TUKANALIPAO, Philippines---Farmer Lot Pangaoilan gazes towards a vast cornfield in the Philippines' rebel-infested south, hoping that one day he will be able to farm his land without fear of being killed.
For two decades, he has been ploughing his three-hectare (7.4-acre) land by hand and with the help of a water buffalo, worried that if he uses a heavy motor tractor he might detonate an explosive.
"If I'm not careful, I might hit a bomb... it could explode and I might die," Pangaoilan, whose leathery skin, cloudy eyes and thin frame make him look much older than his 50 years, told AFP.
Two months ago, the farmer's marshland village of Tukanalipao was the site of a day-long battle between Muslim militants and police that left more than 60 people dead as security forces hunted down alleged top terrorists.
The latest carnage has seriously jeopardised efforts to end a four-decade Muslim separatist rebellion which has claimed 120,000 lives, dimming hopes again that people such as Pangaoilan will be able to prosper in peace.
The nation's biggest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), signed a pact last year agreeing to give up its struggle in return for an autonomous homeland in the impoverished southern region of Mindanao.
But the January 25 battle in Pangaoilan's village -- in which 44 police commandoes, 17 rebels and at least three civilians died -- triggered a huge political backlash that threatens the passage of a proposed national law endorsing the autonomous region.
- Deep poverty -
The new region would take in large parts of Mindanao, which the nation's Muslim minority of roughly five million people regard as their ancestral homeland, including Pangaoilan's village.
Despite fertile farming lands, vast mineral resources and idyllic beaches ripe for tourism, the region is the poorest in the country with nearly half of the population living in poverty, according to government data.
Tukanalipao, with no electricity or running water, is a typically impoverished Muslim community in Mindanao.
Its 1,600 residents live in palm thatch houses on wooden stilts, with corn and rice farming their only source of regular income.
Pangaoilan has six children but he was not able to afford to send them to school.
Military chiefs say villages like his make good recruiting grounds for the MILF, which has about 10,000 fighters, and other rebel groups.
In a typical cycle of violence and poverty that builds resentment, a military offensive launched after the January battle against a small breakaway rebel group opposed to the peace process displaced 120,000 people.
AFP
