Aquino ordered the military during a command conference on Friday at Camp Aguinaldo to lodge a protest against the group over its ambush of the Special Forces troops rather than ordering the Army to go after those responsible for the carnage.

Just an hour after the end of the command conference attended by Mr. Aquino in Camp Aguinaldo on Friday, MILF rebels attacked troops in Alicia, Zamboanga Sibugay, killing three soldiers and wounding six others.

Several hours later, MILF guerrillas ambushed a joint police and Army patrol in Kabasalan in the same province, killing four policeman and wounding a soldier.