They can file cases and see if they stick. Access to the most war-torn areas is tightly controlled. Yet a visit to Barrio Sarmiento in central Mindanao with Senate Minority Leader Teofisto Guingona afforded some insight into military methods. The old gateway to the Islamic Front's headquarters at Camp Abubukar, Barrio Sarmiento, presents a scene of devastation - house after house bombed to chip wood and crumpled tin. The green and cream minaret of the village mosque tilts slightly on walls that have been blown in and punched by gunfire.
Massive craters hem the flattened site.
You could fill them with 20 cows and more, somebody says. The Islamic Front's vice-chairman for military affairs did keep an office here, but this barrio was not just a guerrilla stronghold. Amid bits of chewed-up timber, a highchair sits in a pool of mud, a pair of woman's underpants hanging from the front. That allegation is not true. The MILF knew beforehand we would dismantle all bases other than Camp Abubukar.