GUNS have been silent in the past four days in Mindanao provinces where government forces are hunting rogue members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the military said yesterday.

The absence of any "significant" encounter could mean the secessionist rebels are reassessing their position on the conflict with the realization that they could not sustain fighting with pursuing troops, said Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, chief of the AFP public information office.

Torres said the four-day silence is the longest since August 10 when government forces began flushing out MILF rebels from 15 barangays they occupied in North Cotabato. There was no such silence even during the month-long Ramadan last September, he said.

The military launched full-scale offensives against the renegade MILF rebels on August 18 after the rebels attacked Iligan City and several towns in Lanao del Norte, leaving 28 civilians dead.

Targets of the offensive are commanders Ameril Umbra Kato, leader of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, Bravo of the 102nd, and Aleem Pangalian of the 103rd base command.

The military has been saying that the rebels’ capability has been severely degraded by the military offensive.

The last encounter to be recorded between the soldiers and the rogue rebels was in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao. The clash left nine rebels and a soldier dead.