From GMA News (Feb 23): Cotabato, Maguindanao on alert after arrest of top MILF commander
Security forces in Cotabato City and nearby communities in Maguindanao have been put on alert after a top leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was arrested before dusk on Sunday.
Security forces in Cotabato City and nearby communities in Maguindanao have been put on alert after a top leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was arrested before dusk on Sunday.
Commander Wahid Tundok, chief of the MILF 118th Base Command was arrested by police and Marines at a checkpoint along Matampay Bridge on the strength of a warrant for his arrest on arson and multiple murder charges.
The police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao served the warrant on Tundok.
While searching the black Toyota Hilux pickup truck that Tundok and around seven escorts were in, police found two high-powered firearms that they immediately confiscated.
Tundok was brought to the headquarters of the Army's 6th Infantry Division in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao instead of the CIDG because of heightened tension with Tundok's followers.
"We are just doing our job in law enforcement. I'm just following orders,” said Police Superintendent Jovit Culaway, head of CIDG-ARMM.
But the arrest, and the possible backlash, has alarmed civil society groups like the Bangsamoro Consortium of Just Peace (BCJP).
"We are afraid of the repercussions, the retaliation of the top commander’s followers and the sense of mistrust since they are confident of the peace process mechanisms”, he said.
Tundok came from a meeting at Camp Darapanan, the main MILF camp, in Sultan Kudarat town, and was headed back to his own camp when stopped by authorities.