Cotabato City, Philippines - A Philippine Army officer was wounded Wednesday in fresh clashes with Muslim secessionist rebels in the country's south, where 102 people have been killed and nearly 150,000 displaced since last week, a military report said. The fighting erupted when patrolling soldiers encountered about 30 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.
Fighting was ongoing and soldiers were using mortars and howitzers to flush out the rebels, the military report said.
MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim expressed regret over the escalation of hostilities between government troops and the guerrillas.
"We are saddened by the situation now. This is an unexpected situation," he told a Manila television. "We are still optimistic that everybody will cooperate then we can still save the situation, we can still save the peace process."
The military has launched a manhunt for two senior MILF commanders - Ameril Umbra Kato and Abdullah Macapaar, alias Commander Bravo - who are accused of leading the spate of attacks in six provinces in the southern region of Mindanao.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the government was offering 5 million pesos (109,890 dollars) for information that would lead to the arrest of Kato and Bravo.
Murad criticized the move to put bounties on two of his most senior commanders.
"This action of placing rewards on the heads of our commanders, I don't think it will help," he said. "It will only aggravate their frustration, it will only aggravate their outrage."
Murad said the recent attacks by MILF forces are "a result of their frustration" over a failed land deal between the government and the rebel group that would expand an existing six-province autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao.
The attacks escalated shortly after the Supreme Court stopped the signing of a land pact, when Catholic politicians alleged the agreement violated the constitution and would have ceded sovereignty over the southern Philippines to the Muslim rebels.
The high tribunal heard oral arguments over petitions to declare the deal unconstitutional on Monday, but it has yet to issue a ruling.
Major Armand Rico, a regional military spokesman, said authorities were verifying reports that Kato was seriously wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen late Tuesday in Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao.
Kato led hundreds of MILF guerrillas in occupying villages in North Cotabato province last week, which resulted in fierce clashes with government forces that displaced more than 104,000 residents at the height of the hostilities.
Rico said Kato, along with two bodyguards, was allegedly ambushed late Tuesday by unidentified armed men in Kabuntalan.
"As per our report, he was seriously wounded," the army spokesman said. "His men carried him as they escaped."
Commander Bravo, who has been blamed for a series of attacks in the adjacent provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte since Sunday, has denied the allegations lodged against him.
"We don't know who led that group," he said. "We have no plans to sow terror in Mindanao. It is the government of the Philippines that is creating trouble in Mindanao."
The military and police have placed forces on red alert in Mindanao and Manila amid intelligence reports that MILF guerrillas might launch more attacks.
