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BARMM leadership seeking closure to Basilan Army-MILF clash

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The chief minister of the Bangsamoro region wants representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the government to jointly determine the real intricacies of last week’s Army-MILF clash in Sumisip, Basilan that left two soldiers dead and hurt 12 others.

Two members of the MILF were also reportedly killed in the encounter in Barangay Cabengbeng in Sumisip, one of the 11 towns in Basilan, a component province of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

BARMM's chief minister, Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, was quoted in radio reports in Cotabato City on Saturday, February 1, as saying that there are procedures in addressing such issues, set by government and MILF peace brokers during the early stage of the peace talks by both sides. 

He said the government and MILF’s Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Ad-Hoc Joint Action (AHJAG) can best resolve the misunderstandings and clear out speculations on the incident.

“There are mechanisms set by the MILF and the government on how both sides are to handle such issues,” Ebrahim, chairman of the front’s central committee, told reporters.

The erstwhile rebel front has two compacts with the government, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro that paved the way for the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered now MILF-led BARMM.

Local executives in Basilan and officials of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade had earlier said that it was members of the MILF that attacked a team from the 32nd Infantry Battalion, then moving out of Barangay Cabengbeng to supposedly help facilitate an engagement of representatives of the United Nations Development Programme with the local communities.

Army officials said the UNDP representatives reportedly changed their itinerary for a reason and proceeded to another barangay instead, prompting the Army team dispatched to Barangay Cabengbeng to pull out and was attacked while on its way to the exact location of the visiting international humanitarian workers.  

Two members of the 32nd IB, Cpl. Orland

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