NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Security forces foiled an attempt by suspected members of the Bangasmoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to occupy a stretch of a national highway in M'lang town early Thursday.
Combined combatants of the 62nd Reconnaissance Company of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and the 602nd Brigade managed to drive the bandits away while still massing up at the border of Tibao, M'lang and Dalapitan area in Matalam town.
No one was reported killed or wounded in the encounter, but the incident triggered panic among local folks.
Capt. Tony Bulao, spokesman of the 603rd Brigade, said troops have been positioned in strategic spots in Barangay Tibao as early as Wednesday night after villagers reported the BIFM's supposed plan to march towards the highway connecting the town centers of M'lang and Matalam.
M'lang Mayor Joselito Piñol, chairman of the municipal peace and order council, has confirmed having received prior notification from vigilant Moro communities of the BIFF’s plan.
Piñol said soldiers and the bandits traded shots for about three hours, causing panic among farming communities in Barangays Tibao and Dalapitan.
Piñol said the firefight waned only when the attackers, some of them clad in BIFF’s black combat uniform, retreated deep into a swampy area at one side of the vast Liguasan Delta when soldiers started using artillery to flush them out.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, civil affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said another group that retreated from Midsayap town, where they held civilian hostages and beheaded a 31-year-old farmer Ricarte Dionio, last Monday also clashed with soldiers at the border of Paidu Pulangi in North Cotabato’s Pikit town and Dasawao area in Saidona Mustapha, Maguindanao.
On Tuesday, the same group of bandits led by Sukarno Husain and Burudi Sultan harassed a banana plantation in Barangay Dungos in Tulunan town. The plantation's security guards traded shots with the bandits.
The BIFF bandits retreated as reinforcements from the local police and the Army started arriving at the plantation.
The military also believes that the same group attacked villages in Midsayap town last Monday, where three soldiers, two civilians and eight bandits were killed.
At least 2,000 residents were displaced by the BIFF's attack in Midsayap town.
Authorities said that more than 800 residents have already returned to their homes, but the remaining number of displaced residents was still reluctant to return to their villages due to anticipations of more attacks by the BIFF.