Three soldiers were killed in an ambush in the southern Philippines on Saturday.
Captain Alberto Caber blamed the Abu Sayyaf group, saying it was trying to spoil the signing later of a peace agreement between the government and another Muslim group on Monday in Manila.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is to sign a blueprint for the creation of an autonomous region by 2016.
Abu Sayyaf is blamed for the bombing of a ferry in 2004 in which more than 100 people were killed in Manila Bay, as well as kidnappings of foreign tourists and missionaries.
