Men of narco leader Mokz Masgal up for prosecution

NORTH COTABATO -- Only 13 of the 42 arrested followers of notorious drug trafficker Mokz Masgal are to be prosecuted for various criminal offenses, officials said Friday.The suspects were arrested in Midsayap, North Cotabato more than a week ago, detained until Thursday at a camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Maguindanao. They are now in the custody of the North Cotabato provincial police.Col. Noly Samarita of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade announced last week, during a joint command conference of the 6th Infantry Division and the Regional Police Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, that the 42 suspects were arrested when they took over Masgal’s enclave in Midsayap early on.Military reports obtained by the and//www.ndbcnews.com.ph/ www.ndbcnews.com.ph indicated that the 42 were all turned over to the MILF for identity verification but only 13 initially turned out as henchmen of the notorious Masgal.Masgal is wanted for narcotics, multiple murder, frustrated murder, cattle theft and armed robbery offenses.Major Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., commander of 6th ID, said Friday the 13 suspects had been turned over, based on the anti-crime and security protocols between the government and the MILF, to the North Cotabato provincial police. We are thankful to the MILF for helping us out on this. The cooperation between the police, the MILF and the units of 6th ID had achieved considerable feats, Galvez said.The joint police-military-MILF operation against Masgal and his men, the first ever in the history of Malacañang’s now 20-year peace overture with the rebel group, was first revealed by Galvez, about two hours after it commenced, to the popular Catholic station dxMS in Cotabato City.MILF sources, who requested anonymity for lack of authority to speak on the issue, said the now detained 13 followers of Masgal have confessed to their involvement in drug trafficking activities. Under our ceasefire agreement with the government, they were turned over to the police for detention and prosecution, said an official of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.Local officials in Maguindanao, among them members of the municipal peace and order councils in Datu Piang, Salibo and Datu Saudi towns had told the and//www.ndbcnews.com.ph/ www.ndbcnews.com.ph that more than 20 other supporters of Masgal have yielded to the group of MILF leader Imam Wahid Tundok. We heard each of them denied, over the Qur’an, the insinuations that they were into drug trafficking. It seems they merely supplied the group with food under `duress’ because there was nothing they can do. They did not want to endanger their lives, a local official said in a text message.Galvez said Masgal and only about five followers remained on the run, now being monitored by MILF informants scattered in the vast 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta. His group was decimated effectively as a result of the police-military-MILF law enforcement operation in Midsayap, Galvez said.He said the well-guarded enclave of Masgal, which he used as takeoff point for his drug distribution activities, had been tactically liberated from his control.Supt. Emmanuel Peralta, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, said corresponding criminal cases will be filed against the 13 followers of Masgal, turned over to them in the presence of officials of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT).The IMT, comprised of military officers from Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia and non-uniformed conflict resolution experts from Japan and Norway, has been helping enforce since late 2003 the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the MILF.The interim security deal enjoins both sides to mutually cooperate in the interdiction of criminals and terrorists in flashpoint areas in Mindanao to ensure the cordiality of the government-MILF peace talks.Peralta said the suspects are to be prosecuted by state prosecutors for various criminal offenses.The operation against the group more than a week ago was jointly supervised by Peralta, MILF leaders, among them Tundok, chief of the MILF’s 118th Base Command, and Samarita.MILF commanders had earlier gathered in its main bastion, Camp Darapanan, 37 village-level drug peddlers from Maguindanao’s adjoining Sultan Mastura and Sultan Kudarat towns.They are now undergoing spiritual reorientation in Camp Darapanan in sessions handled by Islamic preachers after having promised, over the Quran and in the presence of their parents, to change for good.