BIFF shoots 1, carts farm animals in latest NCotabato attacks

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  - Members of the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) gunned down a farmer and carted away more than a dozen water buffaloes in separate attacks on two farming districts in Midsayap at dawn Monday, police said.

The bandits first raided farming enclaves in Barangay Baliki at the southwestern part of Midsayap, located in the first district of North Cotabato, and shot houses with assault rifles, provoking a running firefight with armed villagers and civilian volunteers.

The clash ended when the bandits scampered away after sensing that responding soldiers from nearby detachments of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion were approaching.

The fleeing bandits collected farm animals of villagers as they repositioned to nearby Barangay Palomugin, also in Midsayap, where they also took more than a dozen villagers they used as  shields to forestall any police and military pursuit.

The bandits shot dead a farmer, initially identified only as Reynaldo, apparently to intimidate and force their captives into joining them while fleeing to the marshy border of Midsayap and Datu Piang town in Maguindanao.

The gunmen eventually set their hostages free as they reached a swampy area that connects to river that straddles the border of the two provinces.

The Midsayap municipal police said all villagers that were taken by the bandits have been accounted for and that these villagers have returned home.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said all of soldiers are still in pursuit of the BIFF bandits, last seen fleeing toward a portion of the Liguasan Delta in the second district of Maguindanao.