PRESS Secretary Jesus Dureza yesterday shrugged off insults made Ameril Umbra Kato, commander of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, who appeared in a video posted on YouTube saying the government has run out of ways to find him.

He said Kato’s statements should just be ignored.

Kato, who has a P10 million bounty on his head, led attacks on 15 barangays in North Cotabato in July.

In the video, he said the bounty is proof that the military has run out of options.

The two other commanders subject of the military offensive are Abdulrahman Macapaar alias Bravo, head of the MILF’s 102nd base Command with a P10 million bounty, and Aleem Pangalian, 103rd Base Command, P5 million bounty. They are being held responsible for attacks last month in Iligan City and four towns in Lanao del Norte. The attacks left 28 civilians, three soldiers and a policeman dead.

Dureza said regardless of what Kato is claiming, the government stands by the facts that the rogue commanders and their men were the ones who attacked, burned houses, and killed innocent civilians. These, he said, are crimes against the people.

President Arroyo, at the 107th anniversary of the Office of the Solicitor General Thursday night, reiterated her government is not signing a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain with the MILF.

The August 5 signing of the agreement was stopped by the Supreme Court. The botched signing was among reasons given by MILF leaders to justify the attacks by their ground commanders.

In North Cotabato Thursday, troops defused two landmines believed planted by renegade MILF rebels.

The landmines in Aleosan town were found two days after the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month during which the military limited operations against the three commanders.

Security officials have anticipated more attacks and atrocities to be staged by the rebels with the end of Ramadan last Wednesday.

The first bomb was found by troops from the 40th Infantry Battalion while on combat operation in Sitio Tubak, Pagangan village.

The improvised landmine was set as a booby trap, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr.

It was made of about 10 meters of white fishing nylon as trip wire, improvised electric blasting cap, 9-volt battery, two feet duplex wire, clothespin, thumbtacks, projectile of a rocket-propelled grenade with fuse, and a plastic container of alcohol.

It was defused by members of the 66th and 6th Explosives and Ordnance Detection Team of the Army Support Command.