SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — Residents are calling on Malacañang to put up rewards for the capture of three leaders of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the terror group blamed for bombings in central Mindanao after it emerged in 2010.
The leaders of the three BIFF factions — Imam Karialan, Imam Bongos and Abu Toraife — are radical clerics who use poverty and government neglect to stoke hatred for non-Muslims and to entice villagers to either join their ranks or support them in secret.
The Police Regional Office-12 and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division have pointed to the BIFF, founded by the late Imam Ameril Umbra Kato in 2010, as responsible for the deadly August 28 and September 2 bombings in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat that killed five and injured more than 40 others.
Journalists have since been receiving messages on social media from members of central Mindanao’s business, political and religious communities to help air their wish for President Rodrigo Duterte to put up bounties for leaders of the BIFF to help neutralize the group.
A hardware store owner said partners abroad are worried of expanding their business in central Mindanao for fear of BIFF extortion.
The group has a reputation for bombing establishments whose owners refuse to shell out “protection money.”
MILF condemns bombing
The BIFF was founded in early 2010 by Kato, who, as a government scholar, studied Islamic theology in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s.
He organized the BIFF after he was booted from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for violations of the MILF’s interim ceasefire accord with the government and other offenses.
He died three years ago after a bout with lingering illnesses, following a hypertensive stroke that left half of his body paralyzed.
The BIFF has reportedly been coddling foreign terrorists in its lairs in marshes surrounded by the adjoining Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has consistently denounced any act to sow fear, especially those inflicting harm and grief to anyone.
— Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (@theMILFchairman) September 1, 2018
MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim condemned the August 28 blast, calling it "a work of terror that the MILF, in principle and practice, has never adhered to."
He added: "The MILF Leadership joins the public and all well meaning groups in strongly condemning this cruel and terroristic act contrary to the teachings of Islam."
He called on law enforcement agencies to bring the perpetrators of the blast before the bar of justice.
Sultan Kudarat offers P1-million reward
“It is about time for the national government to put up rewards for the capture 'dead or alive' of the senior leaders of this group,” grains trader Kando Omar said in Filipino.
The provincial government of Sultan Kudarat has offered a P1-million incentive for information leading to the arrest of the bombers behind the two attacks in a span of just four days in Isulan, the capital of the province.
Superintendent Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of Police Regional Office-12, said Tuesday probers are now validating the identities of the culprits as relayed to them by various sectors.
"The PRO-12 is thankful to units of 6th ID for helping us out achieve that goal," Gonzalez said.
Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of 6th ID, said their intelligence units are trying to confirm the identities of the bombers with the help of the municipal peace and order councils in Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao and senior provincial officials in the two neighboring provinces.
Sobejana said the two bombings in Isulan could be retaliation for the BIFF’s heavy losses in encounters in Maguindanao with battalions of the 6th ID in the past four months.
Maguindanao gov in favor of bounties
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said Tuesday he is also in favor of offering rewards for information on all leaders of local Islamic State-inspired blocs.
"These groups are creating a wedge between co-existing Muslims and Christians. Islam doesn’t teach that. Islam is all about tolerance, peace among all people and respect for religions," Mangudadatu said in a text message to reporters.
It was Mangudadatu who first disclosed to the media and reported to 6th ID the presence of foreign bomb-makers being coddled by the BIFF in strategic areas in the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.
Mangudadatu's report prompted the military to launch airstrikes last July on makeshift bomb-making facilities in the delta that resulted in the death of 11 terrorists.
Talks immediately spread around after 6th ID’s offensives purporting that two of the slain terrorists were Indonesians named Hartundo and Widjaan.
Mangudadatu said he had also asked the 6th ID to check on reports relayed to him recently by villagers in the Liguasan Delta that foreigners with Middle Eastern features are training local recruits on fabrication of improvised explosive devices.
"The provincial peace and order council of Maguindanao condemn the bombings in Isulan municipality. There are many Maguindanaons and Tedurays in Maguindanao who have relatives there," he said.
Peace activists and moderate Muslim preachers have also called on the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces to display along highways the images on tarpaulins of BIFF leaders Karialan, Bongos and Abu Toraife.
"We don’t support them. That should be clear to all. Their practices and ideals are absolutely in contrast with Islamic teachings," said Ustadz Hamodi Salik, an Islamic theologian in a government-recognized Madrasah in the first district of Maguindanao.