The number of Filipinos displaced from their homes since fighting began late last week between government forces and Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines reached 130,000 on Monday, officials said. The military and the police sent more troops to fight the rebels.Social welfare officials warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as the fighting between troops and elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which had been confined to two provinces, threatened to spill over to other areas. Local media reported that thousands of residents, the majority of them Muslims, had been fleeing their homes since Friday, many in carts pulled by water buffaloes. Thousands of refugees are housed in more than 40 centers, officials said, but most refugees sought shelter with relatives in other provinces.
As of Monday, officials said two soldiers and at least 15 rebels had been killed in the fighting, which erupted on Thursday after separatist forces refused to vacate nine villages in North Cotabato Province.
The Supreme Court ruled last Tuesday in favor of a petition to prevent the government and the rebel group from signing an agreement that both sides had thought could help end the decades-old separatist war.
| The petition was filed by officials of North Cotabato, who feared that the agreement would allow the rebel group to encroach on Christian territories, a charge that the group and the government denied. |
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the rebels, blamed government-backed militias for the conflict. He said his group had wanted to "reposition its forces" but was attacked by militias opposed to the peace agreement.
The administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been severely criticized for the way it handled the negotiations that led to the agreement. Many officials, including allies of the president as well as Filipino Muslims, have complained that they were not consulted and that details of the agreement were withheld from the public. "The renewed fighting in North Cotabato goes to show that when the government bungles the peace negotiation, it is the citizens who suffer," Risa Hontiveros, a congresswoman, said Monday. "The peace process is turning into a humanitarian mess."
The renewed fighting coincided with elections on Monday in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which comprises seven predominantly Muslim provinces. Officials said the latest voting was largely peaceful, although there were reports of sporadic violence, including the bombing of electric towers in one province.
People escaping the violence fled along a major highway that had been ordered closed to traffic on Sunday after separatists had commandeered a passenger bus. "We are tired, but we have to move on," Farida Dimalangan, a 47-year-old refugee, told MindaNews, a Mindanao news agency.