Troops attack BIFF lairs

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao - The military on Sunday fired cannons on lairs of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) at the border of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces following its incursions over the weekend in peasant enclaves in the area.

Combatants of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion, led by Lt. Col. Markton Abo, also launched a ground offensive in a bid to drive the BIFF bandits away after its simultaneous attacks last Saturday on military detachments in President Quirino town in Sultan Kudarat and at Gen. S.K. Pendatun, Maguindanao, both near the Liguasan Delta.

The latest attacks left a subordinate of Abu dead. Three other soldiers were wounded in ensuing firefights, now undergoing medication at a military hospital.

BIFF bandits have lately been frequenting agricultural settlements along the vast Liguasan Delta to collect revolutionary taxes from hapless villagers.

The group has reportedly been forcing Moro peasant clans with members employed abroad, as domestic helpers and skilled workers, to shell out obligatory “zakat” (alms) to sustain its needs such as food, ammunition and mobility provisions.

Major. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, which has jurisdiction over Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, said their action against the BIFF are calibrated police actions, just enough to stop its members from harassing peasant communities and military positions in the boundary of the two provinces.

He said their efforts to drive away the bandits are closely coordinated with the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The BIFF, which is fighting for a puritan Islamic state, does not recognize the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the MILF.

The BIFF, led by extremists who studied Islamic theology in secular schools in the Middle East and North Africa, is feared for its ruthless enforcement of a Taliban-style justice system in areas where it operates.

Abo, in a report to Pangilinan on Monday, said intelligence operatives have uncovered a plot by the BIFF to mount more attacks to intimidate local folks to force them into paying “protection money” on a regular basis.

Abo and Pangilinan both said their use of artillery against the BIFF is selective in nature, only intended to soften their positions for ground troops to easily penetrate their lairs.