Army braces for BIFM atrocities in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Army is ready to thwart any attempt by members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) to stage abductions and other criminal acts to show their displeasure over the peace talks.

Army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc said they are prepared to secure the public from the atrocities of the BIFM, a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“Our soldiers, in cooperation with the local police and even the peaceful citizens in Maguindanao, are ready to defend the communities from harm in case the BIFM insists on using violence to advance its interests,” Cabunoc said in a text message.

Cabunoc was asked to react to reports that the BIFM led by former MILF commander Umbra Kato is planning to kidnap foreign workers of donor agencies and humanitarian groups operating in Central Mindanao.

He said the BIFM rebels should talk peace with the government and should stop conducting illegal activities.

“They (BIFM members) must emulate their brothers in the MILF who have opted to forge peace with the government,” Cabunoc said.

“We have opened the doors of reconciliation to the BIFM and asked them to give peace a chance,” he added.

Citing intelligence reports, Brig. Gen. Gilberto Jose Roa, chairman of the government ceasefire panel, said the BIFM plans to carry out the kidnappings to sabotage the peace process.

Roa also advised the public to avoid remote areas until the threat from the BIFM has been addressed. He said he has written the government and MILF peace panels about the rebels’ plan.

BIFM broke away from the MILF after the latter pursued the peace talks with the government.

The group consists of former MILF members who attacked civilians in various parts of Mindanao in 2008 after the Supreme Court voided the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.

The agreement would have created a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, which would have expanded the scope of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The new entity would have covered areas presently in Palawan in Luzon, South Cotabato, Zamboanga City, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, and Zamboanga del Sur.

Kato, the former head of the MILF 105th Base Command, is reportedly against the political package offered by the government to the Bangsamoros.

He has criticized the MILF leadership for its alleged revisionist policy in abandoning its original stance of independence.

The BIFM has been demanding for a separate Islamic state while the MILF has been pushing for a sub-state that will still be part of the Philippines.

Last August, BIFM staged successive bloody attacks in various parts of Maguindanao, prompting the military to conduct pursuit operations. The operations have left about 50 BIFM rebels dead and about 25,000 civilians displaced.

The MILF has urged members of the BIFM to return to its fold, saying it “is not a joke or a picnic to start a revolutionary struggle.”

The military said the BIFM has about 400 members.