Alleged militants take over village

Mindanao: About 200 families fled when 300 armed rebels seized a rice-producing village in the southern Philippines recently, a local government leader said in a belated report.

Some 300 heavily armed men, believed to be members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), arrived in Sangay village on Tuesday and told the farmers and residents that they have lost the land they inherited from their forefathers, said Mayor Roland Garcia of Kalamansig.

The residents had identified the armed men, adding they were led by MILF renegade commander Boyet from Kulong-Kulong village in Palembang, also in Sultan Kudarat Province, said Mayor Garcia.

The families that lost their village were resettled in a hastily established evacuation centre in Poblacion, Garcia said. The local government unit asked soldiers and policemen to stay on the periphery of the village. "We were careful that clashes would not erupt because of the ceasefire agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF," said Garcia.

The presence of armed men inside the village and the government security forces outside could result in fatal clashes, warned Garcia. "We are trying to pacify everybody and resolve the problem."

Meanwhile, Eid Kabalu, a spokesman of the MILF, said that MILF leaders were sent to the affected village to find out what really happened and who was responsible for the attack.

"We have not received the report yet," said Kabalu. The Philippine government and the MILF have been holding peace talks since 1997. Negotiations ended last year when they could not agree on how to expand the proposed autonomous region.