Fighting erupts as BIFF attacks N. Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – Four soldiers and four rebels were killed while hundreds of residents were displaced from their homes here yesterday when members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) attacked five barangays in Midsayap.

About 300 Muslim rebels opposed to peace talks with the government stormed the villages and engaged government troops.

The armed men reportedly took 15 hostages, including four public school teachers from the elementary school in barangay Pulumugen and 11 farmers.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the 15 villagers were held for more than 10 hours and released through the intercession of local officials in nearby barangay Malingaw.

“They were held hostage and used as human shields. All of the 15 hostages, three of them public school teachers, have all been accounted for and reunited with their families,” Hermoso said.

He said four soldiers, two of them from the 7th Infantry Battalion and two others from the 40th Infantry Battalion, were killed in clashes with the bandits.

A soldier, who was wounded in the ensuing encounters, was rushed to a hospital at Midsayap town proper.

Hermoso said the freed hostages confirmed that they saw four dead rebels when they were released in the irrigation dike in Malingaw.

He said the rebels fled towards Maguindanao after they released the villagers.

Government troops continued pursuit operations, firing 105 howitzer cannons and 81 MM mortar projectiles on the rebel position.

Midsayap Mayor Romeo Araa, chairman of the municipal peace and order council, said many of the villagers trapped in the crossfire opted to hide in rice fields and irrigation dikes.

Over 60 teachers and students of an elementary school in barangay Malingaw, Midsayap were trapped in the school building while government forces and the rebels clashed.

Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, Philippine National Police Public Information Office chief, denied that the BIFF guerrillas held hostage 12 teachers and 50 students. “For information, (there is) no hostage-taking in barangay Malingaw,” said Sindac, quoting Midsayap police chief Superintendent Renante delos Santos. Sindac said Delos Santos and Malingaw barangay chairman Esmael Tamalla informed Senior Superintendent Danilo Peralta, Cotabato police director, that the teachers and about 50 pupils of Malingaw Elementary School were caught in the firefight.

Hermoso, however, said the withdrawing rebels numbering about 300 split into several groups and took the teachers and villagers in Sitio Mirasol in Barangay Pulumugen to be used as human shields. 

Capt. Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade which has jurisdiction over Midsayap and surrounding North Cotabato towns, confirmed that two BIFF bandits were killed while four others were wounded in the firefights in an open field in Pulumugen. 

The violence came as security forces cleared Zamboanga City of a separate band of rebels belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) faction of Nur Misuari that took more than 100 civilians hostage last Sept. 9 after they were repulsed by government forces. 

In the Zamboanga clashes, 11 civilians have been killed and 70 others wounded, while government forces suffered 14 killed and 143 wounded.

Some 96 rebels were killed while 99 were captured and 24 others surrendered as the fighting entered its third week yesterday. 

About 40 rebels holding around 20 hostages were still holed up in two coastal communities in Zamboanga, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala. 

Zagala said that government officials were negotiating for the release of the remaining hostages.

Hermoso said the attackers in North Cotabato belong to the BIFF, a breakaway faction the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that has signed a peace agreement in exchange for autonomy for minority Muslims in Mindanao. 

Hermoso said five groups of BIFF bandits under Abbas Kudanding and Commander DM initially attacked an outpost of militiamen in barangay Rangaban, and subsequently maneuvered towards barangays Tugal, Pulumugen and Malingaw, provoking hostilities with armed villagers, militiamen and soldiers.

Soldiers pounded rebel positions with howitzer cannons and 81 mm mortar projectiles.

Pulumugen barangay chairman Efren Hachuela said the bandits attacked from two directions and fired assault rifles and 40 mm grenades at villages, sending dozens of residents running for their lives.

“Our civilian volunteers and soldiers from the 40th Infantry Battalion immediately engaged them in running firefights. They failed to penetrate deeper into our barangay,” Hachuela said.

BIFF spokesman Abu Misry Mama admitted the involvement of their forces in the Midsayap hostilities was part of their continuing campaign against government troops deployed in isolated areas in Central Mindanao.

“We are at war with government so this is expected to happen,” Misry said.

He said their group’s central leadership has a standing order for BIFF members to refrain from using villagers as human shields.

“We are not holding a single villager hostage,” Misry pointed out.

Misry said their attacks in Midsayap have no connection with the MNLF operations in Zamboanga City.

He denied that the BIFF had joined forces with the MNLF faction of Misuari.  “Our tactical activities in North Cotabato are absolutely independent from the actions of Misuari’s followers in Zamboanga City,” Misry said. – With Edith Regalado, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jaime Laude, AP