MILF, Kato men clash in Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) clashed yesterday in Maguindanao’s Datu Saudi town, forcing dozens of families to evacuate for fear of their lives.

A villager, Kasan Lauban, was wounded in the crossfire, according to Col. Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Asto said MILF forces and the BIFF led by a certain Commander Daknot, traded shots in Barangay Kitango in Datu Saudi, not far from an evacuation site housing hundreds of families displaced in last month’s bandit attacks in the same town.

Asto said they received intelligence reports that certain barangay officials in Barangay Kitango aided the BIFF bandits.

The two groups accidentally met in Sitio Maligaya.

The firefight ended after a senior MILF commander, Wahid Tundok, arrived at the scene and pacified the two groups.

Witnesses confirmed seeing retreating BIFF bandits carrying at least five of their wounded companions.

Members of the Datu Saudi municipal peace and order council said certain commanders of the BIFF and the MILF have long been squabbling for control of patches of lands in Barangay Kitango and nearby farming enclaves in the adjoining towns of Salibo and Datu Piang, both in Maguindanao.

The MILF-BIFF encounter came on the heels of the crafting of a covenant calling on the bandit group to stop its attacks.

The MILF’s spokesman, Von Al-Haq, said the BIFF has agreed to religiously abide by the covenant.

Al-Haq, however, said the agreement does not make the MILF and BIFF tactical allies.

Al-Haq said the security agreement also does not allow sanctuary to the BIFF in any MILF enclave under the 1997 ceasefire agreement with the national government.